Philosophy of Science Commons^™

Ecological Explanation Between Manipulation And Mechanism Description, Viorel Pâslaru

Philosophy Faculty Publications

James Woodward offers a conception of explanation and mechanism in terms of interventionist counterfactuals. Based on a case from ecology, I show that ecologists’ approach to that case satisfiesWoodward’s conditions for explanation and mechanism, but his conception does not fully capture what ecologists view as explanatory. The new mechanistic philosophy likewise aims to describe central aspects of mechanisms, but I show that it is not sufficient to account for ecological mechanisms. I argue that in ecology explanation involves identification of invariant and insensitive causal relationships and descriptions of the mechanistic characteristics that make these relations possible.

Brain‐Mind And Structure‐Function Relationships: A Methodological Response To Coltheart, Adina L. Roskies

Dartmouth Scholarship

In some recent papers, Max Coltheart has questioned the ability of neuroimaging techniques to tell us anything interesting about the mind and has thrown down the gauntlet before neuroimagers, challenging them to prove he is mistaken. Here I analyze Coltheart’s challenge, show that as posed its terms are unfair, and reconstruct it so that it is addressable. I argue that, so modified, Coltheart’s challenge is able to be met and indeed has been met. In an effort to delineate the extent of neuroimaging’s ability to address Coltheart’s concerns, I explore how different brain structure‐function relationships would constrain the ability of …

Ephemeral Mechanisms And Historical Explanation, Stuart Glennan

Stuart Glennan

While much of the recent literature on mechanisms has emphasized the superiority of mechanisms and mechanistic explanation over laws and nomological explanation, paradigmatic mechanisms—e.g., clocks or synapses – actually exhibit a great deal of stability in their behavior. And while mechanisms of this kind are certainly of great importance, there are many events that do not occur as a consequence of the operation of stable mechanisms. Events of natural and human history are often the consequence of causal processes that are ephemeral and capricious. In this paper I shall argue that, notwithstanding their ephemeral nature, these processes deserve to be …

A Mage In Motion - Metaphysical Riddles Of Space, Time, And Motion, Juan Ferret

Juan Ferret

No abstract provided.

Monsters And The Moral Imagination, Stephen Asma

Stephen T Asma

The article discusses the cultural interest in monsters in the 21st century. The author speculates on the reasons for the interest, citing anxiety after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the war in Iraq, or the global financial crisis of 2008-2009. He notes a conference in September 2009 at the University of Oxford entitled "Monsters and the Monstrous." Cultural uses of monsters, he notes, include scolding ourselves for failure to be inclusive, the medievals' punishment for the sin of pride, or the ancient Greeks' warnings of impending calamity. He notes that monster stories can promote the individual's thought about what …

Mechanisms, Causes, And The Layered Model Of The World, Stuart Glennan

Stuart Glennan

Most philosophical accounts of causation take causal relations to obtain between individuals and events in virtue of nomological relations between properties of these individuals and events. Such views fail to take into account the consequences of the fact that in general the properties of individuals and events will depend upon mechanisms that realize those properties. In this paper I attempt to rectify this failure, and in so doing to provide an account of the causal relevance of higher-level properties. I do this by critiquing one prominent model of higher-level properties – Kim’s functional model of reduction – and contrasting it …

Knowing With Images: Medium And Message*, John Kulvicki

Dartmouth Scholarship

Problems concerning scientists’ uses of representations have received quite a bit of attention recently. The focus has been on how such representations get their contents and on just what those contents are. Less attention has been paid to what makes certain kinds of scientific representations different from one another and thus well suited to this or that epistemic end. This article considers the latter question with particular focus on the distinction between images and graphs on the one hand and descriptions and related representations on the other.

