ESSAY IN PHILOSOPHY

Trade has been the driving force of world economic growth in the last 50 years. Since the end of the Second World War, trade flows have increased much faster than world population, and even faster than overall world economic growth.

Initially, trade expansion fuelled the post-war economic miracles in Germany and Japan. More recently, it has become the engine of development across many Asian developing countries, transforming the economies of countries like South Korea and Singapore into near Western standards of living.

The role of trade in economic growth may be lessening. As more and more companies invest in other countries, trade may yet be eclipsed by foreign direct and indirect investment. Although the world’s biggest exporters are also some of the world’s biggest economies, some countries punch above their weight. The United States, which makes up one-third of the world economy, is the biggest exporter. But surprisingly, perhaps, it is Germany, not Japan, that is in second place, despite the fact that Japan’s economy is twice as big as Germany’s. Japan has a very modern and competitive export sector, led by consumer electronic and auto companies, but it also has a rather inefficient domestic economy in service sector areas like retailing and financial services. Other rich industrial countries, including Britain, France and Italy, dominate the list of top exporters.

But China and its special administrative area of Hong Kong have moved rapidly up the list of the world’s biggest exporters. Taking China, Taiwan and Hong Kong together, they are now the world’s third largest export bloc. And other Asian countries, like South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand have also increased their exports dramatically, even though they were held back by the recent Asian financial crisis. In recent years, exports of services have been growing faster than exports of manufactured goods.

Services cover a diverse area, from royalties on songs to accountancy, consultancy and financial services. The UK, France and the US are among the world’s most important exporters of services. However, the fast growth of these so-called newly-industrialised countries has come at the expense of increasing trade imbalances with the rest of the world. Their export-led growth has not led to the rapid opening of domestic markets. Instead, they have proved effective in exporting goods like cars, electronics and textiles, especially the United States.

The combination of higher than average growth in the USA in the last few years and its relative openness to imports, has created a huge trade imbalance. The US trade deficit now stands at a record $300 billion a year. In trade theory, such imbalances become corrected because the US dollar then falls, causing imported goods to become more expensive. But so far the booming US stock market has sucked in funds from abroad, preventing that fall. (BBC News)

ESSAY IN PHILOSOPHY

EPISTEMOLOGY AND METHODOLOGY: MAIN TRENDS AND ENDS.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1. Epistemology.

2. History.

3. Epistemology as a discipline

4. TWO EPISTEMOLOGICAL PROBLEMS

5. Implications.

6. Methodology.

7. Some Mental Activities Common to All Methods.

8. Observation and Experiment.

9. Analysis and Synthesis.

10. Imagination, Supposition and Idealisation.

11. Inference.

12. Comparison and Analogy.

13. Classification.

14. Inductive and deductive methods.

15. The Deductive-inductive Method.

16. RELATION OF EPISTEMOLOGY TO OTHER BRANCHES OF PHILOSOPHY

17. Bibliography.

Epistemology.

Epistemology is one of the main branches of philosophy; its subject matter concerns the nature, origin, scope, and limits of human knowledge. The name is derived from the Greek terms episteme (knowledge) and logos (theory), and accordingly this branch of philosophy is also referred to as the theory of knowledge.

It is the branch of philosophy that investigates the basic nature of knowledge, including its sources and validation. Epistemology is concerned with the basic relationship between man’s mind and reality, and with the basic operations of human reason. It therefore sets the standards for the validation of all knowledge; it is the fundamental arbiter of cognitive method.

Epistemology as a term in philosophy was prob­ably first applied, by J. F. Ferrier, to that department of thought whose subject matter is the nature and validity of knowledge (Gr. epistimum, knowledge, and logos, theory, account; Ger. Erkenntnistheorie). It is thus contrasted with metaphysics, which considers the nature of reality, and with psychology, which deals with the objective part of cognition, and, as Prof. James Ward said, "is essentially genetic in its method." Epistemology is con­cerned rather with the possibility of knowledge in the abstract. In the evolution of thought epistemological inquiry succeeded the speculations of the early thinkers, who concerned themselves primarily with attempts to explain existence. The differences of opinion, which arose on this problem naturally, led to the inquiry as to whether any universally valid statement was possible. The Sophists and the Sceptics, Plato and Aristotle, the Stoics and the Epicureans took up the question and from the time of Locke and Kant it has been prominent in modern philosophy. It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to draw a hard and fast line between epistemology and other branches of philosophy. If, for example, philosophy is divided into the theory of knowing and the theory of being, it is impossible entirely to separate the latter (Ontology) from the analysis of knowledge (Epistemology), so close is the connection 'between the two. Again, the relation between logic in its widest sense and the theory of knowledge is extremely close. Some thinkers have identified the two, while others regard Epistemology as a subdivision of logic; others de­marcate their relative spheres by confining logic to the science of the laws of thought, i.e., to formal logic. An attempt has been made by some philosophers to substitute "Gnosiology" for "Epistemology" as a special term for that part of Epistemology which is confined to "systematic analysis of the conceptions employed by ordinary and scientific thought in inter­preting the world, and including an investigation of the art of knowledge, or the nature of knowledge as such." "Epistemology" would thus be reserved for the broad questions of "the origin, nature and limits of knowledge". The term Gnosiology has not come into general use.

Date: 2014-12-21; view: 1059