PhyllotaxisTue, Sep 20, 2011 I believe any reader finding your interesting questions worthy of further thought, including the author, will find the following link a powerful articulation of the very elements of human perception.
This is not light reading. It is not for the timid, casual thinker.
I wager you are neither, so I share this with you:
everything is in a ceaseless flux, says Heraclitus; there is no permanent being; all is change and becoming. It must be left to metaphysical speculation to deal with the problems whether this proposition can be borne out from the point of view of a superhuman intelligence and furthermore whether it is possible for a human mind to think of change without implying the concept of a substratum that, while it changes, remains in some regard and sense constant in the succession of its various states. For epistemology, the theory of human knowledge, there is certainly something that it cannot help considering as permanent, viz., the logical and praxeological structure of the human mind, on the one hand, and the power of the human senses, on the other hand. Fully aware of the fact that human nature as it is in this epoch of cosmic changes in which we are living is neither something that existed from the very beginning of all things nor something that will remain forever, epistemology must look upon it as if it were unchanging. The natural sciences may try to go further and to study the problems of evolution. But epistemology is a branch—or rather, the basis—of the sciences of man. It deals with one aspect of the nature of man as he emerged from the aeons of cosmic becoming and as he is in this period of the history of the universe. It does not deal with thinking, perceiving and knowing in general, but with human thinking, perceiving and knowing. For epistemology there is something that it must take as unchanging, viz., the logical and praxeological structure of the human mind.
One must not confuse knowledge with mysticism. The mystic may say that "shadow and sunlight are the same."[1] Knowledge starts from the clear distinction between A and non-A.
We know that there were ages of cosmic history in which there did not exist beings of the kind we call Homo sapiens, and we are free to assume that there will be again ages in which this species will not exist. But it is vain for us to speculate about the conditions of beings that are, in the logical and praxeological structure of their minds and in the power of their senses, essentially different from man as we know him and as we are ourselves. Nietzsche's concept of a superman is devoid of any epistemological meaning.
The pages that follow include the following chapters:
1. The Permanent Substratum of Epistemology (p. 1)
2. On Action (p. 2)
3. On Economics (p. 3)
4. The Starting Point of Praxeological Thinking (p. 4)
5. The Reality of the External World (p. 6)
6. Causality and Teleology (p. 6)
7. The Category of Action (p. 8)
8. The Sciences of Human Action (p. 9)
Chapter 1: The Human Mind
1. The Logical Structure of the Human Mind (p. 11)
2. A Hypothesis about the Origin of the A Priori Categories (p. 14)
3. The A Priori (p. 17)
4. The A Priori Representation of Reality (p. 19)
5. Induction (p. 21)
6. The Paradox of Probability Empiricism (p. 27)
7. Materialism (p. 28)
8. The Absurdity of Any Materialistic Philosophy (p. 30)
Chapter 2: The Activistic Basis of Knowledge
1. Man and Action (p. 34)
2. Finality (p. 36)
3. Valuation (p. 37)
4. The Chimera of Unified Science (p. 38)
5. The Two Branches of the Sciences of Human Action (p. 41)
6. The Logical Character of Praxeology (p. 44)
7. The Logical Character of History (p. 45)
8. The Thymological Method (p. 46)
Chapter 3: Necessity and Volition
1. The Infinite (p. 52)
2. The Ultimate Given (p. 53)
3. Statistics (p. 55)
4. Free Will (p. 57)
5. Inevitability (p. 59)
Chapter 4: Certainty and Uncertainty
1. The Problem of Quantitative Definiteness (p. 62)
2. Certain Knowledge (p. 63)
3. The Uncertainty of the Future (p. 64)
4. Quantification and Understanding in Acting and in History (p. 66)
5. The Precariousness of Forecasting in Human Affairs (p. 66)
6. Economic Prediction and the Trend Doctrine (p. 67)
7. Decision-Making (p. 69)
8. Confirmation and Refutability (p. 69)
9. The Examination of Praxeological Theorems (p. 70)
Chapter 5: On Some Popular Errors Concerning the Scope
and Method of Economics
1. The Research Fable (p. 73)
2. The Study of Motives (p. 74)
3. Theory and Practice (p. 77)
4. The Pitfalls of Hypostatization (p. 78)
5. On the Rejection of Methodological Individualism (p. 80)
6. The Approach of Macroeconomics (p. 83)
7. Reality and Play (p. 87)
8. Misinterpretation of the Climate of Opinion (p. 90)
9. The Belief in the Omnipotence of Thought (p. 91)
10. The Concept of a Perfect System of Government (p. 94)
11. The Behavioral Sciences (p. 101)
Chapter 6: Further Implications of the Neglect of Economic Thinking
1. The Zoological Approach to Human Problems (p. 104)
2. The Approach of the "Social Sciences" (p. 105)
3. The Approach of Economics (p. 105)
4. A Remark about Legal Terminology (p. 109)
5. The Sovereignty of the Consumers (p. 112)
Chapter 7: The Epistemological Roots of Monism
1. The Nonexperimental Character of Monism (p. 115)
2. The Historical Setting of Positivism (p. 118)
3. The Case of the Natural Sciences (p. 119)
4. The Case of the Sciences of Human Action (p. 120)
5. The Fallacies of Positivism (p. 122)
Chapter 8: Positivism and the Crisis of Western Civilization
1. The Misinterpretation of the Universe (p. 125)
2. The Misinterpretation of the Human Condition (p. 126)
3. The Cult of Science (p. 128)
4. The Epistemological Support of Totalitarianism (p. 129)
5. The Consequences (p. 132)
I believe any reader finding your interesting questions worthy of further thought, including the author, will find the following link a powerful articulation of the very elements of human perception.
