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The Philosophy of Physics
The Philosophy of Physics ROBERTO TORRETTI University of Chile PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK www.cup.cam.ac.uk 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA www.cup.org 10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia Ruiz de Alarcón 13, 28014, Madrid, Spain © Roberto Torretti 1999 This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 1999 Printed in the United States of America Typeface Sabon 10.25/13 pt. System QuarkXPress [BTS] A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available. 0 521 56259 7 hardback 0 521 56571 5 paperback Contents Preface xiii 1 The Transformation of Natural Philosophy in the Seventeenth Century 1 1.1 Mathematics and Experiment 2 1.2 Aristotelian Principles 8 1.3 Modern Matter 13 1.4 Galileo on Motion 20 1.5 Modeling and Measuring 30 1.5.1 Huygens and the Laws of Collision 30 1.5.2 Leibniz and the Conservation of “Force” 33 1.5.3 Rømer and the Speed of Light 36 2 Newton 41 2.1 Mass and Force 42 2.2 Space and Time 50 2.3 Universal Gravitation 57 2.4 Rules of Philosophy 69 2.5 Newtonian Science 75 2.5.1 The Cause of Gravity 75 2.5.2 Central Forces 80 2.5.3 Analytical -
Mind Body Problem and Brandom's Analytic Pragmatism
The Mind-Body Problem and Brandom’s Analytic Pragmatism François-Igor Pris [email protected] Erfurt University (Nordhäuserstraße 63, 99089 Erfurt, Germany) Abstract. I propose to solve the hard problem in the philosophy of mind by means of Brandom‟s notion of the pragmatically mediated semantic relation. The explanatory gap between a phenomenal concept and the corresponding theoretical concept is a gap in the pragmatically mediated semantic relation between them. It is closed if we do not neglect the pragmatics. 1 Introduction In the second section, I will formulate the hard problem. In the third section, I will describe a pragmatic approach to the problem and propose to replace the classical non-normative physicalism/naturalism with a normative physicalism/naturalism of Wittgensteinian language games. In subsection 3.1, I will give a definition of a normative naturalism. In subsection 3.2, I will make some suggestions concerning an analytic interpretation of the second philosophy of Wittgenstein. In the fourth section, I will propose a solution to the hard problem within Brandom‟s analytic pragmatism by using the notion of the pragmatically mediated semantic relation. In the fifth section, I will make some suggestions about possible combinatorics related to pragmatically mediated semantic relations. In the sixth section, I will consider pragmatic and discursive versions of the mind-body identity M=B. In the last section, I will conclude that the explanatory gap is a gap in a pragmatically mediated semantic relation between B and M. It is closed if we do not neglect pragmatics. 2 The Hard Problem The hard problem in the philosophy of mind can be formulated as follows. -
Jonah N. Schupbach: Curriculum Vitae
Jonah N. Schupbach Department of Philosophy, University of Utah [email protected] 402 CTIHB, 215 S. Central Campus Drive jonahschupbach.com Salt Lake City, Utah 84112 (801) 585-5810 Areas of Specialization Areas of Competence Epistemology (including Formal Epistemology) Philosophy of Religion Logic Metaphysics Philosophy of Science Philosophy of Cognitive Science Appointments University of Utah Associate Professor (tenure granted 2017), Department of Philosophy, 2017–present. Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, 2011–2017. Tilburg University Visiting Fellow, Tilburg Center for Logic & Philosophy of Science (TiLPS), September 2008– June 2009. Education Ph.D. History & Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh, 2011. Dissertation: Studies in the Logic of Explanatory Power (defended June 14, 2011). Co-directors: John Earman (Pittsburgh, HPS), Edouard Machery (Pittsburgh, HPS). M.A. Philosophy, Western Michigan University, 2006. M.A. Philosophy of Religion, Denver Seminary, 2004. B.S.E. Industrial Engineering, University of Iowa, 2001. Jonah N. Schupbach,Curriculum Vitae 2 Publications Books Conjunctive Explanations: The Nature, Epistemology, and Psychology of Explanatory Multiplicity. New York: Routledge (to appear in Routledge’s Studies in the Philosophy of Science series). Co-edited with David H. Glass. Bayesianism and Scientific Reasoning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (to appear in Cambridge’s Elements in the Philosophy of Science series). Book Chapters “William Paley,” in Stewart Goetz and Charles Taliaferro (eds.), The Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Religion. Malden, MA: Wiley (forthcoming). “Inference to the Best Explanation, Cleaned Up and Made Respectable,” in Kevin McCain and Ted Poston (eds.), Best Explanations: New Essays on Inference to the Best Explanation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, (2017): 39-61. -
Durham E-Theses
Durham E-Theses Understanding, normativity, and scientic practice LEWENDON-EVANS, HARRY,EDWARD How to cite: LEWENDON-EVANS, HARRY,EDWARD (2018) Understanding, normativity, and scientic practice, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/12780/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk Understanding, Normativity, and Scientific Practice Harry Lewendon-Evans PhD Thesis Department of Philosophy Durham University 2018 Abstract Understanding, Normativity, and Scientific Practice Harry Lewendon-Evans Recent work in epistemology and philosophy of science has argued that understanding is an important cognitive achievement that philosophers should seek to address for its own sake. This thesis outlines and defends a new account of scientific understanding that analyses the concept of understanding in terms of the concept of normativity. The central claim is that to understand means to grasp something in the light of norms. -
