QUINE (1908-2000)
Willard Van Orman Quine is an American philosopher and logician. He advocates a holistic and naturalistic philosophy in which the boundaries between philosophy and science are eliminated. He criticizes logical positivism and empiricism.
He examines the two dogmas of empiricism, the sharp distinction between analytic and synthetic propositions and the dogma that meaningful expressions can be translated into simple propositions, and says that both dogmas should be rejected. According to Quine, in experimental observation, there is sense experience on one side and all scientific propositions on the other (holism). If an assumption is not confirmed by experiment, it should be corrected in a way that will cause the least shock to our information system (the principle of least injury).
He has works on the uncertainty of meaning and ontological commitment (the meaningfulness of general terms does not require the existence of universals). It is the idea that since we cannot objectively talk about individuals and individualization on their own, we have to make a division and individualization according to language.
BERGSON (1859-1941)
Henri Bergson was a French philosopher. He made analyses on the subjects of time, life and consciousness. As in the science of biology, he wanted to establish a continuity between physics and metaphysics by following the sciences of life and searching for facts and producing concepts suitable for them. According to Bergson, analysis does not give the reality itself but its schema, while intuition gives information through direct contact.
In Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness, he establishes the dualism of time and space, spirit and matter. The concept of duration (duration, process) defines the giving of time to consciousness. Consciousness is the remembered record of memories.
In his book Matter and Memory, he addresses the question of what the relationship between the self and the universe is. Spirit and matter both have their own reality. He considers matter as an “image existing in itself”. The movements in our brain and the movements in the material world are inextricably linked.
In his book Creative Evolution, he develops the concept of life force. Creative evolution is a flow of becoming that creates life forms such as organisms and species, becoming itself is free and the process is nothing but freedom. Evolution is not always a forward movement, sometimes it can be a deviation or a regression.
In his book The Two Sources of Reason and Religion, he defines two different moralities. The first is closed morality, which is based on social solidarity, and the second is open morality, which is based on individual experience and intuition. Open morality, like art, is linked to creative excitement and intuition. Open religion leads us to mystical experience. Mystical experience is creative, beyond the contemplation of God, it turns into action.
In his book Laughter, he provides an analysis of the nature of comedy. He examines the role of laughter in human behavior and examines the social and psychological dimensions of the act of laughter.
WHITEHEAD (1861-1947)
Alfred North Whitehead was an English philosopher and mathematician. He is especially known for his process philosophy.
According to Whitehead, existence is not static but dynamic. The concept of process expresses that existence is in a constant state of change and evolution. According to him, everything is a process and within this process, beings interact with each other.
The concept of simple location error refers to errors made regarding the locations of objects or events. With this concept, he criticizes the evaluation of the properties or qualities of something based solely on its location.
Whitehead's metaphysics is based on a relational understanding of existence. Individuals are not only independent beings, but also in constant interaction with other beings. God exists together with creation. The persuasiveness of God brings harmony and progress.
POPPER (1902-1994)
Karl Popper was an Austrian philosopher. He is known for his work in the philosophy of science and scientific methodology, especially the concept of falsifiability.
Instead of the logical positivists' view that verifiability through experimentation and observation is necessary, Popper argues that scientific theories must be testable and falsifiable. If a theory contradicts observations and this contradiction can be observed, this theory is falsified. This forms the basis of scientific progress. Scientific laws can never be definitively true. The criterion of scientificity is not verifiability, but falsifiability. He says that the theories of Freud, Adler or Marx are not scientific because they are not falsifiable. Popper also questions the predictability of historical events. He argues that events cannot be explained by certain laws and that human behavior is complex.