Emir Korkut - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Emir Korkut
Phenomenological Alliance
Basic questions of the phenomenological approach in physics.
EXCERPT FROM THE AFTERWORD On the relationship between Husserl's phenomenology and the phenome... more EXCERPT FROM THE AFTERWORD
On the relationship between Husserl's phenomenology and the phenomenology of the nature-philosophy
In this afterword, we will discuss some fundamental similarities and differences between the phenomenological method of the nature-philosophy, which the author used to obtain the insights presented in the essay, as well as Edmund Husserl’s phenomenology as a method and the most prominent direction of contemporary philosophy.
...
However, as the author convincingly describes in the book, thinking alone does not have an unconditional authority in relation to external reality. Phenomena should be observed, and one should refrain from judging for as long as possible. As long as we do not assert anything and do not take a position, we cannot make an error because truth and falsity are categories that concern judgment as a thinking process. We should stick to the phenomena and let them “talk” to us. It is up to us to absorb the images of reality conveyed by our senses as vividly, clearly, and faithfully as possible. In this way, if we have enough authentic and vivid observations, things will appear to us as they are. Thinking thereby gains structure. It also gains quality material with which it can continue to work, revealing the truth of being.
Summarising what has been written here, I can say that both the phenomenology of nature-philosophy and Husserl’s phenomenology proceed from appearances or phenomena, as their names suggest. For every genuine phenomenology (i.e. scientific phenomenology that understands itself), Hegel’s demand applies:
“Scientific knowledge requires, on the contrary, to surrender to the life of the object or, what is the same, to have it before oneself and express its inner necessity.”
(Hegel, “Phenomenology of Spirit”, p. 37)
The ultimate demand of both nature-philosophy and transcendental phenomenology is that they should initially be free of theories (i.e. that they surrender to the phenomena themselves), which is fully in line with Hegel’s demand. However, what fundamentally makes them different is that the term “appearance” or “phenomenon” implies completely different things. For the phenomenology of nature-philosophy, phenomena are simply what appears, the experiential world of the everyday, given as such. In the sense of transcendental phenomenology, an appearance is the result of a carefully prepared and implemented methodological procedure, epoche, and phenomenological reductions, which appears within a very specific (before Husserl, the “unconscious region of being”) – the transcendental field of pure consciousness. These are “things” or transcendental phenomena in the sense of Husserl’s phenomenology.
It is important to emphasise that both the phenomenology of nature-philosophy and transcendental phenomenology inaugurate the possibility of research in philosophy. Hence, they open endless horizons of potential advancement and improvement of one’s knowledge, which also provides them with a powerful stamp of scientificity, as opposed to philosophies as worldviews. They assume generations of diligent scientific workers are continuing where their phenomenological predecessors left off.
Finally, I would like to single out another very important similarity between the phenomenologies we are talking about here. The central motif that the author develops in this book is the anthropocentric model, which proves to be the key to understanding nature. For Husserl, the transcendental subject cannot be identified with the worldly Self (it is the result of phenomenological reductions). However, this is not about two different subjects but different functions and different aspects of the same subject. Therefore, we can say that, for Husserl, man is also the key to understanding the world. Understanding man means understanding the intelligible spiritual primordial active in man. If we want solid cognitive ground under our feet, we must start from man, and we must dive into ourselves and follow the path of universal self-knowledge. Man cannot be explained by nature, but nature can be truly understood and explained only from the understanding of man himself.
PhD ABD Mihovil Mlikotić
October 2023,
Split, Croatia
Foreword by the foreword author The ideas of colour and wavelength are so commonplace in the m... more Foreword by the foreword author
The ideas of colour and wavelength are so commonplace in the modern world that there are normally no second thoughts about the observational foundations of those ideas. Taking the path of Goethe’s studies on colour, Emir Korkut not only provides a clear historical overview that will help the reader obtain the context of the concept clearly but also points out what is actually observed as distinguished from what is thought out and added to what is observed. This phenomenological approach is a hard task at the best of times, as we bring in so many ideas which appear “obvious” to us at first glance that we do not question it further, but Korkut succeeds in teasing apart the assumptions from the observations for a variety of phenomena in optics.
