Emergence of Objective Reality in an Irreversible Friend Thought Experiment
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Stepping Beyond the Newtonian Paradigm in Biology
Stepping Beyond the Newtonian Paradigm in Biology Towards an Integrable Model of Life: Accelerating Discovery in the Biological Foundations of Science White Paper V.5.0 December 9th, 2011 This White Paper is for informational purposes only. WE MAKE NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT. © 2011 EC FP7 INBIOSA (grant number 269961). All rights reserved. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. 2 The best of science doesn’t consist of mathematical models and experiments, as textbooks make it seem. Those come later. It springs fresh from a more primitive mode of thought when the hunter’s mind weaves ideas from old facts and fresh metaphors and the scrambled crazy images of things recently seen. To move forward is to concoct new patterns of thought, which in turn dictate the design of models and experiments. Edward O. Wilson, The Diversity of Life, 1992, Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-674-21298-3. 3 The project INBIOSA acknowledges the financial support of the Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) programme within the ICT theme of the Seventh Framework Programme for Research of the European Commission. 4 Contributors Plamen L. Simeonov Germany Integral Biomathics Edwin H. Brezina Canada Innovation Ron Cottam Belgium Living Systems Andreé C. Ehresmann France Mathematics Arran Gare Australia Philosophy of Science Ted Goranson USA Information Theory Jaime Gomez-Ramirez Spain Mathematics and Cognition Brian D. Josephson UK Mind-Matter Unification Bruno Marchal Belgium Mathematics and Computer Science Koichiro Matsuno Japan Biophysics and Bioengineering Robert S. -
Downloaded from Philsci Archive, 40
The Strange Nature of Quantum Perception: To See a Photon, One Must Be a Photon1 Steven M. Rosen ABSTRACT This paper takes as its point of departure recent research into the possibility that human beings can perceive single photons. In order to appreciate what quantum perception may entail, we first explore several of the leading interpretations of quantum mechanics, then consider an alternative view based on the ontological phenomenology of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Martin Heidegger. Next, the philosophical analysis is brought into sharper focus by employing a perceptual model, the Necker cube, augmented by the topology of the Klein bottle. This paves the way for addressing in greater depth the paper’s central question: Just what would it take to observe the quantum reality of the photon? In formulating an answer, we examine the nature of scientific objectivity itself, along with the paradoxical properties of light. The conclusion reached is that quantum perception requires a new kind of observation, one in which the observer of the photon adopts a concretely self-reflexive observational posture that brings her into close ontological relationship with the observed. KEYWORDS: quantum perception; photon; quantum mechanics; subject and object; phenomenological philosophy; Necker cube; topology; light; proprioception 1. INTRODUCTION TO QUANTUM PERCEPTION For many decades it has been suspected that the human visual system is sensitive enough to be able to detect single particles of light. Only recently has this hypothesis been confirmed. Using a quantum light source capable of generating individual photons, Tinsley and his associates (2016) demonstrated that human beings can indeed detect solitary photons. -
1 Hilary Putnam, Reason, Truth and History, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1979). Henceforth 'RTH'. the Position Th
[The Journal of Philosophical Research XVII (1992): 313-345] Brains in a Vat, Subjectivity, and the Causal Theory of Reference Kirk Ludwig Department of Philosophy University of Florida Gainesville, FL 32611-8545 1. Introduction In the first chapter of Reason, Truth and History,1 Putnam argued that it is not epistemically possible that we are brains in a vat (of a certain sort). If his argument is correct, and can be extended in certain ways, then it seems that we can lay to rest the traditional skeptical worry that most or all of our beliefs about the external world are false. Putnam’s argument has two parts. The first is an argument for a theory of reference2 according to which we cannot refer to an object or a type of object unless we have had a certain sort of causal interaction with it. The second part argues from this theory to the conclusion that we can know that we are not brains in a vat. In this paper I will argue that Putnam’s argument to show that we cannot be brains in a vat is unsuccessful. However, the flaw is not in the argument from the theory of reference to the conclusion 1 Hilary Putnam, Reason, Truth and History, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1979). Henceforth ‘RTH’. The position that Putnam advances in this first chapter is one that in later chapters of RTH he abandons in favor of the position that he calls ‘internal realism’. He represents the arguments he gives in chapter 1 as a problem posed for the ‘external realist’, who assumes the possibility of a God’s eye point of view. -
