How Physics Makes Us Free
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How Physics Makes Us Free
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Author : J. T. Ismael
language : en
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Release Date : 2016-02-03
How Physics Makes Us Free written by J. T. Ismael and has been published by Oxford University Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2016-02-03 with Philosophy categories.
In 1687 Isaac Newton ushered in a new scientific era in which laws of nature could be used to predict the movements of matter with almost perfect precision. Newton's physics also posed a profound challenge to our self-understanding, however, for the very same laws that keep airplanes in the air and rivers flowing downhill tell us that it is in principle possible to predict what each of us will do every second of our entire lives, given the early conditions of the universe. Can it really be that even while you toss and turn late at night in the throes of an important decision and it seems like the scales of fate hang in the balance, that your decision is a foregone conclusion? Can it really be that everything you have done and everything you ever will do is determined by facts that were in place long before you were born? This problem is one of the staples of philosophical discussion. It is discussed by everyone from freshman in their first philosophy class, to theoretical physicists in bars after conferences. And yet there is no topic that remains more unsettling, and less well understood. If you want to get behind the façade, past the bare statement of determinism, and really try to understand what physics is telling us in its own terms, read this book. The problem of free will raises all kinds of questions. What does it mean to make a decision, and what does it mean to say that our actions are determined? What are laws of nature? What are causes? What sorts of things are we, when viewed through the lenses of physics, and how do we fit into the natural order? Ismael provides a deeply informed account of what physics tells us about ourselves. The result is a vision that is abstract, alien, illuminating, and-Ismael argues-affirmative of most of what we all believe about our own freedom. Written in a jargon-free style, How Physics Makes Us Free provides an accessible and innovative take on a central question of human existence.
How Physics Makes Us Free
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Author : J. T. Ismael
language : en
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Release Date : 2016-02-03
How Physics Makes Us Free written by J. T. Ismael and has been published by Oxford University Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2016-02-03 with Philosophy categories.
In 1687 Isaac Newton ushered in a new scientific era in which laws of nature could be used to predict the movements of matter with almost perfect precision. Newton's physics also posed a profound challenge to our self-understanding, however, for the very same laws that keep airplanes in the air and rivers flowing downhill tell us that it is in principle possible to predict what each of us will do every second of our entire lives, given the early conditions of the universe. Can it really be that even while you toss and turn late at night in the throes of an important decision and it seems like the scales of fate hang in the balance, that your decision is a foregone conclusion? Can it really be that everything you have done and everything you ever will do is determined by facts that were in place long before you were born? This problem is one of the staples of philosophical discussion. It is discussed by everyone from freshman in their first philosophy class, to theoretical physicists in bars after conferences. And yet there is no topic that remains more unsettling, and less well understood. If you want to get behind the façade, past the bare statement of determinism, and really try to understand what physics is telling us in its own terms, read this book. The problem of free will raises all kinds of questions. What does it mean to make a decision, and what does it mean to say that our actions are determined? What are laws of nature? What are causes? What sorts of things are we, when viewed through the lenses of physics, and how do we fit into the natural order? Ismael provides a deeply informed account of what physics tells us about ourselves. The result is a vision that is abstract, alien, illuminating, and-Ismael argues-affirmative of most of what we all believe about our own freedom. Written in a jargon-free style, How Physics Makes Us Free provides an accessible and innovative take on a central question of human existence.
The Situated Self
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Author : J.T. Ismael
language : en
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Release Date : 2007-01-04
The Situated Self written by J.T. Ismael and has been published by Oxford University Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2007-01-04 with Philosophy categories.
J.T. Ismael's monograph is an ambitious contribution to metaphysics and the philosophy of language and mind. She tackles a philosophical question whose origin goes back to Descartes: What am I? The self is not a mere thing among things--but if so, what is it, and what is its relationship to the world? Ismael is an original and creative thinker who tries to understand our problematic concepts about the self and how they are related to our use of language in particular.
Is Science Compatible With Free Will
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Author : Antoine Suarez
language : en
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Release Date : 2012-12-22
Is Science Compatible With Free Will written by Antoine Suarez and has been published by Springer Science & Business Media this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2012-12-22 with Psychology categories.
Anyone who claims the right ‘to choose how to live their life’ excludes any purely deterministic description of their brain in terms of genes, chemicals or environmental influences. For example, when an author of a text expresses his thoughts, he assumes that, in typing the text, he governs the firing of the neurons in his brain and the movement of his fingers through the exercise of his own free will: what he writes is not completely pre-determined at the beginning of the universe. Yet in the field of neuroscience today, determinism dominates. There is a conflict between the daily life conviction that a human being has free will, and deterministic neuroscience. When faced with this conflict two alternative positions are possible: Either human freedom is an illusion, or deterministic neuroscience is not the last word on the brain and will eventually be superseded by a neuroscience that admits processes not completely determined by the past. This book investigates whether it is possible to have a science in which there is room for human freedom. The book generally concludes that the world and the brain are governed to some extent by non-material agencies, and limited consciousness does not abolish free will and responsibility. The authors present perspectives coming from different disciplines (Neuroscience, Quantumphysics and Philosophy) and range from those focusing on the scientific background, to those highlighting rather more a philosophical analysis. However, all chapters share a common characteristic: they take current scientific observations and data as a basis from which to draw philosophical implications. It is these features that make this volume unique, an exceptional interdisciplinary approach combining scientific strength and philosophical profundity. We are convinced that it will strongly stimulate the debate and contribute to new insights in the mind-brain relationship.
