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Books > Science & Mathematics > Science: general issues > Philosophy of science
When ordinary people - mathematicians among them - take something
to follow (deductively) from something else, they are exposing the
backbone of our self-ascribed ability to reason. Jody Azzouni
investigates the connection between that ordinary notion of
consequence and the formal analogues invented by logicians. One
claim of the book is that, despite our apparent intuitive grasp of
consequence, we do not introspect rules by which we reason, nor do
we grasp the scope and range of the domain, as it were, of our
reasoning. This point is illustrated with a close analysis of a
paradigmatic case of ordinary reasoning: mathematical proof.
What is consciousness? How does the subjective character of
consciousness fit into an objective world? How can there be a
science of consciousness? In this sequel to his groundbreaking and
controversial The Conscious Mind, David Chalmers develops a unified
framework that addresses these questions and many others. Starting
with a statement of the "hard problem" of consciousness, Chalmers
builds a positive framework for the science of consciousness and a
nonreductive vision of the metaphysics of consciousness. He replies
to many critics of The Conscious Mind, and then develops a positive
theory in new directions. The book includes original accounts of
how we think and know about consciousness, of the unity of
consciousness, and of how consciousness relates to the external
world. Along the way, Chalmers develops many provocative ideas: the
"consciousness meter", the Garden of Eden as a model of perceptual
experience, and The Matrix as a guide to the deepest philosophical
problems about consciousness and the external world. This book will
be required reading for anyone interested in the problems of mind,
brain, consciousness, and reality.
Contemporary philosophers of mind tend to assume that the world of
nature can be reduced to basic physics. Yet there are features of
the mind consciousness, intentionality, normativity that do not
seem to be reducible to physics or neuroscience. This explanatory
gap between mind and brain has thus been a major cause of concern
in recent philosophy of mind. Reductionists hold that, despite all
appearances, the mind can be reduced to the brain. Eliminativists
hold that it cannot, and that this implies that there is something
illegitimate about the mentalistic vocabulary. Dualists hold that
the mental is irreducible, and that this implies either a substance
or a property dualism. Mysterian non-reductive physicalists hold
that the mind is uniquely irreducible, perhaps due to some
limitation of our self-understanding.
In this book, Steven Horst argues that this whole conversation is
based on assumptions left over from an outdated philosophy of
science. While reductionism was part of the philosophical orthodoxy
fifty years ago, it has been decisively rejected by philosophers of
science over the past thirty years, and for good reason. True
reductions are in fact exceedingly rare in the sciences, and the
conviction that they were there to be found was an artifact of
armchair assumptions of 17th century Rationalists and 20th century
Logical Empiricists. The explanatory gaps between mind and brain
are far from unique. In fact, in the sciences it is gaps all the
way down.And if reductions are rare in even the physical sciences,
there is little reason to expect them in the case of
psychology.
Horst argues that this calls for a complete re-thinking of the
contemporary problematic inphilosophy of mind. Reductionism,
dualism, eliminativism and non-reductive materialism are each
severely compromised by post-reductionist philosophy of science,
and philosophy of mind is in need of a new paradigm.
Horst suggests that such a paradigm might be found in Cognitive
Pluralism: the view that human cognitive architecture constrains us
to understand the world through a plurality of partial, idealized,
and pragmatically-constrained models, each employing a particular
representational system optimized for its own problem domain. Such
an architecture can explain the disunities of knowledge, and is
plausible on evolutionary grounds.
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not
used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad
quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are
images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to
keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the
original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain
imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made
available for future generations to enjoy.
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not
used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad
quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are
images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to
keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the
original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain
imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made
available for future generations to enjoy.
This Oxford Handbook provides an overview of many of the topics
that currently engage philosophers of physics. It surveys new
issues and the problems that have become a focus of attention in
recent years. It also provides up-to-date discussions of the still
very important problems that dominated the field in the past. In
the late 20th Century, the philosophy of physics was largely
focused on orthodox Quantum Mechanics and Relativity Theory. The
measurement problem, the question of the possibility of hidden
variables, and the nature of quantum locality dominated the
literature on the quantum mechanics, whereas questions about
relationalism vs. substantivalism, and issues about
underdetermination of theories dominated the literature on
spacetime. These issues still receive considerable attention from
philosophers, but many have shifted their attentions to other
questions related to quantum mechanics and to spacetime theories.
