جستجوی مقالات مرتبط با کلیدواژه « instrumentalism » در نشریات گروه « علوم اجتماعی »

George Berkeley, an empiricist philosopher of the 18th century, regards corporeal things as perceptions or ideas (subjective idealism) from one side, and from another side, he denies the existence of material things, and he confirms only the presence of the soul (objective idealism). In "Berkeley: An Introduction", Jonathan Dancy, has tried to give an outlook of Berkeley's philosophy, which pursues the analytic philosophers' procedure, contains an analysis of the main constituents of his thought by having a critical view, and shows its prominent and weak points. The significant innovation of this book is in introducing Berkeley's view on scientific explanation as a scientific and, at the same time teleological explanation. He says that he has gotten to this point by reconstructing Berkeley's thoughts rather than just studying these books. This paper aims to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of some authors' criticisms against Berkeley's thought and to show some defects of his analysis. In addition, the Persian translation of the book will be assessed and criticized.

Allameh Tabatabai's philosophical realism proves the external world with arguments such as the innate knowledge of science to the outside world and the use of the principle of causality. In the epistemological dimension, by explaining the relationship between acquired and face-to-face knowledge and referring the acquired sciences to face-to-face, it proves the process of achieving knowledge in accordance with reality. On the other hand, it is claimed in scientific realism; The supposed theoretical identities in scientific theories tell of the real world, and the world is as scientific theories explain it. But the arguments presented to prove the existence of theoretical identities and the realism of scientific theories are ineffective in proving the claim. Relativity of knowledge and various related matters such as; Ethics, law, politics, art, literature, and in general every important category that depends on cognition and knowledge are the tools of realism and unrealism. . Given that ontological and epistemological realism is directly related to the structure of civilization, social relations, goals and perspectives of a civilization, examining the ontological and epistemological realist approach is an essential step in evaluating different civilizations. Counts. In this research, which has been done by descriptive and analytical methods, while explaining philosophical and scientific realism, we examine their components and arguments.Keywords: realism, ontology, instrumentalism, civilization, science.

  This article seeks to clarify how the social knowledge transforms into the other theoretical constructs, and what factors affect the emergence of such transformations.

Theoretical Framework There is considerable literature in regard to the subject of this research. In general, from the perspective of many sociologists of knowledge, social knowledge has important links with its historical and sociological contexts as well as with its function. However, it seems that with regard to how and why social knowledge departs from the above characteristics and how its relation with its historical, social, and functional conditions is decreased, the issue is still a debate. Karl Mannheim (1976), C. Wright Mills (2015), Alvin Gouldner (1988), Abdulkarim Soroush (1996b), Michael Burawoy (2008), Mohammad Mujtahid Shabestari (1996), P. L. Berger & T. Luckmann (1966) and other thinkers and sociologists have mentioned the effects of certain variables in this regard. What matters in relation to the question of this research is that it seems that through the creation of convergence between these theories, one can outline the processes of social knowledge transformations while identifying its underlying factors. Using the library data, the study is conducted within the framework of the meta-analysis of the existing theories. Inspired by existing theoretical literature, three main pathways for the transformations of social knowledge have been drawn. Then, in order to evaluate the factors influencing the formation of these transformations, the variables involved are analyzed within the two groups of objective and subjective factors.

4-1. The process of transforming social knowledge into dogmatism
Whenever the cognitive and motivational foundations of Social knowledge evolve over time, but the statements of such knowledge remain unchanged, social knowledge transforms into dogmatism. It seems that the major causes of dogmatism are first the objective, and second the subjective ones. Objective factors include: 1) The entry of the dogmatist people into the circle of bearers of Social knowledge 2) Effect of power relations 3) Inattention of bearers of ideology to the changes of external environment. The subjective factors are: 1) Lack of verifying the correctness or the effectiveness of social knowledge during the time via rational-scientific methods 2) Mental desire towad stability and avoidance of any change.
4-2. The process of transforming social knowledge into alienation
Alienation occurs when the cognitive and motivational foundations of the social knowledge evolve in terms of the sociological status, but knowledge tends to conform to the former status rather than to a change in accordance with the changes of motivational and cognitive foundations. The contributing factors in this regard are very similar to those of the transformation of social knowledge into the dogmatism. The objective causes of this phenomenon are: 1) The effect of alienated people among the bearers of social knowledge, in regard to the reproduction of alienation 2) the impact of power relations 3) Relative disconnection of the companions of ideology from the external environment. The subjective factors include: 1) lack of a systematic and rational-scientific investigation of correctness or efficiency of social knowledge regarding new sociological status 2) Mental tendency toward stability and avoidance of probable mistakes.
4-3. The process of transforming social knowledge into instrumentalism
It seems that the purpose and function of social knowledge is the transcendence of mankind. If such an attribute of social knowledge is eliminated, this knowledge will not have one of the main and necessary indicators of its validity. It is clear, however, that at many times the goals of social knowledge are determined by the owners of power, and in the same way, in many cases, social knowledge is under the control of the interests and demands of the powerful elite. In that case, social knowledge is transformed into instrumental knowledge. The main causes of this phenomenon are the entry of the instrumentalists into the circle of the bearers of knowledge, the reproduction of instrumentalist relations in epistemological frames, the overall effect of the linkage of power and knowledge, and the irrational socialization of the scholars in the field of the ultimate purpose of knowledge production, especially in the contemporary society. Besides, the subjective causes of such phenomenon are the lack of rational judgment in the field of the ends of knowledge and the fear of the powerful elites’ reaction.

Suggestions: According to the findings of the research, the continuous assessment of historical validity, sociological validity, and functional validity of social knowledge to prevent its inadvisable transformation into dogmatism, alienation, and instrumentalism is recommended. Also, the researcher suggests doing some appropriate empirical research to measure the abovementioned theoretical results.

The present article is an attempt to study the relationship between the epistemological principles of the notion of Academy of Islamic Sciences (with emphasis on the viewpoints of Seyed Mohammad Mahdi Mirbaqeri) about religious science with realism. Attempts have been made to demonstrate that voluntarism, as epistemological foundation of the notion of Academy of Islamic Sciences, not only voluntarism leads to negation of realism (unveiling of reality) and consequently to relativism, but also pushes realistic claims of this set in the field of theology and anthropology towards contradiction. By adopting moderate stances in the field of realism (vis-à-vis rudimentary realism), the Academy, while defending the impact of quality of will on the quality of perception, can avoid such undesirable consequences.

Criticizing and discussing media technology theories which are predominant in Para-Communicational literature, would help media scholars to better understand the nature of modern media. Although instrumentalism is an outdated approach in epistemological studies of media, it is still applied in communication theories. Determinism in different forms such as technological autonomy, technological necessity, technical evolutionism, and media technologies as the only cause of all social changes has simply remained as a claim. However, there are some determinists who reject the ultimate importance and influence of media technologies and do consider some roles for media spaces, too. Social structuralism as the latest post-determinism theory, tries to shed light on ambiguities and exaggerations which were presented by instrumentalism and determinism supporters, during the last century; moreover, it confirms the influence of technology on society and asserts that media technologies have emerged from a social historical context. This paper criticizes two main paradigms in communication studies and emphasizes on social structuralism as an alternative theory.

In this essay, we are going to investigate viewpoint of Dr. Soroush about technology, especially in his article Industry and Contentment. For this, first we introduce the main structure of Soroush article and then are going to investigate and critique the article argument. Based on this survey and according to philosophy and sociology of technology we aim to introduce new approach to technology studies. Finally, according to new framework about technology, we try to investigate, the possibility or impossibility of religious technology.