How Physics Makes Us Free
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Author : Jenann Ismael
language : en
Publisher:
Release Date : 2016
How Physics Makes Us Free written by Jenann Ismael and has been published by this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2016 with Physics categories.
Most philosophical books on free will start by saying "physics tells us that all of our actions are determined by fundamental laws of nature (perhaps with some quantum randomness thrown in)." Built around these simple remarks is a highly articulated landscape of philosophical responses to the challenge physics is supposed to present to human freedom. Ismael aims to give a better account of what physics tells us, the parts that are settled and the parts that are unsettled.
Determinism And Free Will
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Author : Fabio Scardigli
language : en
Publisher: Springer
Release Date : 2019-01-22
Determinism And Free Will written by Fabio Scardigli and has been published by Springer this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2019-01-22 with Science categories.
In this small book, theoretical physicist Gerard 't Hooft (Nobel prize 1999), philosopher Emanuele Severino (Lincei Academician), and theologian Piero Coda (Pontifical Lateran University) confront one another on a topic that lies at the roots of quantum mechanics and at the origin of Western thought: Determinism and Free Will. "God does not play dice" said Einstein, a tenacious determinist. Quantum Mechanics and its clash with General Relativity have reanimated ancient dilemmas about chance and necessity: Is Nature deterministic? Is Man free? The “free-will theorem” by Conway and Kochen, and the deterministic interpretation of quantum mechanics proposed by 't Hooft, revive such philosophical questions in modern Physics. Is Becoming real? Is the Elementary Event a product of the Case? The cyclopean clash between Heraclitus and Parmenides has entered a new episode, as evidenced by the essays in this volume.
Concepts Of Force
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Author : Max Jammer
language : en
Publisher: Courier Corporation
Release Date : 2012-07-31
Concepts Of Force written by Max Jammer and has been published by Courier Corporation this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2012-07-31 with Science categories.
This work by a noted physicist traces conceptual development from ancient to modern times. Kepler's initiation, Newton's definition, subsequent reinterpretation — contrasting concepts of Leibniz, Boscovich, Kant with those of Mach, Kirchhoff, Hertz. "An excellent presentation." — Science.
Time
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Author : Jenann Ismael
language : en
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Release Date : 2021
Time written by Jenann Ismael and has been published by Oxford University Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2021 with Philosophy categories.
What is time? This book describes the developing physics of the concept of time from Newton, via Einstein, to the present day, and the related philosophical aspects. It also discusses the psychological experience of time and insights from cognitive science.
After Physics
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Author : David Z Albert
language : en
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Release Date : 2015-01-05
After Physics written by David Z Albert and has been published by Harvard University Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2015-01-05 with Science categories.
Here the philosopher and physicist David Z Albert argues, among other things, that the difference between past and future can be understood as a mechanical phenomenon of nature and that quantum mechanics makes it impossible to present the entirety of what can be said about the world as a narrative of “befores” and “afters.”
Social Physics
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Author : Alex Pentland
language : en
Publisher: Scribe Publications
Release Date : 2014
Social Physics written by Alex Pentland and has been published by Scribe Publications this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2014 with Computers categories.
"From one of the world's leading data scientists, a landmark tour of the new science of idea flow, offering revolutionary insights into the mysteries of collective intelligence and social influence" If the Big Data revolution has a presiding genius, it is MIT's Alex "Sandy" Pentland. Over years of groundbreaking experiments, he has distilled remarkable discoveries significant enough to become the bedrock of a whole new scientific field: social physics. Humans have more in common with bees than we like to admit: We're social creatures first and foremost. Our most important habits of action--and most basic notions of common sense--are wired into us through our coordination in social groups. Social physics is about "idea flow," the way human social networks spread ideas and transform those ideas into behaviors. Thanks to the millions of digital bread crumbs people leave behind via smartphones, GPS devices, and the Internet, the amount of new information we have about human activity is truly profound. Until now, sociologists have depended on limited data sets and surveys that tell us how people "say" they think and behave, rather than what they actually "do." As a result, we've been stuck with the same stale social structures--classes, markets--and a focus on individual actors, data snapshots, and steady states. Pentland shows that, in fact, humans respond much more powerfully to social incentives that involve rewarding others and strengthening the ties that bind than incentives that involve only their own economic self-interest. Pentland and his teams have found that they can study "patterns "of information exchange in a social network without any knowledge of the actual "content "of the information and predict with stunning accuracy how productive and effective that network is, whether it's a business or an entire city. We can maximize a group's collective intelligence to improve performance and use social incentives to create new organizations and guide them through disruptive change in a way that maximizes the good. At every level of interaction, from small groups to large cities, social networks can be tuned to increase exploration and engagement, thus vastly improving idea flow. "Social Physics" will change the way we think about how we learn and how our social groups work--and can be made to work better, at every level of society. Pentland leads readers to the edge of the most important revolution in the study of social behavior in a generation, an entirely new way to look at life itself.