This is not light reading. It is not for the timid, casual thinker.
I wager you are neither, so I share this with you:
Some Preliminary Observations
Concerning Praxeology Instead
of an Introduction
The pages that follow include the following chapters:
1. The Permanent Substratum of Epistemology (p. 1)
2. On Action (p. 2)
3. On Economics (p. 3)
4. The Starting Point of Praxeological Thinking (p. 4)
5. The Reality of the External World (p. 6)
6. Causality and Teleology (p. 6)
7. The Category of Action (p. 8)
8. The Sciences of Human Action (p. 9)
Chapter 1: The Human Mind
1. The Logical Structure of the Human Mind (p. 11)
2. A Hypothesis about the Origin of the A Priori Categories (p. 14)
3. The A Priori (p. 17)
4. The A Priori Representation of Reality (p. 19)
5. Induction (p. 21)
6. The Paradox of Probability Empiricism (p. 27)
7. Materialism (p. 28)
8. The Absurdity of Any Materialistic Philosophy (p. 30)
Chapter 2: The Activistic Basis of Knowledge
1. Man and Action (p. 34)
2. Finality (p. 36)
3. Valuation (p. 37)
4. The Chimera of Unified Science (p. 38)
5. The Two Branches of the Sciences of Human Action (p. 41)
6. The Logical Character of Praxeology (p. 44)
7. The Logical Character of History (p. 45)
8. The Thymological Method (p. 46)
Chapter 3: Necessity and Volition
1. The Infinite (p. 52)
2. The Ultimate Given (p. 53)
3. Statistics (p. 55)
4. Free Will (p. 57)
5. Inevitability (p. 59)
Chapter 4: Certainty and Uncertainty
1. The Problem of Quantitative Definiteness (p. 62)
2. Certain Knowledge (p. 63)
3. The Uncertainty of the Future (p. 64)
4. Quantification and Understanding in Acting and in History (p. 66)
5. The Precariousness of Forecasting in Human Affairs (p. 66)
6. Economic Prediction and the Trend Doctrine (p. 67)
7. Decision-Making (p. 69)
8. Confirmation and Refutability (p. 69)
9. The Examination of Praxeological Theorems (p. 70)
Chapter 5: On Some Popular Errors Concerning the Scope
and Method of Economics
1. The Research Fable (p. 73)
2. The Study of Motives (p. 74)
3. Theory and Practice (p. 77)
4. The Pitfalls of Hypostatization (p. 78)
5. On the Rejection of Methodological Individualism (p. 80)
6. The Approach of Macroeconomics (p. 83)
7. Reality and Play (p. 87)
8. Misinterpretation of the Climate of Opinion (p. 90)
9. The Belief in the Omnipotence of Thought (p. 91)
10. The Concept of a Perfect System of Government (p. 94)
11. The Behavioral Sciences (p. 101)
Chapter 6: Further Implications of the Neglect of Economic Thinking
1. The Zoological Approach to Human Problems (p. 104)
2. The Approach of the "Social Sciences" (p. 105)
3. The Approach of Economics (p. 105)
4. A Remark about Legal Terminology (p. 109)
5. The Sovereignty of the Consumers (p. 112)
Chapter 7: The Epistemological Roots of Monism
1. The Nonexperimental Character of Monism (p. 115)
2. The Historical Setting of Positivism (p. 118)
3. The Case of the Natural Sciences (p. 119)
4. The Case of the Sciences of Human Action (p. 120)
5. The Fallacies of Positivism (p. 122)
Chapter 8: Positivism and the Crisis of Western Civilization
1. The Misinterpretation of the Universe (p. 125)
2. The Misinterpretation of the Human Condition (p. 126)
3. The Cult of Science (p. 128)
4. The Epistemological Support of Totalitarianism (p. 129)
5. The Consequences (p. 132)