Quantum field theory has become a major focus, particularly from
the point of view of algebraic foundations. Concurrent with these
trends, there has been a focus on understanding gauge invariance
and symmetries. The philosophy of physics has evolved even further
in recent years with attention being paid to theories that, for the
most part, were largely ignored in the past. For example, the
relationship between thermodynamics and statistical mechanics--once
thought to be a paradigm instance of unproblematic theory
reduction--is now a hotly debated topic. The implicit, and
sometimes explicit, reductionist methodology of both philosophers
and physicists has been severely criticized and attention has now
turned to the explanatory and descriptive roles of
"non-fundamental,'' phenomenological theories. This shift of
attention includes "old'' theories such as classical mechanics,
once deemed to be of little philosophical interest. Furthermore,
some philosophers have become more interested in "less
fundamental'' contemporary physics such as condensed matter theory.
Questions abound with implications for the nature of models,
idealizations, and explanation in physics. This Handbook showcases
all these aspects of this complex and dynamic discipline.
Eco displays in these essays the same wit, learning, and lively
intelligence that delighted readers of The Name of the Rose and
Foucault's Pendulum. His range is wide, and his insights are acute,
frequently ironic, and often downright funny. Translated by William
Weaver. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book
We know the universe has a history, but does it also have a story
of self-creation to tell? Yes, in Roy R. Gould’s account. He
offers a compelling narrative of how the universe—with no
instruction other than its own laws—evolved into billions of
galaxies and gave rise to life, including humans who have been
trying for millennia to comprehend it. Far from being a random
accident, the universe is hard at work, extracting order from
chaos. Making use of the best current science, Gould turns what
many assume to be true about the universe on its head. The cosmos
expands inward, not outward. Gravity can drive things apart, not
merely together. And the universe seems to defy entropy as it
becomes more ordered, rather than the other way around. Strangest
of all, the universe is exquisitely hospitable to life, despite its
being constructed from undistinguished atoms and a few
unexceptional rules of behavior. Universe in Creation explores
whether the emergence of life, rather than being a mere cosmic
afterthought, may be written into the most basic laws of nature.
Offering a fresh take on what brought the world—and us—into
being, Gould helps us see the universe as the master of its own
creation, not tethered to a singular event but burgeoning as new
space and energy continuously stream into existence. It is a very
old story, as yet unfinished, with plotlines that twist and churn
through infinite space and time.
Theories of Emotion is a philosophical introduction to the most
influential theories of emotion of the past 60 years in philosophy,
psychology, and biology. This multi-disciplinary approach provides
the reader with a one-stop shop for encountering the key debates
and cutting-edge ideas in what is becoming a central focus of
contemporary thought. An introductory chapter on definitions of
emotion is followed by three main sections on the way emotions are
expressed, subjectively experienced, and related to action and
motivation. This accessible but probing approach integrates
philosophical analysis with innovative research in psychology and
cognitive science, contextualizing current debates in the history
of ideas from Darwin to pragmatism. Each section is introduced by a
detailed illustration of a foundational thinker's work on emotion
(Charles Darwin, William James, and John Dewey, respectively),
showing how their insights and discoveries have shaped current
views and suggesting ways in which they might still enrich
contemporary approaches.
This book introduces the reader to the exciting new field of plant
philosophy and takes it in a new direction to ask: what does it
mean to say that plants are sexed? Do 'male' and 'female' really
mean the same when applied to humans, trees, fungi and algae? Are
the zoological categories of sex really adequate for understanding
the - uniquely 'dibiontic' - life cycle of plants? Vegetal Sex
addresses these questions through a detailed analysis of major
moments in the history of plant sex, from Aristotle to the modern
day. Tracing the transformations in the analogy between animals and
plants that characterize this history, it shows how the analogy
still functions in contemporary botany and asks: what would a
non-zoocentric, plant-centred philosophy of vegetal sex be like? By
showing how philosophy and botany have been and still are
inextricably entwined, Vegetal Sex allows us to think vegetal being
and, perhaps, to recognize the vegetal in us all.
