Mechanistic Explanations In Physics And Beyond
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Mechanistic Explanations In Physics And Beyond
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Author : Brigitte Falkenburg
language : en
Publisher: Springer Nature
Release Date : 2019-08-28
Mechanistic Explanations In Physics And Beyond written by Brigitte Falkenburg and has been published by Springer Nature this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2019-08-28 with Mathematics categories.
This volume offers a broad, philosophical discussion on mechanical explanations. Coverage ranges from historical approaches and general questions to physics and higher-level sciences . The contributors also consider the topics of complexity, emergence, and reduction. Mechanistic explanations detail how certain properties of a whole stem from the causal activities of its parts. This kind of explanation is in particular employed in explanatory models of the behavior of complex systems. Often used in biology and neuroscience, mechanistic explanation models have been often overlooked in the philosophy of physics. The authors correct this surprising neglect. They trace these models back to their origins in physics. The papers present a comprehensive historical, methodological, and problem-oriented investigation. The contributors also investigate the conditions for using models of mechanistic explanations in physics. The last papers make the bridge from physics to economics, the theory of complex systems and computer science . This book will appeal to graduate students and researchers with an interest in the philosophy of science, scientific explanation, complex systems, models of explanation in physics higher level sciences, and causal mechanisms in science.
New Mechanism
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Author : João L. Cordovil
language : en
Publisher: Springer Nature
Release Date : 2023-12-12
New Mechanism written by João L. Cordovil and has been published by Springer Nature this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2023-12-12 with Philosophy categories.
This open access book addresses the epistemological and ontological significance as well as the scope of new mechanism. In particular, this book addresses the issues of what is "new" about new mechanism, the epistemological and ontological reasons underlying the adoption of mechanistic instead of other modelling strategies as well as the possibility of mechanistic explanation to accommodate a non-trivial notion of emergence. Arguably, new mechanism has been particularly successful in making sense of scientific practice in the molecular life sciences. But what about other sciences? This book enlarges the context of analysis, addressing the issue of the putative compatibility between the current ways of conceiving new mechanism and actual scientific practices in quantum physics, chemistry, biochemistry, developmental biology and the cognitive sciences.
Explanation Beyond Causation
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Author : Alexander Reutlinger
language : en
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Release Date : 2018
Explanation Beyond Causation written by Alexander Reutlinger 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 2018 with Philosophy categories.
Explanations are important to us in many contexts: in science, mathematics, philosophy, and also in everyday and juridical contexts. But what is an explanation? In the philosophical study of explanation, there is long-standing, influential tradition that links explanation intimately to causation: we often explain by providing accurate information about the causes of the phenomenon to be explained. Such causal accounts have been the received view of the nature of explanation, particularly in philosophy of science, since the 1980s. However, philosophers have recently begun to break with this causal tradition by shifting their focus to kinds of explanation that do not turn on causal information. The increasing recognition of the importance of such non-causal explanations in the sciences and elsewhere raises pressing questions for philosophers of explanation. What is the nature of non-causal explanations - and which theory best captures it? How do non-causal explanations relate to causal ones? How are non-causal explanations in the sciences related to those in mathematics and metaphysics? This volume of new essays explores answers to these and other questions at the heart of contemporary philosophy of explanation. The essays address these questions from a variety of perspectives, including general accounts of non-causal and causal explanations, as well as a wide range of detailed case studies of non-causal explanations from the sciences, mathematics, and metaphysics.
Beyond Mechanism
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Author : Brian G. Henning
language : en
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Release Date : 2013-02-01
Beyond Mechanism written by Brian G. Henning and has been published by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2013-02-01 with Philosophy categories.
It has been said that new discoveries and developments in the human, social, and natural sciences hang “in the air” (Bowler, 1983; 2008) prior to their consummation. While neo-Darwinist biology has been powerfully served by its mechanistic metaphysic and a reductionist methodology in which living organisms are considered machines, many of the chapters in this volume place this paradigm into question. Pairing scientists and philosophers together, this volume explores what might be termed “the New Frontiers” of biology, namely contemporary areas of research that appear to call an updating, a supplementation, or a relaxation of some of the main tenets of the Modern Synthesis. Such areas of investigation include: Emergence Theory, Systems Biology, Biosemiotics, Homeostasis, Symbiogenesis, Niche Construction, the Theory of Organic Selection (also known as “the Baldwin Effect”), Self-Organization and Teleodynamics, as well as Epigenetics. Most of the chapters in this book offer critical reflections on the neo-Darwinist outlook and work to promote a novel synthesis that is open to a greater degree of inclusivity as well as to a more holistic orientation in the biological sciences.
Scientific Nihilism
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Author : Daniel Athearn
language : en
Publisher: SUNY Press
Release Date : 1994-01-01
Scientific Nihilism written by Daniel Athearn and has been published by SUNY Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 1994-01-01 with Science categories.
Scientific nihilism is the widespread and ascendant view that the prospects for genuine understanding in scientific knowledge are distinctly negative. This view is especially characteristic of philosophy of science, and is reflected in a number of professional and popular doctrines. In the background is the growing perception that physical science is presently encountering the inherent limits of scientific understanding. This book shows that the breakoff of narrative causal explanation in physics, although remarkable, is no basis for the negative view of scientific knowledge. It demonstrates that radiation and field phenomena, which include a wide array of enigmatic facts, are amenable to explanation even in their most puzzling details.Athearn responds fully to the assumption that narrative causal explanation in physics has suffered a permanent demise. Rejecting the dogma of a clean bifurcation of philosophy and natural science, he proposes a constructive rehabilitation of natural philosophy.
