in recent decades, rationality has become one of the important and controversial issues in the intellectual circles. there are many philosophers who have put (and still put) under question the status of reason and human rationality. among those who believe in human reason is popper. to show reason's ability, he rejects positivism and justifying approaches totally; and, designing falsificat...

We show a lot of respect for science today. To back up our claims, we tend to appeal to scientific methods. It seems that we all agree that these methods are effective for gaining the truth. We can ask why science has its special status as a supplier of knowledge about our external world and our bodies. Of course, one should not always trust what scientists say. Nonetheless, epistemological jus...

This paper explores the implications of the incompressibility of complex systems for the analysis and modelling of such systems. In particular, a provisional epistemology will be developed that attempts to remain faithful to the limitations derived from this aspect of complexity science. We will argue that such an investigation of complex systems highlights the relevance of paradigmatic plurali...

the present essay is a critical study of zagzebski’s reading and criticism of plantinga’s virtue-epistemology. zagzebski, on the account of her definition of knowledge and the role that she assigns to ‘volition’ and ‘awareness’ in virtuous acts, along with her acceptance of the uniformity of moral and epistemic virtue, challenges plantinga’s theory of knowledge. zagzebski believes that although...

Instructional techniques based on research in cognitive science and physics education have been used in physics courses to enhance student learning. While dramatic increases in conceptual understanding have been observed, students enrolled in these courses tend to move away from scientistlike views of the discipline and toward novicelike views, as measured by various assessment instruments. It ...

After it is argued that philosophers of science have lost their interest in logic because they applied the wrong type of logics, examples are given of the forms of dynamic reasoning that are central for philosophy of science and epistemology. Adaptive logics are presented as a means to understand and explicate those forms of reasoning. All members of a specific (large) set of adaptive logics ar...

One of the most eminent neuroscientists recently passed away in Paris. Professor Francisco Varela was a scholar that approached science with a remarkably broad and integrative perspective, deeply contributing to a diversity of fields, from mathematics to epistemology, from immunology to neuroscience. He was strongly influenced by Buddhism and actively participated in unraveling the relationship...

1. Review of Subject Articles 2. Definition of Synergetics 3. Goals and General Approaches 4. Some Typical Examples 4.1 The Laser 4.2 The Convection Instability of Fluid Dynamics 4.3 An Example from Sociology and Linguistics 5. Basic Concepts 6. Applications to Science 6.1 Physics 6.2 Chemistry 6.3 Mechanical Engineering 6.4 Electrical Engineering 6.5 Biology 6.6 Psychology 7. Applications to T...

Instructional techniques based on research in cognitive science and physics education have been used in physics courses to enhance student learning. While dramatic increases in conceptual understanding have been observed, students enrolled in these courses tend to shift away from scientist-like views of the discipline (and views of learning within the discipline) and toward novice-like views. S...

The merits of Empirical Modelling (EM) principles and tools as a constructivist approach to computer science education are illustrated with reference to ways in which they have been used in teaching topics related to the standard computer science curriculum. The products of EM are interactive models – construals that serve a sense-making role. Model-building proceeds in an incremental fashion t...