The Philosophical and Scientific Metaphysics of David Bohm
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Load more
Recommended publications
-
Everettian Probabilities, the Deutsch-Wallace Theorem and the Principal Principle
Everettian probabilities, the Deutsch-Wallace theorem and the Principal Principle Harvey R. Brown and Gal Ben Porath Chance, when strictly examined, is a mere negative word, and means not any real power which has anywhere a being in nature. David Hume (Hume, 2008) [The Deutsch-Wallace theorem] permits what philosophy would hitherto have regarded as a formal impossibility, akin to deriving an ought from an is, namely deriving a probability statement from a factual statement. This could be called deriving a tends to from a does. David Deutsch (Deutsch, 1999) [The Deutsch-Wallace theorem] is a landmark in decision theory. Nothing comparable has been achieved in any chance theory. [It] is little short of a philosophical sensation . it shows why credences should conform to [quantum chances]. Simon Saunders (Saunders, 'The Everett interpretation: probability' [unpublished manuscript]) Abstract This paper is concerned with the nature of probability in physics, and in quantum mechanics in particular. It starts with a brief discussion of the evolution of Itamar Pitowsky's thinking about probability in quantum theory from 1994 to 2008, and the role of Gleason's 1957 theorem in his derivation of the Born Rule. Pitowsky's defence of probability therein as a logic of partial belief leads us into a broader discussion of probability in physics, in which the existence of objective \chances" is questioned, and the status of David Lewis influential Principal Principle is critically examined. This is followed by a sketch of the work by David Deutsch and David Wallace which resulted in the Deutsch-Wallace (DW) theorem in Everettian quantum mechanics. -
Why Do We Remember? the Communicative Function of Episodic Memory
BEHAVIORAL AND BRAIN SCIENCES (2018), Page 1 of 63 doi:10.1017/S0140525X17000012,e1 Why do we remember? The communicative function of episodic memory Johannes B. Mahr Department of Cognitive Science, Cognitive Development Center, Central European University, 1051 Budapest, Hungary [email protected] https://cognitivescience.ceu.edu/people/johannes-mahr Gergely Csibra Department of Cognitive Science, Cognitive Development Center, Central European University, 1051 Budapest, Hungary [email protected] https://cognitivescience.ceu.edu/people/gergely-csibra Abstract: Episodic memory has been analyzed in a number of different ways in both philosophy and psychology, and most controversy has centered on its self-referential, autonoetic character. Here, we offer a comprehensive characterization of episodic memory in representational terms and propose a novel functional account on this basis. We argue that episodic memory should be understood as a distinctive epistemic attitude taken toward an event simulation. In this view, episodic memory has a metarepresentational format and should not be equated with beliefs about the past. Instead, empirical findings suggest that the contents of human episodic memory are often constructed in the service of the explicit justification of such beliefs. Existing accounts of episodic memory function that have focused on explaining its constructive character through its role in future-oriented mental time travel do justice neither to its capacity to ground veridical beliefs about the past nor to its representational format. We provide an account of the metarepresentational structure of episodic memory in terms of its role in communicative interaction. The generative nature of recollection allows us to represent and communicate the reasons why we hold certain beliefs about the past. -
The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World Pdf, Epub, Ebook
THE BEGINNING OF INFINITY: EXPLANATIONS THAT TRANSFORM THE WORLD PDF, EPUB, EBOOK David Deutsch | 487 pages | 29 May 2012 | Penguin Putnam Inc | 9780143121350 | English | New York, NY, United States The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World PDF Book Every argument includes premises in support of a conclusion, but the premises themselves are left unargued. Nov 12, Gary rated it it was amazing Shelves: science. In other words we must have some form of evidence, and it must be coherent with our other beliefs. Nov 12, Gary rated it it was amazing Shelves: science. I can't say why exactly. It seems more to the point to think of it as something emotive — as the expression of a mood. This will lead to the development of explanatory theories variation , which can then be criticized and tested selection. Accuracy and precision are important standards in our evaluation of explanations; standards that are absent in bad explanations. Every argument includes premises in support of a conclusion, but the premises themselves are left unargued. Deutsch starts with explanations being the basis for knowledge, and builds up basic, hard-to-argue-with principles into convincing monoliths that smash some conventional interpretations of knowledge, science and philosophy to tiny pieces. His reliance on Popper is problematic. I will be re-reading them again until it really sinks in. Evolution, in contrast, represents a good explanation because it not only fits the evidence but the details are hard to vary. Barefoot Season Susan Mallery. But the "Occam's Razor" described by the author is not the one practiced in reality. -