Quantum Computing : a Gentle Introduction / Eleanor Rieffel and Wolfgang Polak
QUANTUM COMPUTING A Gentle Introduction Eleanor Rieffel and Wolfgang Polak The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England ©2011 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. For information about special quantity discounts, please email [email protected] This book was set in Syntax and Times Roman by Westchester Book Group. Printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rieffel, Eleanor, 1965– Quantum computing : a gentle introduction / Eleanor Rieffel and Wolfgang Polak. p. cm.—(Scientific and engineering computation) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-262-01506-6 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Quantum computers. 2. Quantum theory. I. Polak, Wolfgang, 1950– II. Title. QA76.889.R54 2011 004.1—dc22 2010022682 10987654321 Contents Preface xi 1 Introduction 1 I QUANTUM BUILDING BLOCKS 7 2 Single-Qubit Quantum Systems 9 2.1 The Quantum Mechanics of Photon Polarization 9 2.1.1 A Simple Experiment 10 2.1.2 A Quantum Explanation 11 2.2 Single Quantum Bits 13 2.3 Single-Qubit Measurement 16 2.4 A Quantum Key Distribution Protocol 18 2.5 The State Space of a Single-Qubit System 21 2.5.1 Relative Phases versus Global Phases 21 2.5.2 Geometric Views of the State Space of a Single Qubit 23 2.5.3 Comments on General Quantum State Spaces -
Meaning Ain't in the Head 1. Hilary Putnam (1926-2016)
Louis deRosset { Spring 2019 Putnam: Meaning Ain't in the Head 1. Hilary Putnam (1926-2016): Philosopher, logician, mathematician. Putnam is famous for important and seminal work in just about every sub- field in philosophy. 2. Putnam's Target: . two unchallenged assumptions: (1) That knowing the meaning of a term is just a matter of being in a certain psychological state. (2) That the meaning of a term determines its extension. (700) DEFINITION: The extension of a term is its nominatum: • for names, definite descriptions: a certain person, place, or thing. EX.: `Obama', `The president of the U.S.' • for predicates: the set of things of which the predicate is true. EX.: `is a student', `is a person'. Putnam's Target is the Fregean theory of intentionality: The Fregean Triangle (yet again!): Sense 4< expresses determines #+ expression Nominatum Putnam (following Carnap) uses different terminology for the same ideas: Frege says... Putnam says... sense meaning, intension nominatum extension The Fregean Triangle (Putnam's terms): meaning 3; expresses determines expression extension"* Putnam adds the speaker to the picture [BLACKBOARD: draw the speaker with a speech balloon around the expression]. Louis deRosset { Spring 2019 In this situation, Putnam (following Frege), says that the speaker grasps the sense. [BLACKBOARD: draw the grasping relation between the speaker and the sense]. Putnam's target: (a) grasping a meaning is a psychological state; and (b) meaning determines extension, (i.e. if A and B grasp the same meaning, their expressions have the same extension.) 3. Putnam's Thesis: I shall argue that these two assumptions are not jointly sat- isfied by any notion, let alone any notion of meaning. -
A Historical Survey of Sir Karl Popper's Contribution to Quantum
A Historical Survey of Sir Karl Popper’s Contribution to Quantum Mechanics William M. Shields Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States. E-mail: [email protected] Editors: Ion C. Baianu, Christoph Lehner, Debajyoti Gangopadhyay & Danko Georgiev Article history: Submitted on May 28, 2012; Accepted on July 28, 2012; Published on November 15, 2012. ir Karl Popper (1902–1994), though not 1 Popper in the physics journals trained as a physicist and embarrassed early Sin his career by a physics error pointed out by Sir Karl Popper, by any measure one of the preeminent Einstein and Bohr, ultimately made substantial con- philosophers of the twentieth century, died in 1994 at the tributions to the interpretation of quantum mechan- age of 92. He was productive to the end, publishing in ics. As was often the case, Popper initially formu- the year of his death a criticism of Kuhn’s incommensu- lated his position by criticizing the views of others – rability of paradigms [1]. That debate continues over his in this case Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg. Un- many and profound philosophical ideas and opinions is derlying Popper’s criticism was his belief that, first, hardly surprising, almost two decades after his death. The the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechan- proliferation of book-length biographies and scholarly ics abandoned scientific realism and second, the as- philosophical articles is testimony to Popper’s standing as sertion that quantum theory was complete (an asser- a philosopher [2–5]. Major conferences are also regularly tion rejected by Einstein among others) amounted held on the thought of Karl Popper [6, 7]. -