Perhaps the most critical contribution to the discussion is how Korkut never loses sight, in every sense of the word, of the whole image, whether he is discussing light, darkness, refraction, reflection, polarization, diffraction, or any of the other repetitive patterns seen in optics. The ability to retain the whole image in the mind and to break away from the one-sidedness of the ray-tracing habits we have all learnt is made manifest in this work. It is the changing of these habits of observation and habits of thoughts that the book highlights and that shows the coherence to be gained as a result of retaining the focus on the whole image all the way through in optical observations.
All in all, Korkut’s work is a brilliant contribution to fundamental optics research that demands an adequate re-thinking of the fundamentals, as such a work should..
Gopi Krishna Vijaya, PhD, Utah
Spring 2023.
The word “mechanics” comes from the Greek word “μηχανή” (“mihaní”), meaning “of the nature of or ... more The word “mechanics” comes from the Greek word “μηχανή” (“mihaní”), meaning “of the nature of or pertaining to machines”, and in modern physics, is used in the sense of studying the material mechanical forces and their effects on material bodies. In Newton’s theory of gravity, notions of mechanical forces are applied to the understanding of ideas about the reasons for the movement of celestial bodies, and since the XVII century onwards, people began talking about “celestial mechanics”.
However, with all due respect to the achievements of modern physics in the motion examination, a studious approach to the problem of motion could not have overlooked the shortcomings of the contemporary notion with which one attempts to encompass these phenomena. That is why this book was written: out of the need to examine the questions attempting to illuminate modern mechanics – and these are the questions of modes and causes of motions of terrestrial and celestial bodies – from a different point of view than the one provided in the modern physics textbooks.
This book is a continuation of the author’s book “Newton through the Prism of Goethe”, which exam... more This book is a continuation of the author’s book “Newton through the Prism of Goethe”, which examined the phenomena of colour and light.
Although it also deals with certain specialized questions of modern physics, the book is not exclusively written for specialist readers. In antiquity, “physics” meant the philosophy of nature, so the ancient understanding of the meaning of the word “physics” differs significantly from the modern context of its use. In this book, an attempt will be made to describe temperature phenomena using the methodology of the philosophy of nature. Therefore, this book accentuates matters that are either untreated in the official books of physics or treated in a completely different way.
Let it be emphasized that the content of the book should be understood in an aphoristic sense and certainly not in terms of the final judgment on temperature phenomena, the objective description of which cannot fit into one book.
Phenomenological Alliance
Basic questions of the phenomenological approach in physics.
EXCERPT FROM THE AFTERWORD On the relationship between Husserl's phenomenology and the phenome... more EXCERPT FROM THE AFTERWORD
On the relationship between Husserl's phenomenology and the phenomenology of the nature-philosophy
In this afterword, we will discuss some fundamental similarities and differences between the phenomenological method of the nature-philosophy, which the author used to obtain the insights presented in the essay, as well as Edmund Husserl’s phenomenology as a method and the most prominent direction of contemporary philosophy.
...
However, as the author convincingly describes in the book, thinking alone does not have an unconditional authority in relation to external reality. Phenomena should be observed, and one should refrain from judging for as long as possible. As long as we do not assert anything and do not take a position, we cannot make an error because truth and falsity are categories that concern judgment as a thinking process. We should stick to the phenomena and let them “talk” to us. It is up to us to absorb the images of reality conveyed by our senses as vividly, clearly, and faithfully as possible. In this way, if we have enough authentic and vivid observations, things will appear to us as they are. Thinking thereby gains structure. It also gains quality material with which it can continue to work, revealing the truth of being.
Summarising what has been written here, I can say that both the phenomenology of nature-philosophy and Husserl’s phenomenology proceed from appearances or phenomena, as their names suggest. For every genuine phenomenology (i.e. scientific phenomenology that understands itself), Hegel’s demand applies:
“Scientific knowledge requires, on the contrary, to surrender to the life of the object or, what is the same, to have it before oneself and express its inner necessity.”
(Hegel, “Phenomenology of Spirit”, p. 37)
The ultimate demand of both nature-philosophy and transcendental phenomenology is that they should initially be free of theories (i.e. that they surrender to the phenomena themselves), which is fully in line with Hegel’s demand. However, what fundamentally makes them different is that the term “appearance” or “phenomenon” implies completely different things. For the phenomenology of nature-philosophy, phenomena are simply what appears, the experiential world of the everyday, given as such. In the sense of transcendental phenomenology, an appearance is the result of a carefully prepared and implemented methodological procedure, epoche, and phenomenological reductions, which appears within a very specific (before Husserl, the “unconscious region of being”) – the transcendental field of pure consciousness. These are “things” or transcendental phenomena in the sense of Husserl’s phenomenology.