JOCIH 3&4.Indb
article JOURNAL OF CATALAN INTELLECTUAL HISTORY, Issue 3, 2012 | Print ISSN 2014-1572 / Online ISSN 2014-1564 DOI 10.2436/20.3001.02.39 | P. 47-57 Reception date: 19/07/2011 / Admission date: 12/12/2011 http://revistes.iec.cat/index.php/JOCIH Josep Lluís Blasco, politician and philosopher Sílvia Gómez Soler Societat de Filosofia del País Valencià. Sant Vicent Ferrer Secondary School, Algemesí [email protected] abstract Josep-Lluís Blasco (1940-2003) was an inspired ideologist to the political parties embodying nationalist and leftist positions in the Valencian Country. In regard to Philosophy, Blasco awoke an interest in analytic philosophy and took part in one of the most successful projects the Faculty of Philosophy of Valencia ever endeavored: the international symposia on Logic and Philosophy of Science and the publication of the journal Teorema. His work counts as one of the most solid contributions our culture has yielded within the field of Epistemology. key words Josep-Lluís Blasco, Catalan Philosophy, Analytical Philosophy, Epistemology. Professor Josep Lluís Blasco was born in Sagunto in 1940. Determining what his main concern, aspiration or personal motivation was throughout his life would entail having to decide whether his philosophical inclination was more weighty than his political interests, and that would be no easy assignment. Blasco showed a lively social and political conscience from an early age. He embarked on an Arts degree in 19591 and was diligent in his course work while also being among the critical and active students who were striving to contest the inertia of the Franco regime, which also permeated the university milieu. -
5 Holism and Animal Minds
WML05 12/20/2006 6:36 PM Page 251 5 Holism and Animal Minds David Finkelstein 1 It’s not unusual for influential philosophers to make statements about the minds of nonlinguistic creatures that to a nonphilosopher would seem not merely implausible, but plainly and obviously false. For example, in his Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature, Richard Rorty (1979, 187) defends the claim “that knowledge, awareness, concepts, . all descend on the shoulders of the bright child somewhere around the age of four, without having existed in even the most primitive form hitherto.” According to Rorty, a creature without language—whether human or nonhuman—is not aware of any- thing, and, contrary to what you might imagine when he climbs into bed with you each night, your dog has never once even noticed you. In arguing for this thesis, Rorty takes himself to be following the lead of Wilfrid Sellars. He quotes approvingly a passage from “Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind” in which Sellars (1997, 63) describes his own position as one “according to which all awareness of sorts, resemblances, facts, etc., in short all awareness of abstract entities—indeed, all awareness even of particulars—is a linguistic affair.” According to Rorty, Sellars finds an innocent way to allow that brutes may be said to enjoy a kind of awareness. As Rorty (1979, 182) reads him, Sellars distinguishes “between aware- ness-as-discriminative behavior and awareness as . being ‘in the logical space of reasons, of justifying what one says.’” He goes on: “Awareness in the first sense is manifested by rats and amoebas and computers; it is simply reliable signaling. -
Can Science Advance Effectively Through Philosophical Criticism and Reflection?
Can science advance effectively through philosophical criticism and reflection? ROBERTO TORRETTI Universidad de Puerto Rico ABSTRACT Prompted by Hasok Chang’s conception of the history and philosophy of science (HPS) as the continuation of science by other means, I examine the possibility of obtaining scientific knowledge through philosophical criticism and reflection, in the light of four historical cases, concerning (i) the role of absolute space in Newtonian dynamics, (ii) the purported contraction of rods and retardation of clocks in Special Relativity, (iii) the reality of the electromagnetic ether, and (iv) the so-called problem of time’s arrow. In all four cases it is clear that a better understanding of such matters can be achieved —and has been achieved— through conceptual analysis. On the other hand, however, it would seem that this kind of advance has more to do with philosophical questions in science than with narrowly scientific questions. Hence, if HPS in effect continues the work of science by other means, it could well be doing it for other ends than those that working scientists ordinarily have in mind. Keywords: Absolute space – Inertial frames – Length contraction – Clock retardation – Special relativity – Ether – Time – Time directedness – Entropy – Boltzmann entropy Philosophical criticism and the advancement of science 2 The mind will not readily give up the attempt to apprehend the exact formal character of the latent connexions between different physical agencies: and the history of discovery may be held perhaps to supply the strongest reason for estimating effort towards clearness of thought as of not less importance in its own sphere than exploration of phenomena. -
