What Is Radical About Radical Constructivism?
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Overview of Contributions
Overview of Contributions he first papers address the epistemological sentationalism”). Evidence for the first comes e.g. status of representation and possible catego- from connectionism which has demonstrated that T rizations. These rather general consider- brain-like structures can function without explicit ations about representation are followed by contri- representations. Arguments for the second are of a butions that focus on computational approaches, philosophic nature denying the possibility of speak- especially on how meaning can be simulated in arti- ing of fixed entities of the world, and, instead, pro- ficial devices, and how meaning can be grounded. posing that the “things” are defined only with Solutions are offered on various levels, among them respect to their user and thus cannot be “mapped” symbol grounding and system-theoretical consider- onto the brain of that user. Matthias Scheutz inves- ations to representation. Various disciplines inde- tigates the ontological status of representations, and pendently arrive at emphasizing the importance of questions whether they are entities on their own; he actions for representations and the necessity to argues that whether something counts as represen- close the sensory–motor loop; examples from the tation of something else is dependent on the level of perspective of computational approaches (“embod- description. By talking about a mental structure rep- iment” into an environment), the neuroscientific resenting something in the world, one implies that perspective (“top-down” processes), the psycholog- these two things exist on two different ontological ical perspective and others are presented. Several levels. This is not true, however, since the mind and papers address the role of social interactions—in the things of the world are both entities within our particular language—as a means of stabilizing sys- cognitive experience. -
Haecceitism, Chance
HAECCEITISM, CHANCE, AND COUNTERFACTUALS Boris Kment Abstract. Anti-haecceitists believe that all facts about specific individuals—such as the fact that Fred exists, or that Katie is tall—globally supervene on purely qualitative facts. Haecceitists deny that. The issue is not only of interest in itself, but receives additional importance from its intimate connection to the question of whether all fundamental facts are qualitative or whether they include facts about which specific individuals there are and how qualitative properties and relations are distributed over them. Those who think that all fundamental facts are qualitative are arguably committed to anti-haecceitism. The goal of this paper is to point out some problems for anti-haecceitism (and therefore for the thesis that all fundamental facts are qualitative). The article focuses on two common assumptions about possible worlds: (i) Sets of possible worlds are the bearers of objective physical chance. (ii) Counterfactual conditionals can be defined by appeal to a relation of closeness between possible worlds. The essay tries to show that absurd consequences ensue if either of these assumptions is combined with anti-haecceitism. Then it considers a natural response by the anti-haecceitist, which is to deny that worlds play the role described in (i) and (ii). Instead, the reply continues, we can introduce a new set of entities that are defined in terms of worlds and that behave the way worlds do on the haecceitist position. That allows the anti-haecceitist to formulate anti-haecceitist friendly versions of (i) and (ii) by replacing the appeal to possible worlds with reference to the newly introduced entities. -
Curriculum Vitae
BAS C. VAN FRAASSEN Curriculum Vitae Last updated 3/6/2019 I. Personal and Academic History .................................................................................................................... 1 List of Degrees Earned ........................................................................................................................................................ 1 Title of Ph.D. Thesis ........................................................................................................................................................... 1 Positions held ..................................................................................................................................................................... 1 Invited lectures and lecture series ........................................................................................................................................ 1 List of Honors, Prizes ......................................................................................................................................................... 4 Research Grants .................................................................................................................................................................. 4 Non-Academic Publications ................................................................................................................................................ 5 II. Professional Activities ................................................................................................................................. -
American Society for Cybernetics the Heinz Von Foerster Society
