Descripción del proyecto
OUR MAIN PURPOSE IN THIS PROJECT IS TO ELUCIDATE A SERIES OF PROBLEMS IN EPISTEMOLOGY (WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE, WHAT IS GIVEN TO US IN PERCEPTION, WHAT IS IN A PROOF, ETC,) IN THE LIGHT OF AN ONTO-FORMAL DETAILED ANALYSIS (I) OF THE PSYCHOLOGICAL STATES, ACTS/EVENTS, OR PROCESS (BELIEFS, THOUGHTS, JUDGMENTS, PERCEPTIONS, PREDICTIONS, KNOWLEDGES, WISHES, AND SO FORTH), CALLED COGNITIVE/PROPOSITINAL/MENTAL ATTITUDES, INVOLVED IN THOSE PROBLEMS, AND (II) OF THE STRUCTURAL RELATIONS EXISTING AMONG THEM, OUR INTEREST IN THIS KIND OF ANALYSIS OF COGNTIIVE ATTITUDES AND ITS APPLICATION TO EPISTEMOLOGY HAS ARISEN AS A RESULT OF OUR CURRENT RESEARCH IN OUR PRESENT PROJECT: ¿KNOWLEDGE JUSTIFICATION IN FORMAL AND EMPIRICAL SCIENCES (HUM2006-04955),¿ MOREOVER, THE STUDY OF ATTITUDES SUCH AS JUDGING IS A CONSTANT IN MODERN EPISTEMOLOGY, AND VERY RECENTLY SOME AUTHORS HAVE TRIED TO PROVIDE AN ANALYSIS OF THE CONTENTS OF PERCEPTION BY UNDERSTANDING PERCEPTUAL STATES AS ATTITUDES (SEARLE 1983, CRANE 2003), IN ANY CASE, ANY ONTOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF MENTAL ATTITUDES DATES BACK, AT LEAST, TO BRENTANO (1874); BRENTANO¿S FOREMOST AIM IN PHILOSOPHY WAS TO PROVIDE ¿AN ONTOLOGY OF MIND, CONCERNED WITH THE DESCRIPTION OF THE ENTITIES WHICH ARE INVOLVED IN MENTAL EXPERIENCE AND OF THE RELATIONS BETWEEN THEM (MULLIGAN AND SMITH 1985),¿ IN PARTICULAR, IT IS PLAUSIBLE TO CONSIDER THAT BRENTANO¿S SOPHISTICATED DESCRIPTIONS OF THOSE MENTAL PHENOMENA INVOLVED IN ATTAINING KNOWLEDGE AND IN DRAWING INFERENCES PRODUCED A NEW FOUNDATION FOR EPISTEMOLOGY (AND LOGIC), IN THIS PROJECT WE WILL SYSTEMATIZE OUR ANALYSIS BY DISTINGUISHING THREE UNITS: UNIT I: A) AN ANALYSIS OF THE NOTION OF COGNITIVE ATTITUDE AND OF THE ELEMENTS INVOLVED IN IT, ESPECIALLY THOSE THAT HAVE TO DO WITH THEIR INTENTIONAL CONTENTS (CONCEPTS AND PROPOSITIONS, OR NON-CONCEPTUAL OR NON-PROPOSITIONAL CONTENTS); B) THE RELEVANCE OF BEING DIRECTED TOWARDS DIFFERENT OBJECTS TO THE CATEGORIZATION OF DIFFERENT ATTITUDES, AND TO SEE THE RELATIONS AMONG THEM, UNIT II: DETAILED ANALYSIS OF DIFFERENT COGNITIVE ATTITUDES RELEVANT TO KNOWLEDGE AND ITS JUSTIFICATION (JUDGING, PERCEIVING, BELIEVING AND KNOWING), UNIT III: STUDYING DIFFERENT PROBLEMS IN EPISTEMOLOGY IN THE LIGHT OF THE RESULTS OBTAINED IN THE TWO PREVIOUS UNITS (SEE BELOW), THE FINAL AIM OF THE PROJECT IS TO GET A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE NATURE AND STRUCTURE OF THE ABOVEMENTIONED COGNITIVE ATTITUDES TO CLARIFY CLASSICAL EPISTEMOLOGICAL PROBLEMS SUCH AS I) NATURE AND STRUCTURE OF BELIEF AND KNOWLEDGE; II) A PRIORI VERSUS A POSTERIORI KNOWLEDGE; III) JUSTIFICATION AND EVIDENCE, IN MORE SPECIFIC FIELDS WE WILL DEAL WITH ISSUES SUCH AS DETERMINING THE STATUS, KNOWABILITY AND JUSTIFICATION OF LOGICAL TRUTHS, INFERENCE RULES OR MATHEMATICAL AXIOMS, ON ONE SIDE, OR THE PROBLEM OF WHAT IS THE CHARACTER AND THE CONTENT OF PERCEPTION, WHAT KIND OF RELATIONSHIP IS THERE BETWEEN PERCEPTION AND BELIEVES ABOUT THE PHYSICAL WORLD, AND PROBLEMS RELATED TO THE JUSTIFICATION OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE SUCH AS THAT OF THE KNOWABILITY AND JUSTIFIABILITY OF HIGHLY IDEALIZED LAWS AND PRINCIPLES (PARTICULARLY THE IDEA OF SYNTHETIC A PRIORI TO UNDERSTAND THE ROLE FUNDAMENTAL LAWS OCCUPY IN SCIENCE), AND THE STUDY OF THE DIFFERENT COGNITIVE ATTITUDES A SCIENTIST MAY HAVE TOWARDS A SCIENTIFIC THEORY AND THEIR INTERRELATIONS, ACTITUD COGNITIVA\SABER\CREER\PERCIBIR\JUZGAR\EPISTEMOLOGIA