Social Epistemology, Volume 0, Issue 0, Page 1-20, Ahead of Print.

Abstract The aim of this paper is to attain a philosophical evaluation of the ideas of the French author Maurice Bucaille. Bucaille formulated an influential discourse regarding the divinity of the Qur’an, which he tried to demonstrate through a comparison of some of its verses with what he defined as scientific data. With his works, which encompass a criticism of the Bible and a defense of creationism, Bucaille furthered the idea that Islam is in harmony with natural sciences, and ensured (...) himself long-lasting fame in the Muslim world. Such ideas have found numerous followers and the description of the “scientific miracles” of the Qur’an has turned into a popular genre. Several attempts have been made to criticize Bucaille about specific positions he holds. The thesis I develop here is that, even if Bucaille's work cannot be easily dismissed, a severe methodological shortcoming emerges through the analysis of the logic behind his claims regarding miraculous and supernatural events. Current attempts at defending the harmony between Islam and science should therefore credit Bucaille, but at the same time, be aware of the risk of inheriting his methodological flaws. In the first section, I briefly recall the works of Bucaille and his contribution to the debate on the harmony between Islam and science. In the second section, I reconstruct Bucaille's view of science and his analysis of the sacred scriptures. In the third section, I investigate how Bucaille characterizes the concept of supernatural. In the fourth section, I put forth a general evaluation of his reasoning. (shrink)

This article is aimed at contributing to the study of the relationship that new religious movements entertain with technology and science. It focuses on an object that is central in Scientology's teachings and practice: the Electropsychometer or E-meter. In interaction with the general public, such as in a 2014 TV Super Bowl advertisement, Scientology seems to claim a unique relationship with science and technology in the form of a “combination” and a “connection” evoked while displaying this very E-meter. Hence, exploring (...) the teachings related to it is relevant in order to understand how such combination or connection is conceptualized. (shrink)

Abstract Despite various criticisms, Ian Barbour's fourfold classification of the possible relationships between religion and science remains influential. I compare Barbour's taxonomy with the theories of four authors who, in the last four decades, have addressed the relationship between science and religion from a Muslim perspective. The aim of my analysis is twofold. First, I offer a comparative perspective to the debate on science and Islam. Second, following Barbour's suggestion, I test the general applicability of his categories by comparing them (...) with a discourse on science and religion that is not focused on Christianity. In the first section, I reconstruct Barbour's typologies, recalling some major objections to them, and arguing why despite the latter, Barbour's model is employed for the present analysis. I also reconstruct Barbour's parallel model for the relationships between different religions. In the second section, I reconstruct the discourse on science and religion developed by the Palestinian-American scholar Ismail Raji al-Faruqi. The third section is devoted to the ideas of the Persian-American scholar Seyyed Hossein Nasr. In the fourth section, I examine the views of the Iranian author Mehdi Golshani. The fifth section reconstructs the theories of the Algerian author Nidhal Guessoum. In the final section, I argue that a generalized use of the “integration” concept to refer to the entire debate on Islam and science is unhelpful. While these positions do not appear to instantiate Barbourian integration of science and religion, they do move toward what Barbour (skeptically) describes as integration between religions. (shrink)

I scrutinize the ideas and works of the Turkish religious leader and author Adnan Oktar/Harun Yahya. I argue for a new definition of Yahya as the representative of what I call theoscientography, proposing to study his work according to such a model rather than in the light of his “Islamic creationism”.

This article, after tracing a precise classification of the exegetical trend known as iʿjāz ʿilmī, summarizes and discusses the criticism leveled at it and examines how the “scientific interpretation” of the Qur’ān is liable to blend with pseudoscience and conspiracy theories to the detriment of a solid harmonization of science and religion and of a genuine appreciation of natural science. Furthermore, the article offers some practical ideas that can be implemented in order to effectively and fairly address iʿjāz ʿilmī in (...) the Muslim world. (shrink)

The article examines the concoction of religion and “science” contained in the revelation that substantiates a new religion: Raelianism, founded and led by the prophet Claude Vorilhon/Rael after having received a revelation in 1974. After a detailed examination both of Rael's prophetic message and his/the Raelians’ interpretative practices, an ad hoc model is presented to describe such concoction , and it is compared to other models. It is in particular claimed that Rael, while seemingly talking about “science,” is actually constructing (...) a science-fictional and even pseudoscientific narrative. The article finally raises the question whether the discussion of the science–religion interaction from the viewpoint of traditional religions can be considered to be immune to the usage of such rhetorical devices. (shrink)

The French author Robert Charroux contributed to the popular discourse about alien visits to earth in the remote past, that he advanced in voluminous books replete with narratives of anomalous “facts.” According to Charroux, humanity is divided in “races” whose existence is explained in reference to greater or lesser “genetic” similarity to the “ancient aliens,” as well as to radiation that genetically modified humans on the occasions of major catastrophes. Additionally, he was convinced that a factor in humanity’s decadence was (...) its attachment to technology, that he regarded as detrimental in various ways; science, in his opinion, was overrated, a case in point being the theory of evolution. Extending the analysis of Charroux’s work offered by scholars like Wiktor Stoczkowski and Damien Karbovnik, I scrutinize Charroux’s books, reconstructing his ambiguous attitude towards science, his criticism of evolution, his racist theories, and his xenophobic worldview. (shrink)