The Matter of Time
Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 15 June 2021 doi:10.20944/preprints202106.0417.v1 Article The matter of time Arto Annila 1,* 1 Department of Physics, University of Helsinki; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: (+358 44 204 7324) Abstract: About a century ago, in the spirit of ancient atomism, the quantum of light was renamed the photon to suggest its primacy as the fundamental element of everything. Since the photon carries energy in its period of time, a flux of photons inexorably embodies a flow of time. Time comprises periods as a trek comprises legs. The flows of quanta naturally select optimal paths, i.e., geodesics, to level out energy differences in the least time. While the flow equation can be written, it cannot be solved because the flows affect their driving forces, affecting the flows, and so on. As the forces, i.e., causes, and changes in motions, i.e., consequences, cannot be separated, the future remains unpre- dictable, however not all arbitrary but bounded by free energy. Eventually, when the system has attained a stationary state, where forces tally, there are no causes and no consequences. Then time does not advance as the quanta only orbit on and on. Keywords: arrow of time; causality; change; force; free energy; natural selection; nondeterminism; quantum; period; photon 1. Introduction We experience time passing, but the experience itself lacks a theoretical formulation. Thus, time is a big problem for physicists [1-3]. Although every process involves a passage of time, the laws of physics for particles, as we know them today, do not make a difference whether time flows from the past to the future or from the future to the past. -
Creativity and Untidiness
Search Creativity and Untidiness Submitted by Sarah Fitz-Claridge on 13 September, 2003 - 22:59 A Taking Children Seriously interview from TCS 21 by Sarah Fitz-Claridge (http://www.fitz-claridge.com/) Many TCS readers will know David Deutsch for his contributions to Taking Children Seriously and to the TCS List on the Internet, and perhaps as co-author of Home Education and the Law. Some will also know that he is a theoretical physicist who has, among other things, pioneered the new field of quantum computation. There is a major article about his work in the October 1995 Discover magazine (the issue was devoted to “Seven Ideas that could Change the World”). He is often quoted in the media and regularly makes appearances on television and radio programmes. You may have seen his programme on the physics of time travel in BBC 2's Antenna series. Recently, David was featured in the Channel 4 science documentary series, Reality on the Rocks, in which the actor, Ken Campbell, asked leading scientists about the nature of reality. Those who saw Reality on the Rocks may have caught a glimpse of David's extraordinarily untidy study, at his home in Oxford. Ken Campbell was so struck by its untidiness that he talks about it in his one-man show, Mystery Bruises. He relates the story of the Japanese film crew who, upon asking to tidy up David's home before filming there, were told that they could do so, on condition that they returned everything – every piece of paper, every book, every computer disk – to the exact position where it had been on the floor or wherever, and how they did just that! I put it to David that some might be surprised that someone so untidy could be so successful. -
John Von Neumann's “Impossibility Proof” in a Historical Perspective’, Physis 32 (1995), Pp
CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by SAS-SPACE Published: Louis Caruana, ‘John von Neumann's “Impossibility Proof” in a Historical Perspective’, Physis 32 (1995), pp. 109-124. JOHN VON NEUMANN'S ‘IMPOSSIBILITY PROOF’ IN A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE ABSTRACT John von Neumann's proof that quantum mechanics is logically incompatible with hidden varibales has been the object of extensive study both by physicists and by historians. The latter have concentrated mainly on the way the proof was interpreted, accepted and rejected between 1932, when it was published, and 1966, when J.S. Bell published the first explicit identification of the mistake it involved. What is proposed in this paper is an investigation into the origins of the proof rather than the aftermath. In the first section, a brief overview of the his personal life and his proof is given to set the scene. There follows a discussion on the merits of using here the historical method employed elsewhere by Andrew Warwick. It will be argued that a study of the origins of von Neumann's proof shows how there is an interaction between the following factors: the broad issues within a specific culture, the learning process of the theoretical physicist concerned, and the conceptual techniques available. In our case, the ‘conceptual technology’ employed by von Neumann is identified as the method of axiomatisation. 1. INTRODUCTION A full biography of John von Neumann is not yet available. Moreover, it seems that there is a lack of extended historical work on the origin of his contributions to quantum mechanics. -
A Scientific Metaphysical Naturalisation of Information
