Physics Fixes All The Facts
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Physics Fixes All The Facts
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Author : Liam Graham
language : en
Publisher: Springer Nature
Release Date : 2025-01-16
Physics Fixes All The Facts written by Liam Graham and has been published by Springer Nature this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2025-01-16 with Science categories.
Complex systems seem to magically emerge from the interactions of their parts. A whirlpool emerges from water molecules. A living cell from organic molecules. You emerge from the cells of your body. Not since chaos has a concept from physics spread like wildfire to other disciplines. Emergence can be found from chemistry to economics; from psychology to ecology. At its heart is the alluring idea that there’s more to the world than physics, that there is a holistic component to nature, an edge of mystery. “Physics Fixes All the Facts” starts by taking you on a tour through a fascinating world of complexity, exploring phenomena from the inside of an atomic nucleus to bacterial behaviour to the ability of your thoughts to affect the world. These examples are used along with a thorough exploration of the philosophical literature to untangle the notoriously poorly defined concept of emergence. This reveals something surprising: the term emergence is redundant. In its weak form it is so weak that it applies to everything. In its strong form it is so restrictive that it is like the belief that there are pixies in your garden, impossible to exclude but not worth spending your time on. Emergence either applies to all systems or to none. Rather than telling us something about the nature of the world, it is an illusion, an artefact of our cognitive limitations. The past decade has seen a dozen or so monographs and collections about emergence, almost all resolutely supportive of the concept. This book aims to redress the balance. But it is more than just a campaign against the idea of emergence. Graham presents a framework called Austere Physicalism and argues that it is the only coherent way to view the world. He uses this framework to reinterpret so-called emergent phenomena and investigates its wider implications for science. In this radically materialist view, we are nothing but physical systems among others. “Physics Fixes All the Facts” ends by exploring what this means for our sense of free will and consciousness. The book will appeal to academics in fields which use the concepts of complexity or emergence. Scientists and philosophers alike will find unexpected and exciting ideas in these pages. But the target audience is much broader including students who want to add context to their studies and the intellectually curious with some scientific background.
Science Unlimited
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Author : Maarten Boudry
language : en
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Release Date : 2018-01-12
Science Unlimited written by Maarten Boudry and has been published by University of Chicago Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2018-01-12 with Science categories.
All too often in contemporary discourse, we hear about science overstepping its proper limits—about its brazenness, arrogance, and intellectual imperialism. The problem, critics say, is scientism: the privileging of science over all other ways of knowing. Science, they warn, cannot do or explain everything, no matter what some enthusiasts believe. In Science Unlimited?, noted philosophers of science Maarten Boudry and Massimo Pigliucci gather a diverse group of scientists, science communicators, and philosophers of science to explore the limits of science and this alleged threat of scientism. In this wide-ranging collection, contributors ask whether the term scientism in fact (or in belief) captures an interesting and important intellectual stance, and whether it is something that should alarm us. Is scientism a well-developed position about the superiority of science over all other modes of human inquiry? Or is it more a form of excessive confidence, an uncritical attitude of glowing admiration? What, if any, are its dangers? Are fears that science will marginalize the humanities and eradicate the human subject—that it will explain away emotion, free will, consciousness, and the mystery of existence—justified? Does science need to be reined in before it drives out all other disciplines and ways of knowing? Both rigorous and balanced, Science Unlimited? interrogates our use of a term that is now all but ubiquitous in a wide variety of contexts and debates. Bringing together scientists and philosophers, both friends and foes of scientism, it is a conversation long overdue.
Essays In Quasi Realism
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Author : Simon Blackburn
language : en
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Release Date : 1993-06-17
Essays In Quasi Realism written by Simon Blackburn 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 1993-06-17 with Philosophy categories.
This volume collects some influential essays in which Simon Blackburn, one of our leading philosophers, explores one of the most profound and fertile of philosophical problems: the way in which our judgments relate to the world. This debate has centered on realism, or the view that what we say is validated by the way things stand in the world, and a variety of oppositions to it. Prominent among the latter are expressive and projective theories, but also a relaxed pluralism that discourages the view that there are substantial issues at stake. The figure of the "quasi-realist" dramatizes the difficulty of conducting these debates. Typically philosophers thinking of themselves as realists will believe that they alone can give a proper or literal account of some of our attachments--to truth, to facts, to the independent world, to knowledge and certainty. The quasi-realist challenge, developed by Blackburn in this volume, is that we can have those attachments without any metaphysic that deserves to be called realism, so that the metaphysical picture that goes with our practices is quite idle. The cases treated here include the theories of value and knowledge, modality, probability, causation, intentionality and rule-following, and explanation. A substantial new introduction has been added, drawing together some of the central themes. The essays articulate a fresh alternative to a primitive realist/anti-realist opposition, and their cumulative effect is to yield a new appreciation of the delicacy of the debate in these central areas.
The Atheist S Guide To Reality Enjoying Life Without Illusions
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Author : Alex Rosenberg
language : en
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Release Date : 2011-10-03
The Atheist S Guide To Reality Enjoying Life Without Illusions written by Alex Rosenberg and has been published by W. W. Norton & Company this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2011-10-03 with Religion categories.
