Unorthodox Humeanism
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Unorthodox Humeanism
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Author : Georg Sparber
language : en
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Release Date : 2013-05-02
Unorthodox Humeanism written by Georg Sparber and has been published by Walter de Gruyter this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2013-05-02 with Philosophy categories.
The book discusses contemporary metaphysics of science and deals with the central question which ontology fits best with our knowledge of the world. Two competing positions in today's metaphysics of science are analysed: Humeanism and dispositionalism. There are physical and metaphysical arguments to show that orthodox Humeanism is in trouble. The unorthodox metaphysical turn consists in taking the fundamental properties to be relations rather than intrinsic properties. The book spells out in detail what an unorthodox version of Humeanism amounts to and shows that in turning unorthodox Humeanism offers a competitive metaphysical framework for science without commitment to irreducible causation.
Probabilities Laws And Structures
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Author : Dennis Dieks
language : en
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Release Date : 2012-02-02
Probabilities Laws And Structures written by Dennis Dieks 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 2012-02-02 with Science categories.
This volume, the third in this Springer series, contains selected papers from the four workshops organized by the ESF Research Networking Programme "The Philosophy of Science in a European Perspective" (PSE) in 2010: Pluralism in the Foundations of Statistics Points of Contact between the Philosophy of Physics and the Philosophy of Biology The Debate on Mathematical Modeling in the Social Sciences Historical Debates about Logic, Probability and Statistics The volume is accordingly divided in four sections, each of them containing papers coming from the workshop focussing on one of these themes. While the programme's core topic for the year 2010 was probability and statistics, the organizers of the workshops embraced the opportunity of building bridges to more or less closely connected issues in general philosophy of science, philosophy of physics and philosophy of the special sciences. However, papers that analyze the concept of probability for various philosophical purposes are clearly a major theme in this volume, as it was in the previous volumes of the same series. This reflects the impressive productivity of probabilistic approaches in the philosophy of science, which form an important part of what has become known as formal epistemology - although, of course, there are non-probabilistic approaches in formal epistemology as well. It is probably fair to say that Europe has been particularly strong in this area of philosophy in recent years.
Time Chance And Reduction
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Author : Gerhard Ernst
language : en
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Release Date : 2010-01-21
Time Chance And Reduction written by Gerhard Ernst and has been published by Cambridge University Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2010-01-21 with Science categories.
Statistical mechanics attempts to explain the behaviour of macroscopic physical systems in terms of the mechanical properties of their constituents. Although it is one of the fundamental theories of physics, it has received little attention from philosophers of science. Nevertheless, it raises philosophical questions of fundamental importance on the nature of time, chance and reduction. Most philosophical issues in this domain relate to the question of the reduction of thermodynamics to statistical mechanics. This book addresses issues inherent in this reduction: the time-asymmetry of thermodynamics and its absence in statistical mechanics; the role and essential nature of chance and probability in this reduction when thermodynamics is non-probabilistic; and how, if at all, the reduction is possible. Compiling contributions on current research by experts in the field, this is an invaluable survey of the philosophy of statistical mechanics for academic researchers and graduate students interested in the foundations of physics.
The Present Situation In The Philosophy Of Science
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Author : Friedrich Stadler
language : en
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Release Date : 2010-05-19
The Present Situation In The Philosophy Of Science written by Friedrich Stadler 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 2010-05-19 with Philosophy categories.
This volume is a serious attempt to open up the subject of European philosophy of science to real thought, and provide the structural basis for the interdisciplinary development of its specialist fields, but also to provoke reflection on the idea of ‘European philosophy of science’. This efforts should foster a contemporaneous reflection on what might be meant by philosophy of science in Europe and European philosophy of science, and how in fact awareness of it could assist philosophers interpret and motivate their research through a stronger collective identity.The overarching aim is to set the background for a collaborative project organising, systematising, and ultimately forging an identity for, European philosophy of science by creating research structures and developing research networks across Europe to promote its development.
A Powerful Particulars View Of Causation
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Author : R.D. Ingthorsson
language : en
Publisher: Routledge
Release Date : 2021-01-26
A Powerful Particulars View Of Causation written by R.D. Ingthorsson and has been published by Routledge this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2021-01-26 with Philosophy categories.
This book critically examines the recent discussions of powers and powers-based accounts of causation. The author then develops an original view of powers-based causation that aims to be compatible with the theories and findings of natural science. Recently, there has been a dramatic revival of realist approaches to properties and causation, which focus on the relevance of Aristotelian metaphysics and the notion of powers for a scientifically informed view of causation. In this book, R.D. Ingthorsson argues that one central feature of powers-based accounts of causation is arguably incompatible with what is today recognised as fact in the sciences, notably that all interactions are thoroughly reciprocal. Ingthorsson’s powerful particulars view of causation accommodates for the reciprocity of interactions. It also draws out the consequences of that view for issue of causal necessity and offers a way to understand the constitution and persistence of compound objects as causal phenomena. Furthermore, Ingthorsson argues that compound entities, so understood, are just as much processes as they are substances. A Powerful Particulars View of Causation will be of great interest to scholars and advanced students working in metaphysics, philosophy of science, and neo-Aristotelian philosophy, while also being accessible for a general audience. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781003094241, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.
Scientific Structuralism
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Author : Alisa Bokulich
language : en
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Release Date : 2011-01-21
Scientific Structuralism written by Alisa Bokulich 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 2011-01-21 with Science categories.