How did the relations between philosophy and science evolve during
the 17th and the 18th century? This book analyzes this issue by
considering the history of Cartesianism in Dutch universities, as
well as its legacy in the 18th century. It takes into account the
ways in which the disciplines of logic and metaphysics became
functional to the justification and reflection on the conceptual
premises and the methods of natural philosophy, changing their
traditional roles as art of reasoning and as science of being. This
transformation took place as a result of two factors. First, logic
and metaphysics (which included rational theology) were used to
grant the status of indubitable knowledge of natural philosophy.
Second, the debates internal to Cartesianism, as well as the
emergence of alternative philosophical world-views (such as those
of Hobbes, Spinoza, the experimental science and Newtonianism)
progressively deprived such disciplines of their foundational
function, and they started to become forms of reflection over given
scientific practices, either Cartesian, experimental, or Newtonian.
What is the nature of the 'laws' that Marx and Engels sought to
formulate for the development of capitalism? How to understand and
judge Engels's attempt to formulate a general philosophy and
worldview? These are the questions highlighted in this magnificent
work that situates Marx and Engels's writing against the background
of the entire nineteenth-century world of scientific problems, from
physics to historiography. One of the major contributions to
scholarship on Marx, Engels and nineteenth-century science,
Liedman's work is here presented in English translation and with a
new preface by the author.
The literary arts represent and provoke experiences of
understanding and emotion, and this open access study examines how
the practical pursuit of well-being in healthcare reveals purposes
at the core of our engagements with and understanding of literature
itself. During the past twenty years, much admirable work in the
"health humanities" has focused upon what studies of literature
contribute to the understandings and the practical work-the
"worldly work"-of healthcare. Such a project aims at developing
healthcare practitioners who bring greater care to those who come
to them ailing or in fear or faced with terrible suffering.
Literary Studies and Well-Being turns this inside out by examining
the intergenerational caretaking of healthcare in a manner which
allows us to comprehend the nature and discipline of literary
studies in new ways. The ebook editions of this book are available
open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on
bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by The University
of Oklahoma.
Today's "machine-learning" systems, trained by data, are so
effective that we've invited them to see and hear for us-and to
make decisions on our behalf. But alarm bells are ringing. Recent
years have seen an eruption of concern as the field of machine
learning advances. When the systems we attempt to teach will not,
in the end, do what we want or what we expect, ethical and
potentially existential risks emerge. Researchers call this the
alignment problem. Systems cull resumes until, years later, we
discover that they have inherent gender biases. Algorithms decide
bail and parole-and appear to assess Black and White defendants
differently. We can no longer assume that our mortgage application,
or even our medical tests, will be seen by human eyes. And as
autonomous vehicles share our streets, we are increasingly putting
our lives in their hands. The mathematical and computational models
driving these changes range in complexity from something that can
fit on a spreadsheet to a complex system that might credibly be
called "artificial intelligence." They are steadily replacing both
human judgment and explicitly programmed software. In best-selling
author Brian Christian's riveting account, we meet the alignment
problem's "first-responders," and learn their ambitious plan to
solve it before our hands are completely off the wheel. In a
masterful blend of history and on-the ground reporting, Christian
traces the explosive growth in the field of machine learning and
surveys its current, sprawling frontier. Readers encounter a
discipline finding its legs amid exhilarating and sometimes
terrifying progress. Whether they-and we-succeed or fail in solving
the alignment problem will be a defining human story. The Alignment
Problem offers an unflinching reckoning with humanity's biases and
blind spots, our own unstated assumptions and often contradictory
goals. A dazzlingly interdisciplinary work, it takes a hard look
not only at our technology but at our culture-and finds a story by
turns harrowing and hopeful.