This article aims at contributing to the study of miracles on multiple levels. First, it provides an update on current scholarship in contemporary Muslim interpretations of miracles by summarizing and comparing some positions that, despite their originality and/or potential influence on the wider Muslim readership, are not normally taken into account in a number of recent reconstructions of the concept within Islam. Second, it proposes some complementary philosophical interpretations of those positions, interpretations that involve identifying similarities and commonalities among the (...) positions, despite deep differences and explicit mutual oppositions. As well, this article argues that these interpretations have far-reaching consequences for the philosophical debate on miracles within other traditions and cultures; at stake will be the very meaningfulness of engaging in a univocal, overarching, rationalized interpretation of miracles. (shrink)

This article focuses upon the popular devotion for la Santa Muerte that emerged in Mexico and is gaining a rapid increase in notoriety in the country and abroad. The first sections reconstruct in detail its protean manifestations, as well as the interpretations contained in extant scholarly investigations, popular Mexican press and other texts. The final section, adopting a fine-grained, theological-epistemological viewpoint argues that la Santa’s interventions in human affairs, essential to explain her popularity, although usually described as ‘miracles’ can be (...) better understood as paros—a term employed by devotees in order to define the end of a situation, usually unpleasant or unfavourable. It is also argued that a careful examination of such paros provides us with deeper insights into the devotion’s success and resiliency. (shrink)

I reconstruct Bruno Latour's ideas about science and religion and compare them to Ian G. Barbour's and Mikael Stenmark's models, as well as to the discussion of technology and religion developed by John C. Caiazza and Antje Jackelén. I show how using “Latour's App” enlightens some aspects of said models which Barbour and Stenmark themselves were seemingly struggling with, and that Caiazza's and Jackelén's views can be reconciled despite their apparent opposition. The result of such tests is an overall assessment (...) of Latour's proposal. I argue that, under the disguise of a flamboyant and original language, Latour's method is not that distant from those of the other authors analyzed here, and that his discussion might conceal some unwelcome philosophical shortcomings. (shrink)

I present a novel explanation of the apparent truth of certain remarks about fiction, such as an utterance of ''Salieri commissioned the Requiem'' during a discussion of the movie Amadeus. I criticize the traditional view, which alleges that the uttered sentence abbreviates the longer sentence ''it is true in the movie Amadeus that Salieri commissioned the Requiem''. I propose a solution which appeals to some independently motivated results concerning the contexts relevant for the semantic evaluation of indexical expressions.

This book argues against the widely celebrated utopia of -transparency- by showing, across a panorama of postwar French thought, how attempts to show the perils of transparency in politics, ethics, and knowledge led to major conceptual inventions, many of which we now take for granted.

Die vorliegende Arbeit zielt darauf ab, Momente der Husserlschen Phänomenologie hervorzuheben, in denen diese an ihre Grenzen stößt. Der Ausweis dieser Grenzphänomene, die in der Husserl-Literatur bisher noch nicht systematisch untersucht worden sind, steht im Zentrum der Arbeit. Der Autor hat sich systematisch mit phänomenologisch orientierten Autoren zeitgenössischer Philosophie auseinandergesetzt u. a. mit der Absicht, die Fruchtbarkeit der Husserlschen Analysen für die zeitgenössische Philosophie hervorzuheben.

Die Epitome physica des Nikephoros Blemmydes (1197 – nach 1269) gilt als eines der meistverbreiteten Lehrbücher aristotelischer Naturphilosophie in der byzantinischen und nachbyzantinischen Welt. Dennoch blieb die handschriftliche Überlieferung bisher gänzlich unerforscht und der Text wurde nie in Form einer kritischen Edition zugänglich gemacht. Die Epitome physica stellt das zweite Buch der Εἰσαγωγικὴ ἐπιτομή (Einführendes Kompendium) dar, deren erstes Buch der Logik gewidmet ist. Als Grundlage dienten Blemmydes im Wesentlichen Aristoteles und seine Kommentatoren (sowie für den astronomischen Teil den Stoiker (...) Kleomedes), wobei er versuchte, eine Synthese der antiken Naturphilosophie mit der christlichen Weltanschauung zu erreichen. Von den über 120 erhaltenen Manuskripten der Epitome, die vom 13. bis ins 19 Jh. datieren, werden im vorliegenden Buch die Handschriften aus der Palaiologenzeit sowie die Mehrheit derjenigen aus der Renaissance manuskriptologisch und philologisch untersucht sowie ihre textgeschichtlichen Beziehungen rekonstruiert. Daneben kommen auch die Verbreitung und der kulturelle Stellenwert der Epitome physica in der byzantinischen Welt und in der europäischen Renaissance zur Darstellung. (shrink)

1. Sviluppi critici della fenomenologia.--2. Fenomenologia e sapere scientifico.

The five-volume set Kant and Philosophy in a Cosmopolitan Sense contains the proceedings of the Eleventh International Kant Congress, which took place in Pisa in 2010. The proceedings consist of 25 plenary talks and 341 papers selected by a team of international referees from over 700 submissions. The contributions span 14 sections: Kant’s Concept of Philosophy; Theory of Cognition and Logic; Ontology and Metaphysics; Ethics; Law and Justice; Religion and Theology; Aesthetics; Anthropology and Psychology; Politics and History; Science, Mathematics, and (...) the Philosophy of Nature; Kant and the Leibnizian Tradition; Kant and the Philosophical Tradition; Kant and Schopenhauer; and Kant’s Heritage. Thanks to cooperation from the Schopenhauer Gesellschaft, the 2010 conference was the first in the history of the International Kant Congress to include a session on Kant and Schopenhauer. -/- . (shrink)

The set of unary functions of complexity classes defined by using bounded primitive recursion is inductively characterized by means of bounded iteration. Elementary unary functions, linear space computable unary functions and polynomial space computable unary functions are then inductively characterized using only composition and bounded iteration.