It is important to emphasise that both the phenomenology of nature-philosophy and transcendental phenomenology inaugurate the possibility of research in philosophy. Hence, they open endless horizons of potential advancement and improvement of one’s knowledge, which also provides them with a powerful stamp of scientificity, as opposed to philosophies as worldviews. They assume generations of diligent scientific workers are continuing where their phenomenological predecessors left off.
Finally, I would like to single out another very important similarity between the phenomenologies we are talking about here. The central motif that the author develops in this book is the anthropocentric model, which proves to be the key to understanding nature. For Husserl, the transcendental subject cannot be identified with the worldly Self (it is the result of phenomenological reductions). However, this is not about two different subjects but different functions and different aspects of the same subject. Therefore, we can say that, for Husserl, man is also the key to understanding the world. Understanding man means understanding the intelligible spiritual primordial active in man. If we want solid cognitive ground under our feet, we must start from man, and we must dive into ourselves and follow the path of universal self-knowledge. Man cannot be explained by nature, but nature can be truly understood and explained only from the understanding of man himself.
PhD ABD Mihovil Mlikotić
October 2023,
Split, Croatia
Foreword by the foreword author The ideas of colour and wavelength are so commonplace in the m... more Foreword by the foreword author
The ideas of colour and wavelength are so commonplace in the modern world that there are normally no second thoughts about the observational foundations of those ideas. Taking the path of Goethe’s studies on colour, Emir Korkut not only provides a clear historical overview that will help the reader obtain the context of the concept clearly but also points out what is actually observed as distinguished from what is thought out and added to what is observed. This phenomenological approach is a hard task at the best of times, as we bring in so many ideas which appear “obvious” to us at first glance that we do not question it further, but Korkut succeeds in teasing apart the assumptions from the observations for a variety of phenomena in optics.
Perhaps the most critical contribution to the discussion is how Korkut never loses sight, in every sense of the word, of the whole image, whether he is discussing light, darkness, refraction, reflection, polarization, diffraction, or any of the other repetitive patterns seen in optics. The ability to retain the whole image in the mind and to break away from the one-sidedness of the ray-tracing habits we have all learnt is made manifest in this work. It is the changing of these habits of observation and habits of thoughts that the book highlights and that shows the coherence to be gained as a result of retaining the focus on the whole image all the way through in optical observations.
All in all, Korkut’s work is a brilliant contribution to fundamental optics research that demands an adequate re-thinking of the fundamentals, as such a work should..
Gopi Krishna Vijaya, PhD, Utah
Spring 2023.
The word “mechanics” comes from the Greek word “μηχανή” (“mihaní”), meaning “of the nature of or ... more The word “mechanics” comes from the Greek word “μηχανή” (“mihaní”), meaning “of the nature of or pertaining to machines”, and in modern physics, is used in the sense of studying the material mechanical forces and their effects on material bodies. In Newton’s theory of gravity, notions of mechanical forces are applied to the understanding of ideas about the reasons for the movement of celestial bodies, and since the XVII century onwards, people began talking about “celestial mechanics”.
However, with all due respect to the achievements of modern physics in the motion examination, a studious approach to the problem of motion could not have overlooked the shortcomings of the contemporary notion with which one attempts to encompass these phenomena. That is why this book was written: out of the need to examine the questions attempting to illuminate modern mechanics – and these are the questions of modes and causes of motions of terrestrial and celestial bodies – from a different point of view than the one provided in the modern physics textbooks.
This book is a continuation of the author’s book “Newton through the Prism of Goethe”, which exam... more This book is a continuation of the author’s book “Newton through the Prism of Goethe”, which examined the phenomena of colour and light.
Although it also deals with certain specialized questions of modern physics, the book is not exclusively written for specialist readers. In antiquity, “physics” meant the philosophy of nature, so the ancient understanding of the meaning of the word “physics” differs significantly from the modern context of its use. In this book, an attempt will be made to describe temperature phenomena using the methodology of the philosophy of nature. Therefore, this book accentuates matters that are either untreated in the official books of physics or treated in a completely different way.
Let it be emphasized that the content of the book should be understood in an aphoristic sense and certainly not in terms of the final judgment on temperature phenomena, the objective description of which cannot fit into one book.