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Epistemology and first philosophy

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Fig. 1
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Notes

  1. Egology literally means “science of the self.” The philosopher Edmund Husserl used the term for his program to found Being, and therefore all forms of experience, knowing, and learning, on the Self (ego) as an agent that constructs itself.

  2. I make use of the following transcription conventions: (0.32)—time in hundredths of a second; [again]/[you]—overlapping speech and action is indicated by brakets in consecutive lines; .,?—punctuation marks indicate pitch toward the end of an utterance, strongly descending, slightly rising, and strongly rising, respectively; ¯‘`^—diacritical signs indicate pitch contours within the word that follows: flat, rising, falling, and rising/falling; ((Figure 1))—transcriber’s comments are enclosed in double parentheses; a::—colons lengthen the phoneme that they succeed, about one-tenth of a second per colon; =—the equal sign indicates “latching,” that is, the joining of consecutive phonemes; <<dim> the bridges>—diminuendo indicates a decrease in speech volume of the enclosed text; <<len> we can>—lento denotes a slower than normal delivery by this speaker.

  3. If there are identifiable structures within some smallest unit of analysis (i.e., an element), then we cannot denote those structures as elements or components. This smallest unit is irreducible, cannot be explained in terms of entities that are smaller or subordinate to it. The term moment is used to identify such structures with the understanding that no moment can be reduced to another moment, and that moments cannot be added up to produce the unit. Each moment embodies the unit as a whole, but does so only in a one-sided fashion. A useful analogy is that of light (unit) and its two moments, particle and wave. Neither expresses the whole, neither explains its complement.

  4. The adjective diastatic means fractured and shifted with respect to itself leading to a thing that is the same and different simultaneously.

  5. This term, as similar ones in other Germanic languages, derives from the preposition under, meaning below and amidst, and the verb stand. Etymologically, therefore, to understand means to stand (put oneself) amidst others, and therefore, in a (social) situation that is shot through with meaning.

  6. This includes the three feature articles, which make scant if any reference to the centrality of emotion to knowing specifically (Aikenhead and Ogawa do make passing reference to an emotional element in the relation to nature among indigenous peoples) and to Being generally.

  7. It is not surprising, therefore that Levinas (1978) uses the figure of the face to make thematic our ethical responsibility that precedes all essences and Being.

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Acknowledgments

Research grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada supported the writing of this editorial. I am particularly grateful to Giuliano Reis who recorded the events at the saltwater lagoon.

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  1. Applied Cognitive Science, University of Victoria, MacLaurin Building A548, Victoria, BC, Canada, V8W 3N4

    Wolff-Michael Roth

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Roth, WM. Epistemology and first philosophy. Cult Stud of Sci Educ 2, 517–528 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-007-9065-x

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