Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 08 – 09 The English words science and scientific appear so familiar that a contemporary reader may assume their meanings remain approximately constant whenever they occur in an older philosophical or sociological text. This assumption is unsafe. Words translated as science have belonged to linguistic and intellectual settings inContinue reading “Excursus 136 – Science, Wissenschaft, and the Changing Boundaries of Knowledge”
Tag Archives: philosophy
Excursus 133 – Technical Concepts, Ordinary Language, and Conceptual Precision
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 06 – 14 Many disciplines employ concepts whose meanings are determined not merely by dictionary definitions but by their positions within broader theoretical frameworks. To understand such a concept properly, one must therefore understand both its definition and its relationships to other components of the theory. One striking differenceContinue reading “Excursus 133 – Technical Concepts, Ordinary Language, and Conceptual Precision”
Excursus 107 – Continuity, Rupture, and Conflict in the History of Ideas
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 07 Readers familiar with both the history of philosophy and the history of science often notice a striking difference in the way these disciplines are commonly presented. Histories of philosophy frequently appear as continuous conversations extending across centuries. Plato proposes an idea; Aristotle develops or criticizes it;Continue reading “Excursus 107 – Continuity, Rupture, and Conflict in the History of Ideas”
Excursus 101 – On Scientific Prestige and Philosophical Authority
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 20 Throughout the history of philosophy, scientific achievements have often enhanced the prestige of philosophical systems associated with them. The success of mathematics, physics, biology, or other sciences may lend an appearance of authority to philosophical arguments that invoke their concepts or terminology. Yet scientific prestige andContinue reading “Excursus 101 – On Scientific Prestige and Philosophical Authority”
Excursus 100 – On Human Diversity and Philosophical Idealization
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 20 Scientific inquiry frequently employs idealizations. Their legitimacy depends upon whether the features omitted are irrelevant to the problem under investigation. In classical mechanics, for example, a planet may often be represented as a point mass without significantly affecting the accuracy of gravitational calculations. Such simplifications areContinue reading “Excursus 100 – On Human Diversity and Philosophical Idealization”
Excursus 099 – On Kant as a Model of Philosophical Responsibility
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 20 Immanuel Kant’s enduring significance lies not only in the originality of his philosophy but also in the methodological attitude from which it emerged. Living during the period in which Newtonian mechanics represented the most successful scientific account of the physical world, Kant regarded this achievement notContinue reading “Excursus 099 – On Kant as a Model of Philosophical Responsibility”
Excursus 098 – On an Additional Criterion for Evaluating Philosophers
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 20 Philosophers are commonly evaluated according to such criteria as originality, logical consistency, conceptual clarity, influence, and historical significance. These are all important measures of philosophical achievement. Yet they do not exhaust the criteria by which philosophical work may be assessed. Philosophy has never developed independently ofContinue reading “Excursus 098 – On an Additional Criterion for Evaluating Philosophers”
Excursus 086 – On the Reciprocity Between Philosophy and Science
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 20 Philosophy and science are often presented as separate intellectual enterprises, or as disciplines standing in a hierarchical relationship to one another. Neither characterization adequately reflects their historical development. Throughout the history of knowledge, philosophy and science have repeatedly influenced and transformed one another in a continuousContinue reading “Excursus 086 – On the Reciprocity Between Philosophy and Science”
Excursus 047 – On the Growth of Fields of Expertise
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 18 The history of knowledge is, in large measure, the history of intellectual differentiation. In antiquity, philosophy (philosophia) embraced nearly every systematic inquiry into nature, humanity, and society. Aristotle’s division of knowledge into theoretical, practical, and productive sciences established a broad framework from which later disciplines graduallyContinue reading “Excursus 047 – On the Growth of Fields of Expertise”
Excursus 044 – On the Primacy of Movement in Dialectical Thought
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 16 Throughout much of the history of dialectical thought, contradiction has increasingly come to be regarded as the defining feature of dialectic. From Plato through Kant, Fichte, Hegel, and Marx, dialectical development was progressively interpreted in terms of opposition, negation, conflict, or contradiction. By the nineteenth century,Continue reading “Excursus 044 – On the Primacy of Movement in Dialectical Thought”
Hossein Jorjani 