Hilary Putnam: Mind, Meaning and Reality
Hilary Putnam: On Mind, Meaning and Reality Interview by Josh Harlan HRP: What are the ultimate goals of the philosophy of mind? What distinguishes the philosophy of mind from such fields as neuroscience, cognitive science, and psychology? Putnam: Like all branches of philosophy, philosophy of mind is the dis- cussion of a loose cluster of problems, to which problems get added (and sometimes subtracted) in the course of time. To make things more com- plicated, the notion of the "mind" is itself one which has changed a great deal through the millenia. Aristotle, for example, has no notion which exactly corresponds to our notion of "mind". The psyche, or soul, in Aristotle's philosophy is not the same as our "mind" because its functions include such "non-mental" functions as digestion and reproduction. (This is so because the "sou1"'is simply the form of the organized living body in Aristotle's philosophy. Is this obviously a worse notion than our present- day notion of "mind"?) And the nous, or reason, in Aristotle's philosophy, excludes many functions which we regard as mental (some of which are taken over by the thumos, the integrative center which Aristotle locates in the heart). Even in my lifetime I have seen two very different ways of conceiving the mind: one, which descended from British empiricism, conceived of the mental as primarily composed of sensations. "Are sensations (or qualia, as philosophers sometimes say) identical with brain processes?" was the "mind-body problem" for this tradition. (The mind conceived of as a "bundle of sensations" might be called "the English mind".) The other way conceived of the mind as primarily characterized by reason and inten- tionality - by the ability to judge, and to refer. -
MURPHY, Alice. Thought Experiments and the Scientific Imagination. Phd
i Thought Experiments and the Scientific Imagination Alice Murphy Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds School of Philosophy, Religion, and History of Science September 2020 ii The candidate confirms that the work submitted is her own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. The right of Alice Murphy to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. © 2020 The University of Leeds and Alice Murphy iii Acknowledgements Firstly, a huge thank you to my supervisors, Steven French and Aaron Meskin. It’s hard to do justice to the support and insights that you have each provided over the past four years. Steven has been endlessly generous, and has an open minded approach to research that is a constant source of inspiration. Aaron’s meticulous attention to detail has made me a more careful writer and thinker. You’ve both enabled me to form sketchy ideas into arguments, spurred me on when I’ve been lacking in confidence, and have made the whole process energising and, dare I say it, fun. At the risk of causing too high of expectations of the thesis that follows, I also want to say thank you to Milena Ivanova, Andrea Blomqvist, Mike Stuart, Max Jones, Fiora Salis, Karim Thébault and Adrian Currie for incredibly valuable conversations and feedback. -
Philosophical Imagination
Philosophical Imagination Philosophical Imagination: Thought Experiments and Arguments in Antiquity Edited by Boris Vezjak Philosophical Imagination: Thought Experiments and Arguments in Antiquity Edited by Boris Vezjak This book first published 2021 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2021 by Boris Vezjak and contributors All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-5275-6975-6 ISBN (13): 978-1-5275-6975-1 TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface ...................................................................................................... vii List of Contributors ................................................................................... xi Part 1: Thought Experiments from Plato to Hume Chapter One ................................................................................................ 3 The Anatomy of Three Thought Experiments in Plato’s Republic, Apology, and in Alcibiades Minor Andre M. Archie Chapter Two ............................................................................................. 25 From Kallipolis to Utopia: The Metamorphoses of Ideal Theory Nenad Miščević Chapter Three .......................................................................................... -
Fiction As Thought Experiment