Ethical And Policy Issues In Cluster Randomized Trials: Rationale And Design Of A Mixed Methods Research Study, Monica Taljaard, Charles Weijer, Jeremy Grimshaw, Judith Brown, Ariella Binik, Robert Boruch, Jamie Brehaut, Shazia Chaudhry, Martin Eccles, Andrew Mcrae, Raphael Saginur, Merrick Zwarenstein, Allan Donner

Charles Weijer

Background: Cluster randomized trials are an increasingly important methodological tool in health research. In cluster randomized trials, intact social units or groups of individuals, such as medical practices, schools, or entire communities--rather than individual themselves--are randomly allocated to intervention or control conditions, while outcomes are then observed on individual cluster members. The substantial methodological differences between cluster randomized trials and conventional randomized trials pose serious challenges to the current conceptual framework for research ethics. The ethical implications of randomizing groups rather than individuals are not addressed in current research ethics guidelines, nor have they even been thoroughly explored. The main …

Ancient Antidotes To Timeless Troubles: Stoicism And The Recession, Stephen Asma

Stephen T Asma

The article reviews the books "The Present Alone is Our Happiness," by Arnold I. Davidson and Jeannie Carlier and "A Life Worthy of the Gods: The Materialist Psychology of Epicurus" by David Konstan.

Happy Serf Liberation Day: China And Tibet, Stephen Asma

Stephen T Asma

No abstract provided.

Mechanisms And The Nature Of Causation, Stuart Glennan

Stuart Glennan

In this paper I offer an analysis of causation based upon a theory of mechanisms – complex systems whose "internal" parts interact to produce a system's "external" behavior. I argue that all but the fundamental laws of physics can be explained by reference to mechanisms. Mechanisms provide an epistemologically unproblematic way to explain the necessity which is often taken to distinguish laws from other generalizations. This account of necessity leads to a theory of causation according to which events are causally related when there is a mechanism that connects them. I present reasons why the lack of an account of …

Scripture As Word Of God: Evangelical Assumption Or Evangelical Question?, John D. Morrison

John D. Morrison

Examines the views of D. Bloesch, G. Fackre, and C. Pinnock. Indicates their disjunctive positions introduce ontological and epistemological dualism into the doctrine of revelation. Takes Packer's view of the Bible as the Word of God written, affirming that the human languages used to reflect God's person and work are competent to do so. Finds Wolterstorff's answer to Barth and John Baillie insightful, but we must move past his views to the full-orbed acceptance of the Word of God as written to avoid negating propositional revelation.

Review: Biblical Narrative In The Philosophy Of Paul Ricoeur: A Study In Hermeneutics And Theology, John D. Morrison

John D. Morrison

No abstract provided.

Ephemeral Mechanisms And Historical Explanation, Stuart Glennan

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

While much of the recent literature on mechanisms has emphasized the superiority of mechanisms and mechanistic explanation over laws and nomological explanation, paradigmatic mechanisms—e.g., clocks or synapses – actually exhibit a great deal of stability in their behavior. And while mechanisms of this kind are certainly of great importance, there are many events that do not occur as a consequence of the operation of stable mechanisms. Events of natural and human history are often the consequence of causal processes that are ephemeral and capricious. In this paper I shall argue that, notwithstanding their ephemeral nature, these processes deserve to be …

The Logic Of Bailout Strategies, Rudolf Kaehr

Rudolf Kaehr

Some thoughts about/of the logic, blend, chiasm and diamond of bailout strategies. Eliciting aspects of the maxim: “Without insurrection, no resurrection".

Diamond Semiotic Short Studies, Rudolf Kaehr

Rudolf Kaehr

A collection of papers on semiotics, polycontexturality and diamond theory

Argument Visualization In The Political Arena: The Debate On Global Climate Engineering, Michael H.G. Hoffmann

Michael H.G. Hoffmann

A map that shows a certain point in a fictitious deliberation which is supposed to be ongoing and open-ended, driven by the motive of participants to support or to criticize any of the assumptions mapped out so far by further arguments. This map is mainly based on recent publications on geo-engineering

John Langshaw Austin: Evolution, Communication And Language Daily (John Langshaw Austin: Evolución, Comunicación Y Lenguaje Cotidiano) Spanish, Fernando Estrada

Fernando Estrada

In this paper the main purpose is to expose the relevance of focus of John L. Austin and their opposition a conception type on the communication. Austin elaborates - in its own terms - to “linguistic phenomenology,” with which revises some places thrashed critically. Those “you force illocutionary” and those “speech acts,” they will be central concepts in this analytic company. In the perspective of Austin should not make a mistake communication with information. The work that here develop it proposes some usually notices in defense of the normative functions of the language ordinary.