American Society for Cybernetics The Warren McCulloch Award of the American Society for Cybernetics is awarded to The Heinz von Foerster Society for an extensive, prolonged, deep and successful commitment to the furtherance of the work of Heinz von Foerster and other cyberneticians concerned with second-order cybernetics and related approaches and understandings. Beginning with a major interview book with Heinz von Foerster (“Der Anfang von Himmel und Erde hat keinen Namen: Eine Selbsterschaffung in sieben Tagen” about to appear in English translation), members of the Heinz for Foerster Society have promoted second order cybernetics in general, and the work of Heinz von Foerster, Gordon Pask, Ernst von Glasersfeld and Richard Jung in particular, in the conferences and lectures they have funded and promoted over the past 10 years. Emerging from their first conference, the book “An Unfinished Revolution” is a key critical and reference work covering the progress so far of second-order cybernetics. Together with the publishers echoraum, they have also published a series of books on mainly second-order cybernetic topics, with authors including ASC members; and recently began a new series with the book “Trojan Horses,” which emerged from the ASC’s 2010 conference held in Troy, NY. The Heinz von Foerstar Society has been successful in directing new public attention to cybernetics in both the English and the German speaking worlds. Theirs is a major contribution to the furtherance of cybernetics, both in terms of public attention and publicity, and in the continuing development of our subject area. Ranulph Glanville President of the American Society for Cybernetics 2013/08/01. -
Metaphysical Perspectives by Nicholas Rescher (Review) J
Metaphysical Perspectives by Nicholas Rescher (review) J. P. Moreland The Review of Metaphysics, Volume 72, Number 1 (Issue No. 285), September 2018, pp. 151-153 (Review) Published by The Philosophy Education Society, Inc. For additional information about this article https://muse.jhu.edu/article/736129 [ This content has been declared free to read by the pubisher during the COVID-19 pandemic. ] SUMMARIES AND COMMENTS 151 easy to spot a wolf in sheep’s clothing.” Rescher cites as examples the cases involving Alger Hiss, Claus Fuchs, and Anthony Blunt. Rescher concludes with the acknowledgment that evaluating reports prepared for state purposes is a complex business. There is an inevitable gap between the supporting evidence provided and the objective factual claims often based upon it. The information actually at our disposal in many matters confirms our claims but does not always demonstrate them. One is reminded of Plato’s discussion in the Meno where, in introducing the notion of “true opinion,” Plato has Socrates speak of the value of such knowledge. True opinion, although supported by fact, falls short of demonstrative knowledge but is nevertheless required by those who would govern. “Men,” says Socrates, “become good and useful to states not only because they have knowledge, but because they have right opinion.” Given the practical wisdom offered in this volume, it could well be required reading for any high school or college journalism class, and promoted for principled guidance to others, especially those who report on matters of state.—Jude P. Dougherty, The Catholic University of America RESCHER, Nicholas. Metaphysical Perspectives. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 2017. -
Concrete Possible Worlds (Final)
CONCRETE POSSIBLE WORLDS Phillip Bricker 1. INTRODUCTION. Open a book or article of contemporary analytic philosophy, and you are likely to find talk of possible worlds therein. This applies not only to analytic metaphysics, but to areas as diverse as philosophy of language, philosophy of science, epistemology, and ethics. Philosophers agree, for the most part, that possible worlds talk is extremely useful for explicating concepts and formulating theories. They disagree, however, over its proper interpretation. In this chapter, I discuss the view, championed by David Lewis, that philosophers’ talk of possible worlds is the literal truth.1 There exists a plurality of worlds. One of these is our world, the actual world, the physical universe that contains us and all our surroundings. The others are merely possible worlds containing merely possible beings, such as flying pigs and talking donkeys. But the other worlds are no less real or concrete for being merely possible. Fantastic? Yes! What could motivate a philosopher to believe such a tale? I start, as is customary, with modality.2 Truths about the world divide into two sorts: categorical and modal. Categorical truths describe how things are, what is actually the case. Modal truths describe how things could or must be, what is possibly or 1 The fullest statement of Lewis’s theory of possible worlds is contained in his magnum opus, Lewis (1986), On the Plurality of Worlds. Lewis’s view is sometimes called “modal realism.” 2 Historically, it was the attempt to provide semantics for modal logic that catapulted possible worlds to the forefront of analytic philosophy. -
ROBERT ALMEDER 1 on Possibilities and Thought Experiments