1 A Scientific Metaphysical Naturalisation of Information With a indication-based semantic theory of information and an informationist statement of physicalism. Bruce Long A thesis submitted to fulfil requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences The University of Sydney February 2018 2 Abstract The objective of this thesis is to present a naturalised metaphysics of information, or to naturalise information, by way of deploying a scientific metaphysics according to which contingency is privileged and a-priori conceptual analysis is excluded (or at least greatly diminished) in favour of contingent and defeasible metaphysics. The ontology of information is established according to the premises and mandate of the scientific metaphysics by inference to the best explanation, and in accordance with the idea that the primacy of physics constraint accommodates defeasibility of theorising in physics. This metaphysical approach is used to establish a field ontology as a basis for an informational structural realism. This is in turn, in combination with information theory and specifically mathematical and algorithmic theories of information, becomes the foundation of what will be called a source ontology, according to which the world is the totality of information sources. Information sources are to be understood as causally induced configurations of structure that are, or else reduce to and/or supervene upon, bounded (including distributed and non-contiguous) regions of the heterogeneous quantum field (all quantum fields combined) and fluctuating vacuum, all in accordance with the above-mentioned quantum field-ontic informational structural realism (FOSIR.) Arguments are presented for realism, physicalism, and reductionism about information on the basis of the stated contingent scientific metaphysics. -
David Bohm's Theory of the Implicate Order: Implications for Holistic Thought Processes*
ISSUES IN INTEGRATVE STUDIES No. 13, pp. 1-23 (1995) David Bohm's Theory of the Implicate Order: Implications for Holistic Thought Processes* by Irene J. Dabrowski, Ph.D. Division of Social Services, St. John's University, New York Abstract: David Bohm's theory of quantum physics, which focuses on the schism between matter and consciousness, is discussed in terms of positivist knowledge and the interdisciplinary holistic paradigm. This paper examines how scientific and educational holism, predicated on the relationship between knowledge and reality, fosters innovative approaches such as evolutionary learning, a pedagogical application of general systems theory. In pursuit of right- brain thought and a unified knowledge base, diverse modes of inquiry are presented in the context of Bohm's thesis of an implicate order. Given that holistic thought processes generate a reality-based knowledge, problem-solving styles are examined, which reveal the holistic orientation of proactive problem-solving. Interdisciplinary dialogue is identified as an essential way for moving toward holistic expressions and networks of thought. NEW VERSIONS of the sciences as well as other academic disciplines are being formulated in terms of a naturalistic mode of inquiry (Lincoln, 1989; Palm, 1979). The emergent post-positivist paradigm is directed toward a holistic conception of reality, replacing the Cartesian, mechanistic mode of conceptualization (Capra, 1982; Guba, 1981; Lincoln, 1989; Turner, 1990), In fact, characteristics of the "whole paradigm" are being identified in a variety of disciplines (Lincoln, 1989, p. 69). New dimensions include a refocusing from simple to complex realities, the movement from the mechanical to the holographic, and the emphasis from linear to mutual causality (Lincoln & Guba, 1985; Macy, 1991; Schwartz & Ogilvy, 1979). -
The Hidden- Variables Controversy in Quantum Physics
Phys Educ Vol 14, 1979 Prlnted in Great Brltaln CONTROVERSIESIN PHYSICS aggressiveness which resembles more the defence of orthodoxy of one ideology than a spirit of scientific objectivity’ (Jauch 1973, introduction). The hidden- ‘The entirely reasonable question, Are there hidden- variable theories consistent with quantum theory and variables if so whatare their characteristics?,has been unfortunately clouded by emotionalism’ (Ballentine controversy in 1970, p374). Perhaps some of the acrimonv which has surrounded this debate can be seen in the following quantum physics comment on the workof hidden-variable theorists made by Leon Rosenfeld, an eminent physicist and TREVOR J PINCH defender of the orthodoxview of quantum theory: Science Studies Centre, Universityof Bath ‘That suchirrational dogmatists shouldhurl the very accusation of irrationality and dogmatism at the defenders of the common-sense, uncommitted attitude of other scientists is the crowning paradox which gives Recent studies of controversies in science have shown a touch of comedy to a controversy so distressingly that they are not always settled by appeals to Nature pointless and untimely’ (Rosenfeld 1958, p658). alone. Social and political factors as well as scientific These are hardly the sorts of comments we would factors often combine to produce the outcome(see for expect to follow from unproblematicreadings of example Forman 1971, Collins 1975, Frankel 1976 Nature’s secrets. So what was at stake in this dispute? and Wynne 1976). The ‘truth’, it seems, emerges from To answer this question we need to go back to the whatcan be asurprisingly volatile struggle, very revolution in physics brought about by the develop- unlike the rarified atmosphere of noblesse within ment of quantum theoryin the 1920s. -
