Open AccessCONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS AS A PHILOSOPHICAL METHOD: THEOLOGICAL AND EVOLUTIONARY ARGUMENTS
Author(s) -
Михаил Мосиенко,
Михаил Мосиенко
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
vestnik kemerovskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. seriâ: gumanitarnye i obŝestvennye nauki
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2541-9145
pISSN - 2542-1840
DOI - 10.21603/2542-1840-2017-3-61-64
Subject(s) - epistemology , argument (complex analysis) , philosophical analysis , philosophical methodology , adaptation (eye) , philosophy , conceptual framework , sociology , psychology , biochemistry , chemistry , neuroscience
The author poses a question of applicability of conceptual analysis as a tool of philosophical inquiry compared to conceptual analysis as a linguistic research tool. The article contains a critical analysis of the previous solution of this problem. This solution was to prove that the world of physical systems and the world of mental states are isomorphic. This was a solution used by Descartes and by a significant number of post-Cartesian philosophers who borrowed it from scholastic philosophy. The author analyses a strong and a weak version of the theological argument to show that both of these versions are inapplicable for proving the value of conceptual analysis as a philosophical method. The article focuses on an alternative way to prove that philosophers can safely use conceptual analysis to benefit their studies. The alternative argument is the following: human language is an evolutionary adaptation, it implicitly contains ideas that adequately reflect non-verbal reality. Conceptual analysis allows one to explicate and structure these initially implicit ideas, which makes conceptual analysis a potent tool of philosophical studies.