CONTENTS Preface: ROBERT ALMEDER The Limits of Science, Realism, and Idealism: ROBERT ALMEDER 1 On Possibilities and Thought Experiments: DIDERIK BATENS 29 Coherentism and Coherence Truth in the Philosophy of Nicholas Rescher: BRYSON BROWN 59 Philosophical Anthropology: JAMES W. FELT 89 Pluralism and Consensus: LENN E. GOODMAN 105 Mediations, Wagers, and Existential Issues: Nicholas Rescher on Religion and Philosophy: JOHN HALDANE 121 Rescher’s Metaphysics: WILLIAM JAWORSKI 141 The Limits of Science Reconsidered: ULRICH MAJER 151 Conceivability: DIEGO MARCONI 169 Weird Worlds: ROBERT K. MEYER 197 Nicholas Rescher on Greek Philosophy and the Syllogism: JÜRGEN MITTELSTRASS and PETER SCHROEDER-HEISTER 211 Rescher’s Evolutionary Epistemology: JESÚS MOSTERÍN 241 Common Sense: JOSEPH PITT 253 Systematic Philosophy and Theoretical Framework on Nicholas Rescher’s A System of Pragmatic Idealism: LORENZ B. PUNTEL 261 Nicholas Rescher • Project Name On Rescher’s View of Idealism (and Pragmatism): TOM ROCKMORE 287 Rescher on Arabic Logic: TONY STREET 309 Philosophy in the Future: AVRUM STROLL 325 Rescher on Explanation and Prediction: BAS C. VAN FRAASSEN 339 Nicholas Rescher on Scientific Progress: Science in the Face of Limited Cognitive and Technological Resources: THEODOR LEIBER and ROLAND WAGNER-DÖBLER 363 Rescher on Dialog Systems, Argumentation, and Burden of Proof: DOUGLAS WALTON and DAVID M. GODDEN 401 Rescher on Process Thought: MICHEL WEBER 429 How is Scientific Knowledge Economically Possible?: Nicholas Rescher’s Contributions to an Economic Understanding of Science: JAMES R. WIBLE 445 Possibility, Plenitude, and the Optimal World: Rescher on Leibniz’s Cosmology: CATHERINE WILSON 475 Rescher on Aporetics and Consistency: JOHN WOODS 493 Responses to the Contributed Essays: NICHOLAS RESCHER 513 Work by and about Nicholas Rescher 553 List of Contributors 573 . -
The Berlin Group and the Philosophy of Logical Empiricism BOSTON STUDIES in the PHILOSOPHY and HISTORY of SCIENCE
The Berlin Group and the Philosophy of Logical Empiricism BOSTON STUDIES IN THE PHILOSOPHY AND HISTORY OF SCIENCE Editors ROBERT S. COHEN, Boston University JURGEN¨ RENN, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science KOSTAS GAVROGLU, University of Athens Managing Editor LINDY DIVARCI, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science Editorial Board THEODORE ARABATZIS, University of Athens ALISA BOKULICH, Boston University HEATHER E. DOUGLAS, University of Pittsburgh JEAN GAYON, Universit´eParis1 THOMAS F. GLICK, Boston University HUBERT GOENNER, University of Goettingen JOHN HEILBRON, University of California, Berkeley DIANA KORMOS-BUCHWALD, California Institute of Technology CHRISTOPH LEHNER, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science PETER MCLAUGHLIN, Universit¨at Heidelberg AGUSTI´ NIETO-GALAN, Universitat Aut`onoma de Barcelona NUCCIO ORDINE, Universit´a della Calabria ANA SIMOES,˜ Universidade de Lisboa JOHN J. STACHEL, Boston University SYLVAN S. SCHWEBER, Harvard University BAICHUN ZHANG, Chinese Academy of Science VOLUME 273 For further volumes: http://www.springer.com/series/5710 Nikolay Milkov • Volker Peckhaus Editors The Berlin Group and the Philosophy of Logical Empiricism 123 Editors Nikolay Milkov Volker Peckhaus Department of Philosophy Department of Philosophy University of Paderborn University of Paderborn 33098 Paderborn 33098 Paderborn Germany Germany ISSN 0068-0346 ISBN 978-94-007-5484-3 ISBN 978-94-007-5485-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-5485-0 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg New York London Library of Congress -
Is Glasersfeld's Constructivism a Dangerous Intellectual Tendency?
Riegler, A. (2007) Is Glasersfeld’s constructivism a dangerous intellectual tendency? In: Glanville, R. & Riegler, A. (eds.) The importance of being Ernst. Echoraum: Vienna, pp. 263–275. Is Glasersfeld’s Constructivism a Dangerous Intellectual Tendency? Alexander Riegler Paper type: Conceptual paper Approach: philosophical–epistemological School: Radical Constructivism Purpose: Radical Constructivism has been subject to extensive criticism and denigration such as that it is a naturalized biologism which supports an “anything goes” philosophy of arbitrarily constructed realities. In an extreme case RC is equated with intellectual silliness. These accusations are to be refuted. Approach: Based on the concept that cognition can work only with experiences, we investigate the question of where their apparent order comes from. Arguments are presented that favor the amorphousness of the “external” world. To support the idea of “internal” order we review results in formal network research. Findings: The properties of networks suggest that order arises without influence from the outside. Conclusions: RC based on network models (a) does not need any empirical support and is therefore no biologism nor naturalism, (b) forgoes arbitrariness, and (c) goes beyond narrative (armchair) philosophy. Key words: amorphousness, naturalism, closure, reality, random Boolean networks, scale-free networks, small-world networks. INTRODUCTION Radical Constructivism (RC) has been subject to extensive criticism and denigration. The most frequent accusations include the allegation of simply repeating old (and often outdated) philosophical positions. RC is reproached for being: a naturalized biologism which refutes itself as it gets caught in argumentative circles; a form of extreme idealism that unavoidably results in solipsism; an “anything goes” philosophy claiming that realities are arbitrarily constructed, which makes all constructions of the same standard irrespective of whether they are science or voodoo; or a flavor of postmodernism with applications to literature and education only. -