A book for nonbelievers who embrace the reality-driven life. We can't avoid the persistent questions about the meaning of life-and the nature of reality. Philosopher Alex Rosenberg maintains that science is the only thing that can really answer them—all of them. His bracing and ultimately upbeat book takes physics seriously as the complete description of reality and accepts all its consequences. He shows how physics makes Darwinian natural selection the only way life can emerge, and how that deprives nature of purpose, and human action of meaning, while it exposes conscious illusions such as free will and the self. The science that makes us nonbelievers provides the insight into the real difference between right and wrong, the nature of the mind, even the direction of human history. The Atheist's Guide to Reality draws powerful implications for the ethical and political issues that roil contemporary life. The result is nice nihilism, a surprisingly sanguine perspective atheists can happily embrace.
Contemporary Philosophical Naturalism And Its Implications
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Author : Bana Bashour
language : en
Publisher: Routledge
Release Date : 2013-10-15
Contemporary Philosophical Naturalism And Its Implications written by Bana Bashour and has been published by Routledge this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2013-10-15 with Philosophy categories.
One of the most pervasive and persistent questions in philosophy is the relationship between the natural sciences and traditional philosophical categories such as metaphysics, epistemology and the mind. Contemporary Philosophical Naturalism and Its Implications is a unique and valuable contribution to the literature on this issue. It brings together a remarkable collection of highly regarded experts in the field along with some young theorists providing a fresh perspective. This book is noteworthy for bringing together committed philosophical naturalists (with one notable and provocative exception), thus diverging from the growing trend towards anti-naturalism. The book consists of four sections: the first deals with the metaphysical implications of naturalism, in which two contributors present radically different perspectives. The second attempts to reconcile reasons and forward-looking goals with blind Darwinian natural selection. The third tackles various problems in epistemology, ranging from meaning to natural kinds to concept learning. The final section includes three papers each addressing a specific feature of the human mind: its uniqueness, its representational capacity, and its morality. In this way the book explores the important implications of the post-Darwinian scientific world-view.
An Unexpected Journal The Genius Of G K Chesterton
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Author : Nancy Carpenter Brown
language : en
Publisher: An Unexpected Journal
Release Date : 2019-12-12
An Unexpected Journal The Genius Of G K Chesterton written by Nancy Carpenter Brown and has been published by An Unexpected Journal this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2019-12-12 with Religion categories.
G.K. Chesterton seemed to have something to say about almost anything. A cultural critic and writer of the highest degree, he utilized both wit and paradox as he sought to not only to challenge bad philosophy but promote the Good, the True, and the Beautiful. Volume 2, Issue 4 Advent 2019. 250 pages
The Atheist S Guide To Reality Enjoying Life Without Illusions
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Author : Alex Rosenberg
language : en
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Release Date : 2011-09-20
The Atheist S Guide To Reality Enjoying Life Without Illusions written by Alex Rosenberg and has been published by W. W. Norton & Company this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2011-09-20 with Philosophy categories.
"The Atheist's Guide to Reality" is a book for nonbelievers who embrace the reality-driven life.
No Bosses No Gods
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Author : Matthew Day
language : en
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Release Date : 2023-04-27
No Bosses No Gods written by Matthew Day and has been published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2023-04-27 with Religion categories.
Flagging enrollments. Disappearing majors. Closed departments. The academic study of religion is in trouble. No Bosses, No Gods argues that Karl Marx is essential for reversing course—but it will take letting go of what most scholars think they know about him. The book’s first half draws on the scholarship of international specialists—as well as new translations of the original German texts—to present Marx the anti-theorist, a political journalist deeply skeptical about what happens when the professoriate sits down to "theorize" about social worlds. The second half appeals to this modified portrait of Marx and charts a new course beyond both actually existing religious studies and contemporary genealogies of the religion category. The result, perhaps, is an academic study of religion worth having in the twenty-first century.
Philosophy Of Biology
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Author : Alex Rosenberg
language : en
Publisher: Routledge
Release Date : 2007-12-19
Philosophy Of Biology written by Alex Rosenberg and has been published by Routledge this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2007-12-19 with Philosophy categories.
Is life a purely physical process? What is human nature? Which of our traits is essential to us? In this volume, Daniel McShea and Alex Rosenberg – a biologist and a philosopher, respectively – join forces to create a new gateway to the philosophy of biology; making the major issues accessible and relevant to biologists and philosophers alike. Exploring concepts such as supervenience; the controversies about genocentrism and genetic determinism; and the debate about major transitions central to contemporary thinking about macroevolution; the authors lay out the broad terms in which we should assess the impact of biology on human capacities, social institutions and ethical values.
Responses To Naturalism
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Author : Paul Giladi
language : en
Publisher: Routledge
Release Date : 2019-07-25
Responses To Naturalism written by Paul Giladi and has been published by Routledge this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2019-07-25 with Philosophy categories.
This volume offers critical responses to philosophical naturalism from the perspectives of four different yet fundamentally interconnected philosophical traditions: Kantian idealism, Hegelian idealism, British idealism, and American pragmatism. In bringing these rich perspectives into conversation with each other, the book illuminates the distinctive set of metaphilosophical assumptions underpinning each tradition’s conception of the relationship between the human and natural sciences. The individual essays investigate the affinities and the divergences between Kant, Hegel, Collingwood, and the American pragmatists in their responses to philosophical naturalism. The ultimate aim of Responses to Naturalism is to help us understand how human beings can be committed to the idea of scientific progress without renouncing their humanistic explanations of the world. It will appeal to scholars interested in the role idealist and pragmatist perspectives play in contemporary debates about naturalism.