Recently there has been a revival of interest in structuralist approaches to science. Taking their lead from scientific structuralists such as Henri Poincaré, Ernst Cassirer, and Bertrand Russell, some contemporary philosophers and scientists have argued that the most fruitful approach to solving many problems in the philosophy of science lies in focusing on the structural features of our scientific theories. Much of the work in scientific structuralism to date has been focused on the problem of scientific realism, where it has been argued that even in cases of radical theory change the most important structural features of predecessor theories are preserved. These structural realists argue that what our most successful theories get right about the world is these abstract structural features, rather than any particular ontological claims. More recently, philosophers of science have adopted structuralist approaches to many other issues in the philosophy of science, such as scientific explanation and intertheory relations. The nine articles collected in this volume, written by the leading researchers in scientific structuralism, represent some of the most important directions of research in this field. This book will be of particular interest to those philosophers, scientists, and mathematicians who are interested in the foundations of science.
Conservative Reductionism
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Author : Michael Esfeld
language : en
Publisher: Routledge
Release Date : 2011-05-09
Conservative Reductionism written by Michael Esfeld and has been published by Routledge this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2011-05-09 with Philosophy categories.
Conservative Reductionism sets out a new theory of the relationship between physics and the special sciences within the framework of functionalism. It argues that it is wrong-headed to conceive an opposition between functional and physical properties (or functional and physical descriptions, respectively) and to build an anti-reductionist argument on multiple realization. By contrast, (a) all properties that there are in the world, including the physical ones, are functional properties in the sense of being causal properties, and (b) all true descriptions (laws, theories) that the special sciences propose can in principle be reduced to physical descriptions (laws, theories) by means of functional reduction, despite multiple realization. The book develops arguments for (a) from the metaphysics of properties and the philosophy of physics. These arguments lead to a conservative ontological reductionism. It then develops functional reduction into a fully-fledged, conservative theory reduction by means of introducing functional sub-types that are coextensive with physical types, illustrating that conservative reductionism by means of case studies from biology (notably the relationship between classical and molecular genetics).
The Significance Of The Hypothetical In The Natural Sciences
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Author : Michael Heidelberger
language : en
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Release Date : 2009-12-22
The Significance Of The Hypothetical In The Natural Sciences written by Michael Heidelberger and has been published by Walter de Gruyter this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2009-12-22 with Philosophy categories.
How was the hypothetical character of theories of experience thought about throughout the history of science? The essays cover periods from the middle ages to the 19th and 20th centuries. It is fascinating to see how natural scientists and philosophers were increasingly forced to realize that a natural science without hypotheses is not possible.
A Cultivated Reason
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Author : Christopher Williams
language : en
Publisher: Penn State Press
Release Date : 1998-12-01
A Cultivated Reason written by Christopher Williams and has been published by Penn State Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 1998-12-01 with Philosophy categories.
As Plato&’s tripartite division of the soul, Descartes&’s criterion of clear and distinct ideas, and Kant&’s notion of the categorical imperative attest, philosophy has traditionally been wedded to rationalism and its &“intellectualist&” view of persons. In this book Christopher Williams seeks to wean his fellow philosophers away from an overly rationalistic self-understanding by using resources that are available within the philosophical tradition itself, including some that anticipate strands of Nietzsche&’s thought. The book begins by developing Hume&’s critique of rationalism, with reference especially to the section of the Treatise that deals with the continuing existence of bodies (an argument that subverts intellectualist criteria by attempting to satisfy them) and to his neglected essay &“The Sceptic&” where Hume reveals the importance of our embodiment through a comic portrayal of philosophers&’ efforts to &“correct our sentiments.&” Then it moves on to ward off charges of irrationalism by showing that, although our powers of self-correction are more limited than the rationalist thinks they are, a Humean position is able both to sustain a commitment to reflection and to sensitize us to a version of irrationalism, manifest in monotheistic theologies, that is otherwise difficult to detect. The book concludes, more speculatively, with a comparison of persons to artworks in order to show how our aesthetic dimension is the source of some of the normative work previously assigned to rationalist reason. Ranging as it does across subfields from epistemology and history of philosophy to ethics and aesthetics, A Cultivated Reason should appeal to a wide audience of philosophers and to scholars in other fields as well.
Humean Moral Pluralism
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Author : Michael B. Gill
language : en
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Release Date : 2014-06-12
Humean Moral Pluralism written by Michael B. Gill and has been published by OUP Oxford this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2014-06-12 with Philosophy categories.
Michael B. Gill offers an original account of Humean moral pluralism. Moral pluralism is the view that there are different ultimate moral reasons for action, that those different reasons can sometimes come into conflict with each other, and that there exist no invariable ordering principles that tell us how to resolve such conflicts. If moral pluralism is true, we will at times have to act on moral decisions for which we can give no fully principled justification. Humeanism is the view that our moral judgments are based on our sentiments, that reason alone could not have given rise to our moral judgments, and that there are no mind-independent moral properties for our moral judgments to track. In this book, Gill shows that the combination of these two views produces a more accurate account of our moral experiences than the monistic, rationalist, and non-naturalist alternatives. He elucidates the historical origins of the Humean pluralist position in the works of David Hume, Adam Smith, and their eighteenth century contemporaries, and explains how recent work in moral psychology has advanced this position. And he argues for the position's superiority to the non-naturalist pluralism of W. D. Ross and the monism of Kantianism and consequentialism. The pluralist account of the content of morality has been traditionally perceived as belonging with non-naturalist intuitionism. The Humean sentimentalist account of morality has been traditionally perceived as not belonging with any view of morality's content at all. Humean Moral Pluralism explodes both those perceptions. It shows that pluralism and Humeanism belong together, and that they make a philosophically powerful couple.