Labyrinth Of Modernity, Interpretation Of The Old Regime And The Revolution Of Alexis De Tocqueville (Laberinto De La Modernidad. Interpretación Del Antiguo Régimen Y La Revolución De Alexis De Tocqueville) Spanish, Fernando Estrada, José Daniel Parra

Fernando Estrada

CIPE in this book presents an interpretation of the Old Regime and the Revolution of Alexis de Tocqueville.

Meditations On Machiavelli (Meditaciones En Maquiavelo) Spanish, Fernando Estrada, José Daniel Parra

Fernando Estrada

The presentation of Machiavelli in the field of studies of Finance, Government and International Relations is twofold. First, show that we can better understand the problems of our time in the footsteps comprehensive than classical authors have left us. A student can recognize progressive power that were taking concepts such as politics, power, status, conflict, political parties, institutions, representation and social movements, from writing original authors as Florentine thinker.

Hamadryas Visual Identification Guide, David W. Markman

David W Markman

No abstract provided.

A Scientific Rationale For Belief In God?, Philip E. Graves

PHILIP E GRAVES

This paper presents a concise scientific rationale for the existence of God. The works of Ray Kurzweil and the many other artificial intelligence researchers provide a backdrop to the central thesis. An entity (computers or humans, it not mattering which) will eventually approach all-knowing. How much time passes before this occurs is not important. All-knowing is likely to be all-powerful insofar as knowledge leads to power, as has been our experience. One would suspect that this would be inclusive of time travel. The methods by which knowledge grows require “seed” facts to begin working. The seed facts can easily be, …

Diabolical Frivolity Of Neoliberal Fundamentalism, Sefik Tatlic

Sefik Tatlic

Today, we cannot talk just about plain control, but we must talk about the nature of the interaction of the one who is being controlled and the one who controls, an interaction where the one that is “controlled” is asking for more control over himself/herself while expecting to be compensated by a surplus of freedom to satisfy trivial needs and wishes. Such a liberty for the fulfillment of trivial needs is being declared as freedom. But this implies as well the freedom to choose not to be engaged in any kind of socially sensible or politically articulated struggle.

Analysis Of The Problem Of Prediction In Physics From A Computational And Foundational Approach, Juan Ferret

Juan Ferret

In this paper, we analyze the problem of prediction in physics from a computational and foundational viewpoint. Besides showing that assumptions like Laplace determinism, statistical determinism, etc., can be naturally explained by this computational analysis, we use the concepts of Kolmogorov complexity and algorithmic randomness from Algorithmic Information Theory, as well as the novel more physics-oriented variants of these notions, to show that the dynamical evolution of a system can be practically predicted with the dynamical laws, the initial, and final conditions of the system.

The Power Of Flowers: The Philosophy Of Organism Of The Maya, Juan Ferret

Juan Ferret

No abstract provided.

Anticipatory Systems In Physics, Juan Ferret

Juan Ferret

The aim of this paper is to clarify the role of anticipation of systems in physics. Previous work on the subject (DuBois, 2000) selected certain types of systems as anticipatory, but the argument here establishes that all dynamical systems in physics are necessarily anticipatory.

Invariance: A Tale Of Intellectual Migration, Steven Gimbel

Philosophy Faculty Publications

The plotline of the standard story told about the development of intellectual history at the end of the 19th/turn of the 20th century follows the move from absolutism to perspectivalism. The narrative takes us, on the one hand, from the scientism of late Enlightenment writers like Voltaire, Mill, D’Alebert, and Comte and the historical determinism of Hegel, all of which were based upon a universal picture of rationality, to, on the other hand, the relativistic physics of Einstein, the perspectival art of Picasso, and the individualism of Nietzsche and Kierkegaard leading to the phenomenology of Husserl and Heidegger to and …

Paul Crook, Darwin’S Coat-Tails. Essays On Social Darwinism., David Depew

David J Depew

No abstract provided.

Foundations And Philosophy Of Physics, Juan Ferret

Juan Ferret

No abstract provided.

L’Unité De La Justification À L’Épreuve De La Justification Juridique [Justificatory Unification And Legal Justification], Mathilde Cohen

Mathilde Cohen