A new article for the Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology by Vefa Saygın Öğütle (Zonguldak Bülent Ecevit University).
Vefa Saygın Öğütle – “Reasons and Causes: A Critical-Realist Phenomenological Analysis of Agency”
JBSP (Received 19 Feb 2022, Accepted 18 Sep 2023, Published online: 29 Sep 2023).
Abstract: Reason is the object of understanding. Cause is the object of explanation. The original aspect of this study, which argues that reasons are in some sense causes, is that it discusses the distinction between reason and cause in the context of agency. It first explains the logical arguments that reasons cannot be causes and that reasons must be causes, and then presents an ontological argument concerning the pre-linguistic and irreducible continuity of phenomenal existence, in which critical realism and phenomenology work together. In discussing the manifestation of reasons in the form of beliefs, memories, and dream interpretations, the focus is on the irreducible phenomenological-psychological level between humans as an organic set of molecules and humans as beings emerging from a social network of meanings. Finally, non-human agency is discussed and the thesis is made that the capacity for agency is not a social gift.
Full article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00071773.2023.2261988
Vefa Saygın Öğütle, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Zonguldak Bülent Ecevit University, Zonguldak, Turkey
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