Abstract
This paper deals with two opposite metaphilosophical doctrines concerning the nature of philosophy. More specifically, it is a study of the naturalistic view that philosophical, hence also epistemological, knowledge cannot be distinguished from empirical knowledge, and of the antinaturalistic view that philosophical, hence also epistemological, knowledge, is pure, that is, independent of empirical knowledge and particularly of the special sciences. The conditions of the possibility of naturalistic and of pure epistemology are studied in terms of phenomenological philosophy. It is concluded that pure epistemology is possible under relatively strong conditions but that the version of naturalistic epistemology which denies the pure basis leads to contradiction. That, however, does not shake the possibility of cognitive science. Following Husserl, we may argue that studies of human cognition are possible on the condition that a first basis is assumed which is not naturalized.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Bechtel,W.: 1994, ‘Natural Deduction in Connectionist Systems’, Synthese 101, 433–463.
Euclid: 1926, The Thirteen Books of Euclid's Elements, Vols. I–III, transl., intr. and comm. by T. L. Heath, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Føllesdal, D.: 1958, ‘Husserl und Frege: ein Beitrag zur Beleuchtung der Entstehung der phänomenologischen Philosophie’, Aschehoug, Oslo; transl. into English by C. Hill, in Haaparanta (1994), pp. 3–47.
Haack, S.: 1993, Evidence and Inquiry: Towards Reconstruction in Epistemology, Blackwell, Oxford, U.K., and Cambridge, MA.
Haaparanta, L.: 1988, ‘Analysis as the Method of Logical Discovery: Some Remarks on Frege and Husserl’, Synthese 77, 73–97.
Haaparanta, L.: 1990, ‘What was the Method of Modern Logic?’, in L. Haaparanta, M. Kusch, and I. Niiniluoto (eds.), Language, Knowledge, and Intentionality: Essays in Honour of Jaakko Hintikka, Acta Philosophica Fennica, Vol. 49, pp. 97–109.
Haaparanta, L.: 1994, ‘Intentionality, Intuition and the Computational Theory of Mind’, in Haaparanta (1994), pp. 211–233.
Haaparanta, L. (ed.): 1994, Mind, Meaning and Mathematics: Essays on the Philosophical Views of Husserl and Frege, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht/Boston/London.
Haaparanta, L.: 1995, ‘On the Possibility of Pure Epistemology: A Husserlian Point of View’, in L. Haaparanta and S. Heinämaa (eds.), Mind and Cognition: Philosophical Perspectives on Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence, Acta Philosophica Fennica 58, 151–167.
Hanna, R.: 1993, ‘Logical Cognition: Husserl's Prolegomena and the Truth in Psychologism’, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 53, 251–275.
Heinämaa, S.: 1999, ‘Merleau-Ponty's Modification of Phenomenology: Cognition, Passion, and Philosophy’, Synthese 118, 49–68 (this volume).
Husserl, E.: 1950, Logische Untersuchungen I, Husserliana XVIII, Text der 1. (1900) und der 2. (1913) Auflage, hrsg. von E. Holenstein, Martinus Nijhoff, Den Haag. (Referred to as LU I, A/B.)
Husserl, E.: 1950, Ideen zu einer reinen Phänomenologie und phänomenologischen Philosophie I (1913), Husserliana III, hrsg. von W. Biemel, Martinus Nijhoff, Den Haag; transl. by W. R. Boyce Gibson, George Allen & Unwin Ltd., London, and The Macmillan Company, New York, 1931, and by F. Kersten, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, The Hague, Boston, London, 1982.
Husserl, E.: 1965, Philosophie als strenge Wissenschaft (1910–1911), hrsg. von R. Berlinger, Vittorio Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main.
Husserl, E.: 1970, Logical Investigations I–II, transl. by J. N. Findlay, Humanities Press, New York. (Referred to as LI.)
Husserl, E.: 1984, Logische Untersuchungen II, Husserliana XIX/1–2, Text der 1. (1901) und der 2. (1913, 1. Teil; 1921, 2. Teil) Auflage, hrsg. von U. Panzer, Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague/Boston/Lancaster. (Referred to as LU II, A/B1 and LU II, A/B2.)
Johnson-Laird, P.: 1988, The Computer and the Mind: An Introduction to Cognitive Science, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Kitcher, P.: 1992, ‘The Naturalists Return’, The Philosophical Review 101, 53–114.
Knorr, W. R.: 1986, The Ancient Tradition of Geometric Problems, Birkhäuser, Boston.
Pappus: 1965, Collectionis quae supersunt, 3 vols., Weidmann, Berlin, 1876–1878; Adolf M. Hakkert.
Peirce, C. S.: 1931–1935, in C. Hartshorne and P.Weiss (eds.), Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce (CP), Vols. I–VI, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Peirce, C. S.: 1958, in A. Burke (ed.), Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce (CP), Vols. VII–VIII, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Plato: 1953, Euthydemus, in The Dialogues of Plato, transl. into English with Analyses and Introductions by B. Jowett, Vol. I, 4th edn, Clarendon Press, Oxford, pp. 193–248.
Plato: 1953, Republic, in The Dialogues of Plato, transl. into English with Analyses and Introductions by B. Jowett, Vol. II, 4th edn, Clarendon Press, Oxford, pp. 1–499.
Putnam, H.: 1983, ‘Why Reason can't be Naturalized’ (1981), in H. Putnam (ed.), Philosophical Papers 3: Realism and Reason, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 229–247.
Quine, W. V.: 1960, Word and Object, MIT Press, Cambridge.
Spiegelberg, H.: 1975, Doing Phenomenology: Essays on and in Phenomenology, Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague.
Wagner, S. and Warner, R. (eds.): 1993, Naturalism: A Critical Appraisal, University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Haaparanta, L. On the Possibility of Naturalistic and of Pure Epistemology. Synthese 118, 31–47 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005192826640
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005192826640