This volume contains eighteen papers that have been collected by
the Canadian Society for History and Philosophy of Mathematics. It
showcases rigorously-reviewed contemporary scholarship on an
interesting variety of topics in the history and philosophy of
mathematics, as well as the teaching of the history of
mathematics.  Some of the topics explored include
Arabic editions of Euclid’s Elements from the thirteenth century
and their role in the assimilation of Euclidean geometry into the
Islamic intellectual tradition Portuguese sixteenth century
recreational mathematics as found in the Tratado de Prática
Darysmetica A Cambridge correspondence course in arithmetic
for women in England in the late nineteenth century The
mathematical interests of the famous Egyptologist Thomas Eric (T.
E.) Peet The history of Zentralblatt für Mathematik and
Mathematical Reviews and their role in creating a publishing
infrastructure for a global mathematical literature The use of
Latin squares for agricultural crop experiments at the Rothamsted
Experimental Station The many contributions of women to the
advancement of computing techniques at the Cavendish Laboratory at
the University of Cambridge in the 1960s The volume concludes with
two short plays, one set in Ancient Mesopotamia and the other in
Ancient Egypt, that are well suited for use in the mathematics
classroom. Written by leading scholars in the field, these papers
are accessible not only to mathematicians and students of the
history and philosophy of mathematics, but also to anyone with a
general interest in mathematics.
This open access collection brings together a team of leading
scholars and rising stars to consider what experimental philosophy
of medicine is and can be. While experimental philosophy of science
is an established field, attempts to tackle issues in philosophy of
medicine from an experimental angle are still surprisingly scarce.
A team of interdisciplinary scholars demonstrate how we can make
progress by integrating a variety of methods from experimental
philosophy, including experiments, sociological surveys,
simulations, as well as history and philosophy of science, in order
to yield meaningful results about the core questions in medicine.
They focus on concepts central to philosophy of medicine and
medical practice, such as death, pain, disease and disorder,
advance directives, medical explanation, disability and informed
consent. Presenting empirical findings and providing a crucial
foundation for future work in this dynamic field, this collection
explores new ways for philosophers to cooperate with scientists and
reveals the value of these collaborations for both philosophy and
medicine. The eBook editions of this book are available open access
under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open
access was funded by the European Research Council Starting Grant.
Jesuit engagement with natural philosophy during the late 16th and
early 17th centuries transformed the status of the mathematical
disciplines and propelled members of the Order into key areas of
controversy in relation to Aristotelianism. Through close
investigation of the activities of the Jesuit 'school' of
mathematics founded by Christoph Clavius, The Scientific
Counter-Revolution examines the Jesuit connections to the rise of
experimental natural philosophy and the emergence of the early
scientific societies. Arguing for a re-evaluation of the role of
Jesuits in shaping early modern science, this book traces the
evolution of the Collegio Romano as a hub of knowledge. Starting
with an examination of Clavius's Counter-Reformation agenda for
mathematics, Michael John Gorman traces the development of a
collective Jesuit approach to experimentation and observation under
Christopher Grienberger and analyses the Jesuit role in the Galileo
Affair and the vacuum debate. Ending with a discussion of the
transformation of the Collegio Romano under Athanasius Kircher into
a place of curiosity and wonder and the centre of a global
information gathering network, this book reveals how the
Counter-Reformation goals of the Jesuits contributed to the shaping
of modern experimental science.
Mojca Kuplen connects 18th-century German aesthetics to
contemporary theories of self-knowledge in order to highlight the
unique cognitive value of art. She does this through revisiting
Kant’s account of aesthetic ideas, and demonstrating how works of
art can increase our understanding of abstract concepts whilst
promoting self-knowledge. Addressing some of the most fundamental
questions in contemporary aesthetics and philosophy of art, this
study covers the value and importance of art, the relationship
between art and beauty, the role of knowledge in art and the
criteria for artistic excellence. It offers an insight into
problems related to the apprehension of meaning and the cognitive
processing of abstract representations that have been of interest
to contemporary cognitive science. Kant's Aesthetic Cognitivism
presents these arguments in a lucid and wide-ranging engagement
with the history of aesthetics and current academic debates to
understand what art is and why it is valuable.
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