Places Beyond Belief
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Author : Michael K. Yen
language : en
Publisher: Balboa Press
Release Date : 2020-08-13
Places Beyond Belief written by Michael K. Yen and has been published by Balboa Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2020-08-13 with Body, Mind & Spirit categories.
In 2017, Michael completed the first book in his planned trilogy, From Physical to Metaphysical in Four Steps and One Giant Leap where he explored how we can separate from our materialistic attachment by seeing past our bodies, our emotions, and our thoughts. After these three "steps," Michael illustrated how by enhancing and refining our life energy, we can take "one giant leap" into metaphysical consciousness. In Places Beyond Belief, he expands on the concepts raised in the first book and also details some of his out-of-body experiences (OBE) that offer direct evidence of how the non-physical envelops our material reality. Michael also tells the story of how encounters in material reality with ghosts, qigong masters, psychics, a "living Buddha," and extraterrestrials prepared him for having OBEs. Building on the events covered in the first book, Michael recounts how in trying to uncover the true nature of his UFO experiences, he turned to using OBEs as a way to find answers about the reality of the beings he encountered. What he found was not what he expected and lead to his discovery of the field of spirit-release therapy and the large body of psychological literature that the subject has produced since William Baldwin’s Spirit Releasement Therapy: A Technique Manual was published in 1995. While disclosing intimately personal experiences to illustrate his points, Michael also takes time to discuss the big issues of the day, highlighting how personal and spiritual development is intricately linked to how well we live in the material world. Coming three years after his first book, Places Beyond Belief follows Michael's journey deeper into the metaphysical world that he was only first discovering when he wrote One Giant Leap. By daring to let direct experience be the guide, Michael went to places beyond belief, and came back to write about it.
The Twenty First Century Mechanistic Theory Of Human Cognition
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Author : Diego Azevedo Leite
language : en
Publisher: Springer Nature
Release Date : 2020-11-30
The Twenty First Century Mechanistic Theory Of Human Cognition written by Diego Azevedo Leite and has been published by Springer Nature this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2020-11-30 with Technology & Engineering categories.
This book presents a theoretical critical appraisal of the Mechanistic Theory of Human Cognition (MTHC), which is one of the most popular major theories in the contemporary field of cognitive science. It analyses and evaluates whether MTHC provides a unifying account of human cognition and its explanation. The book presents a systematic investigation of the internal and external consistency of the theory, as well as a systematic comparison with other contemporary major theories in the field. In this sense, it provides a fresh look at more recent major theoretical debates in this area of scientific research and a rigorous analysis of one of its most central major theories. Rigorous theoretical work is integrated with objective consideration of relevant empirical evidence, making the discussions robust and clear. As a result, the book shows that MTHC provides a significant theoretical contribution for the field of cognitive science. The content is useful for those interested in theoretical and empirical issues concerning major theories in the contemporary field of cognitive science.
The Self Beyond Itself
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Author : Heidi M. Ravven
language : en
Publisher: New Press, The
Release Date : 2014-09-16
The Self Beyond Itself written by Heidi M. Ravven and has been published by New Press, The this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2014-09-16 with Philosophy categories.
“Intertwines history, philosophy, and science . . . A powerful challenge to conventional notions of individual responsibility” (Publishers Weekly). Few concepts are more unshakable in our culture than free will, the idea that individuals are fundamentally in control of the decisions they make, good or bad. And yet the latest research about how the brain functions seems to point in the opposite direction . . . In a work of breathtaking intellectual sweep and erudition, Heidi M. Ravven offers a riveting and accessible review of cutting-edge neuroscientific research into the brain’s capacity for decision-making—from “mirror” neurons and “self-mapping” to surprising new understandings of group psychology. The Self Beyond Itself also introduces readers to a rich, alternative philosophical tradition of ethics, rooted in the writing of Baruch Spinoza, that finds uncanny confirmation in modern science. Illustrating the results of today’s research with real-life examples, taking readers from elementary school classrooms to Nazi concentration camps, Ravven demonstrates that it is possible to build a theory of ethics that doesn’t rely on free will yet still holds both individuals and groups responsible for the decisions that help create a good society. The Self Beyond Itself is that rare book that injects new ideas into an old debate—and “an important contribution to the development of our thinking about morality” (Washington Independent Review of Books). “An intellectual hand-grenade . . . A magisterial survey of how contemporary neuroscience supports a vision of human morality which puts it squarely on the same plane as other natural phenomena.” —William D. Casebeer, author of Natural Ethical Facts
Naturalism Beyond The Limits Of Science
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Author : Nina Emery
language : en
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Release Date : 2023
Naturalism Beyond The Limits Of Science written by Nina Emery 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 2023 with Philosophy categories.
This volume argues that, when coming up with theories about what the world is like, philosophers should, whenever possible, make use of the same methodology that is deployed by scientists. Nina Emery's investigation illuminates the complex relationship between philosophy and the sciences, showing how philosophers and scientists alike would benefit from a greater understanding of the connections between the two fields.
Beyond Reduction
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Author : Steven Horst
language : en
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Release Date : 2007-08-30
Beyond Reduction written by Steven Horst 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 2007-08-30 with Philosophy categories.
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 in philosophy 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.