CHK 22(2-3).Book
Cybernetics and Human Knowing. Vol. 22 (2015), nos. 2-3, pp. 169-182 ASC American Society for Cybernetics a society for the art and science of human understanding Second-Order Cybernetics, Radical Constructivism, and the Biology of Cognition: Paradigms Struggling to Bring About Change Robert J. Martin1 This column is a journey that considers both the failure of second-order cybernetics (SOC), radical constructivism (RC), and the biology of cognition (BoC) to achieve wide acceptance, particularly in science, and the opportunities for SOC, RC, and BoC in the social sciences and other disciplines. I. Introduction: For most human beings, the concept of objectivity frames one’s view of the world without being aware that it has been so framed. There is a tradition going back to Xenophanes, born in the sixth century BCE, who pointed out that we can’t know that we see the world as it is, “for if he succeeds to the full in saying what is completely truth, he himself is nevertheless unaware of it” (Glasersfeld, 1984, p. 25). This has never been popular or a widespread idea. Heinz von Foerster consistently pointed out the idea that we invent the world rather than discover it—a concept that is one of the underpinnings of second-order cybernetics and radical constructivism, and a concept that is supported by Maturana’s explanation of cognition in his famous paper, “Biology of Cognition” (1970). Many of us had hoped that the work of Glasersfeld, Foerster, and Maturana would substantiate these ideas in science by providing close reasoning and evidence for them, but this did not happen. -
Causation: Philosophy of Science •
CAUSATION: PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE Reinhardt. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, causation was one of the fundamental concepts that ren 1993. dered the empirical world comprehensible to humans. By McDermott, Michael. "Redundant Causation." British Journal the beginning of the twenty-first century, psychology was for the Philosophy of Science 40 (1995): 523-544. Mellor, D. H. The Facts of Causation. London: Routledge, 1995. beginning to show just how pervasive human reasoning Mellor, D. H. "Fixed Past, Unfixed Future." In Contributions to concerning cause and effect is. Even young children seem Philosophy: Michael Dummett, edited by Barry Taylor, to naturally organize their knowledge of the world 166-186. The Hague: Nijhoff, 1986. according to relations of cause and effect. Menzies, Peter. "Probabilistic Causation and Causal Processes: A Critique of Lewis." Philosophy of Science 56 (1989): It is hardly surprising, then, that causation has been 642-663. a topic of great interest in philosophy, and that many Ramachandran, Murali. "A Counterfactual Analysis of philosophers have attempted to analyze the relationship Causation." Mind 106 (1997): 263-277. between cause and effect. Among the more prominent Reichenbach, Hans. The Direction of Time. Berkeley and Los proposals are the following: Causation consists in the Angeles: University of California Press, 1956. instantiation of exceptionless regularities (Hume 1975, Salmon, Wesley C. "Probabilistic Causality." Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 61 (1980): 50-74. 1999; Mill1856; Hempel1965; Mackie 1974); causation is Salmon, Wesley C. Scientific Explanation and the Causal to be understood in terms of relations of probabilistic Structure of the World. Princeton, NT: Princeton University dependence (Reichenbach 1956, Suppes 1970, Cartwright Press, 1984. -
Private Vices, Scientific Virtues: Using Economics to Think About Science
Private Vices, Scientific Virtues: Using Economics to Think about Science THOMAS C. LEONARD Department of Economics Fisher Hall Princeton University Princeton, NJ 08544 United States [email protected] phone: (609) 258-4036 fax: (609) 258-5561 1999 Private Vices, Scientific Virtues: Using Economics to Think about Science Abstract This paper makes a case for using economics to study science and its product, scientific knowledge. Traditional theories of science – due mainly to epistemology – imply that science is successful because scientists are selfless truth seekers, and because they rigidly adhere to a method. Post-modern theories of science – due mainly to sociology and literary theory – argue that science cannot be successful, because scientists are neither disinterested nor selfless, and because methodological rules derive from a faulty epistemology. An economic theory of science argues that, contra the traditional view, successful science doesn’t require the restrictive premises of Traditional theory of science, and that, as a result, contra the Post-modern view, successful science is not ruled out when those premises are. An economic theory of science accommodates both a realistic conception of scientific motivation and procedure, and the possibility of genuine scientific success. In so doing, it offers an intellectual means to address a central question in the theory of science: how do self-interested scientists, who have wordly goals, come to produce the collectively beneficial outcome of reliable scientific knowledge. Keywords Economics of science, philosophy of science, bounded rationality, institutions, scientific knowledge, economic methodology 2 1. Introduction This paper takes up a conundrum that immediately presents itself to the economist considering science.