Fiction as Thought Experiment Catherine Z. Elgin Harvard University Although ªctions and thought experiments are not physical realizations of the phenomena they pertain to, like real experiments, they exemplify properties or patterns that they share with those phenomena. They thereby afford epistemic access to properties and patterns that are realized in fact. The Problem Jonathan Bennett (1974) maintains that Huckleberry Finn’s deliberations about whether to return Jim to slavery afford insight into the tension be- tween sympathy and moral judgment; Miranda Fricker (2007) argues that the trial scene in To Kill a Mockingbird affords insight into the nature of testimonial injustice. Neither claims merely that the works prompt an at- tentive reader to think something new or to change her mind. Rather, they consider the reader cognitively better off for her encounters with the novels. Nor is her cognitive improvement restricted to acquiring new justiªed true beliefs about the works themselves. What the reader gleans is supposed to enhance her knowledge or understanding of the extra- literary world. Fricker and Bennett are probably right. But their being right raises an epistemological problem. How can a work of ªction which is not and is known not to be true provide any measure of epistemic access to the way things actually are? Is it really possible to ªnd out about the world by making things up? One attractive answer is that works of ªction are thought experiments. Like literary ªctions, thought experiments neither are nor purport to be physically realized. Nevertheless, they evidently enhance understanding of the phenomena they pertain to. -
Nozick (1974, 1989)
The Experience Machine by Robert Nozick (1974, 1989) Excerpt from Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974) What matters other than how people's experiences feel "from the inside"? Suppose there were an experience machine that would Give you any experience that you desired. Superduper neuropsycholoGists could stimulate your brain so that you would think and feel you were writinG a Great novel, or makinG a friend, or readinG an interestinG book. All the time you would be floatinG in a tank, with electrodes attached to your brain. Should you pluG into this machine for life, preproGramminG your life's experiences? If you are worried about missinG out on desirable experiences, we can suppose that business enterprises have researched thorouGhly the lives of many others. You can pick and choose from their large library or smorgasbord of such experiences, selectinG your life's experiences for, say, the next two years. After two years have passed, you will have ten minutes or ten hours out of the tank, to select the experiences of your next two years. Of course, while in the tank you won't know that you're there; you'll think it's all actually happeninG. Others can also pluG in to have the experiences they want, so there's no need to stay unpluGGed to serve them. (IGnore problems such as who will service the machines if everyone pluGs in.) Would you pluG in? What else can matter to us, other than how our lives feel from the inside? Nor should you refrain because of the few moments of distress between the moment you've decided and the moment you're pluGGed. -
Hume's Missing Shade of Blue Reexamined
City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works Student Theses Baruch College 1-1-2014 Hume's Missing Shade of Blue reexamined Vyacheslav Faylayev Baruch College How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/bb_etds/18 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] Hume’s Missing Shade of Blue Reexamined By Vyacheslav Faylayev Submitted to the Committee of Undergraduate Honors at Baruch College of the City University of New York on May 5th, 2014 in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy with Honors. ___________________________ Professor Thomas Teufel Faculty Supervisor ___________________________ ___________________________ Professor Douglas Lackey Professor Charlotte Brooks Page | 1 HUME’S MISSING SHADE OF BLUE REEXAMINED By Vyacheslav Faylayev Table of Contents I. Introduction……………………………………………………….........................2 II. Breaking Down the Missing Shade of Blue……………………………………....6 III. The Missing Shade of Blue: Exception, Not a Threat…………………………....9 IV. Hume’s Copy Principle & Causality………………………………………...…..15 V. Hume’s Self-Criticism………………………………………………...……...…17 VI. Possible Arguments against Hume’s Missing Shade of Blue Defused……….....20 VII. Conclusion………………………………………………...………………….…31 VIII. References………………………………………………………………………34 Page | 2 Hume’s Missing Shade of Blue Reexamined Abstract David Hume, known as a strict empiricist, posits that all perceptions are divided into impressions and ideas. Except for a lower degree of vivacity, ideas directly resemble their corresponding impressions. This is the core of Hume’s ‘copy principle,’ which claims that all ideas are simply copies of their corresponding more lively impressions.