The Principia Cybernetica Project was created to develop an integrated philosophy or world view, based on the theories of evolution, selforganization, systems and cybernetics. Its conceptual network has been implemented as an extensive website. The present paper reviews the assumptions behind the project, focusing on its rationale, its philosophical presuppositions, and its concrete methodology...

This book is an outstanding contribution to the philosophical study of language and mind, by one of the most influential thinkers of our time. In a series of penetrating essays, Noam Chomsky cuts through the confusion and prejudice which has infected the study of language and mind, bringing new solutions to traditional philosophical puzzles and fresh perspectives on issues of general interest, ...

The paper discusses a critical realist interpretation of evolutionary growth theorising by focusing on some of its basic characteristics. The evolutionary ontology is complex, differentiated, structured, systemic, open, ever-changing and radically uncertain. Its methodology tends to be increasingly based on ‘appreciative’ theorising, retroductive explanations and interdisciplinary analysis. Aft...

This paper addersses Lawson’s puzzlement about the absence of prediction in William Harvey’s and Marcello Malpighi’s views on capillaries. In addressing the context of that enquiry, it also addresses historiographic versus philosophical models of science, contexts of discovery versus justification, normative versus descriptive interpretations of the nature of science, and the role of simple dic...

The article proposes a heuristic analysis of the spiritual and philosophical formation José Martí, focusing on qualitative specificity his religiosity its critical reflexivity in response to epochal problems. Using logical, dialectical, historical-philosophical methodology, examines processes semantic inversion, semiotic complementarity, sigmoidal interactions philosophical-religious concepts s...

The usual horizon of knowledge science is limited to nominalism, empiricism, and naturalistic and evolutionary epistemologies. I propose to broaden this horizon by applying some other philosophical attitudes, such as a non-nominalistic philosophy of language. A basic methodology for the new episteme, including (non-nominalistic) typology and a definition of knowledge and of tacit knowledge, is ...

Drastic changes have occurred in the field of software development in the past few years. Concepts that have been proposed in recent times are very different from what has been done in the past. The philosophical shifts underlying these changes present many challenges – both technical and organizational. Such shifts are not peculiar to software development as parallels in other disciplines exis...

The paper begins by pointing out the diversity of philosophical positions within information systems, and the range of reactions to this diversity. It then discusses problems within the underlying philosophies of science, particularly positivism and interpretivism. With this as a background, the paper proposes critical realism as an underpinning philosophy that has the potential to overcome bot...

Data mining is an instance of the inductive methodology. Many philosophical considerations for induction can also be carried out for data mining. In particular, the justification of induction has been a long-standing problem in epistemology. This article is a recast of the problem in the context of data mining. We formulate the problem precisely in the rough set-based decision logic and discuss...

best conceptual frameworks and most practical clinical approaches in integrative medicine reflects important unresolved philosophical problems about the nature of health and illness. It is only through the analysis of philosophical problems related to observation, evidence, and causality in medicine that development of a rigorous methodology for clinical integrative medicine will evolve. This 4...