Demolishing Prejudices to Get to the Foundations: a Criterion of Demarcation for Fundamentality
Demolishing prejudices to get to the foundations: a criterion of demarcation for fundamentality Flavio Del Santo1;2;3 and Chiara Cardelli1;2 1Faculty of Physics, University of Vienna, Boltzmanngasse 5, Vienna A-1090, Austria 2Vienna Doctorate School of Physics (VDS) 3Basic Research Community for Physics (BRCP) Abstract In this paper, we reject commonly accepted views on fundamentality in science, either based on bottom-up construction or top-down reduction to isolate the alleged fundamental entities. We do not introduce any new scientific methodology, but rather describe the current scientific methodology and show how it entails an inherent search for foundations of science. This is achieved by phrasing (minimal sets of) metaphysical assumptions into falsifiable statements and define as fundamental those that survive empirical tests. The ones that are falsified are rejected, and the corresponding philosophical concept is demolished as a prejudice. Furthermore, we show the application of this criterion in concrete examples of the search for fundamentality in quantum physics and biophysics. 1 Introduction Scientific communities seem to agree, to some extent, on the fact that certain theories are more funda- mental than others, along with the physical entities that the theories entail (such as elementary particles, strings, etc.). But what do scientists mean by fundamental? This paper aims at clarifying this question in the face of a by now common scientific practice. We propose a criterion of demarcation for fundamen- tality based on (i) the formulation of metaphysical assumptions in terms of falsifiable statements, (ii) the empirical implementation of crucial experiments to test these statements, and (iii) the rejection of such assumptions in the case they are falsified. -
The Singular Universe and the Reality of Time: a Proposal in Natural Philosophy
philosophies Book Review The Singular Universe and the Reality of Time: A Proposal in Natural Philosophy. By Roberto Mangabeira Unger and Lee Smolin. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK, 2014; 566 pp.; ISBN-10: 1107074061, ISBN-13: 978-1107074064 Matt McManus ID Politics Science and International Relations, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Toronto, ON M6B 1T2, Canada; [email protected] Received: 14 July 2018; Accepted: 17 July 2018; Published: 18 July 2018 To do genuinely interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary work is the goal of many scholars. Some achieve it better than others. But to engage in truly systematic and all-encompassing scholarship almost seems anachronistic, not to mention a trifle arrogant. Given the complexities involved in mastering even a single discipline, who could have the audacity to claim expertise across them all. Such ambition and systematicity, not to mention the borderline audacity that underlies it, is part of the thrill that comes from reading any book Roberto Unger. Where others might painstakingly tie themselves into knots justifying their right to engage in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary work, Unger simply steamrolls over all objections to think and write about whatever he wishes. In many, this might simply be intellectual over reach. But Unger is the rare exception. His seemingly encyclopediac capacity for philosophical systematization has moved from impressive to genuinely inspiring in his recent work. Unger began his career at Harvard Law in the 1970s, as a founding member of the critical legal theory movement in American jurisprudence. His youthful manuscript, Knowledge and Politics, remains a minor classic and develops a reasonably novel criticism of liberal legalism. -
Conjectures on Spacetime
Conjectures on SpaceTime Alessandro Capurso – [email protected] – linkedin.com/in/capurso/ v190915 - Accepted as contribution at TM2019 INAF conference (Turin, Italy) Available online at indico.ict.inaf.it/event/751/contributions/5182/ Abstract Index The aim of this contribution is to propose new Abstract ................................................................................... 1 conjectures on SpaceTime variables and their description Index ........................................................................................ 1 through the concepts of network and coherent decoding (borrowed from Information Theory) and to offer a Variables and Geometry ....................................................... 2 possible wider perspective on SpaceTime fabric and Time, Memory and discreteness ..................................... 2 evolution. The model follows latest efforts to restore the Imaginary time and Information Space......................... 2 importance of Time in Physics (as Smolin in [1]). Perception of each Self ..................................................... 3 The critical step suggested is towards how we perceive AdS/CFT and Neural networks..................................... 4 SpaceTime dimensions: a 4D quantized expanding Living on the Surface ............................................................ 6 SpaceTime with 2 components for Information Space and Few bits of SpaceTime ....................................................... 6 2 orthogonal time-momentum components is considered. The time-dimensions