Hasok Chang Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Apollo 1 Operational Coherence as the Source of Truth1 (version for publication, 14 February 2017) Hasok Chang Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge Abstract In this paper I seek to defend an epistemology that does not confine itself to the knowledge of propositions. The first section motivates this move, especially from the standpoint of the philosophy of science. The second section presents the notion of operational coherence as the key to understanding how knowledge resides in activities. The third section presents a proposal for making sense of truth on the basis of operational coherence. The final section briefly re- considers the relation between knowledge-as-ability and knowledge-as- information. 1. Knowledge beyond propositions The overall direction of this paper is to move beyond the propositional conception of knowledge. What I mean by that phrase is the widespread notion that knowledge (or at least the kind of knowledge that deserves the attention of epistemologists) consists in possessing the right sort of belief in the right sort of propositions.2 Without denying the importance of propositional knowledge, I want to pay attention to other aspects of what we commonly call knowledge, which cannot comfortably be fitted into a propositional framework. I will not pretend that the move I am making is a novel one, especially in this journal. 1 I would like to thank various members of the audience at the Aristotelian Society meeting of 9 January 2017 for helpful objections and suggestions, as well as encouragement. -
Pragmatic Realism†
Revista de Humanidades de Valparaíso Año 4 / 2016 / 2do semestre / N° 8 Págs. 107 - 122 ISSN 0719-4234 / eISSN 0719-4242 Pragmatic Realism† Hasok Chang* Abstract In this paper I seek to articulate and develop Roberto Torretti’s advocacy of pragmatic realism. At the core of Torrietti’s view is a rejection of the notion that the truth of scientific theories consists in their correspondence to the world. I propose to understand correspondence in that sense as a metaphorical notion. I articulate a notion of pragmatist coherence, on the basis of which I make new coherence theories of truth and reality. Then it becomes possible to say that pragmatic realism consists in the pursuit of true knowledge of reality, in a way that is also consonant with Torretti’s pluralism. Keywords: pragmatism, realism, pluralism, coherence, truth, reality Realismo Pragmático Resumen En este trabajo intento articular y desarrollar la defensa que Roberto Torretti hace del realismo pragmático. En el núcleo de la visión de Torretti existe un rechazo a la idea de que la verdad de las teorías científicas consista en su correspondencia con el mundo. Propongo entonces entender la correspondencia como una noción metafórica. Articularé una noción de coherencia pragmática sobre la cual establezco una nueva teoría de la coherencia entre verdad y realidad. __________________En consecuencia, resultará posible afirmar que el realismo pragmático † Recibido: octubre 2016. This paper is partly based on a presentation entitled “Pragmatist Coherence as the Source of Truth and Reality,” given at the sixth biennial conference of the Society for Philosophy of Science in Practice (SPSP) on 17 June 2016 at Rowan University. -
Inferential Man: an Interview with Robert Brandom Jeffrey J
Inferential Man: An Interview with Robert Brandom Jeffrey J. Williams, Robert Brandom symploke, Volume 21, Numbers 1-2, 2013, pp. 367-391 (Article) Published by University of Nebraska Press For additional information about this article https://muse.jhu.edu/article/532830 [ This content has been declared free to read by the pubisher during the COVID-19 pandemic. ] INFERENTIAL MAN: AN INTERVIEW WITH ROBERT BRANDOM JEFFREY J. WILLIAMS Analytic philosophy, at least to those in literary studies, seems an arid pursuit focused on technical problems of language, often conveyed in the mathematical symbols of formal logic. However, just as literary theory is quite different from common portraits of it, analytic philosophy differs from such images and has changed considerably since the days of Rudolph Carnap. Robert Brandom is an analytic philosopher, but while following in its rationalist tradition, he argues for a revisionary perspective, holding that we obtain meaning through inference rather than reference to a state of affairs. And rather than the compartmentalized arguments of much analytic philosophy, often captured in a single essay, he has aimed to construct a systematic philosophy, notably in his 741-page book, Making It Explicit: Reasoning, Representing, and Discursive Commitment (Harvard UP, 1994). Another aspect of his revisionary stance is bringing several unlikely bedfellows, such as pragmatism and Hegel, into his version of analytic philosophy. Instead of disregarding the history of philosophy, he frequently evokes “the mighty dead.” Before he published Making It Explicit, Brandom gained a reputation from articles, unpublished papers, and talks as part of the “Pittsburgh School” of philosophy, which included colleagues Wilfrid Sellars, John McDowell, and others. -
A Re-Interpretation of the Concept of Mass and of the Relativistic Mass-Energy Relation
A re-interpretation of the concept of mass and of the relativistic mass-energy relation 1 Stefano Re Fiorentin Summary . For over a century the definitions of mass and derivations of its relation with energy continue to be elaborated, demonstrating that the concept of mass is still not satisfactorily understood. The aim of this study is to show that, starting from the properties of Minkowski spacetime and from the principle of least action, energy expresses the property of inertia of a body. This implies that inertial mass can only be the object of a definition – the so called mass-energy relation - aimed at measuring energy in different units, more suitable to describe the huge amount of it enclosed in what we call the “rest-energy” of a body. Likewise, the concept of gravitational mass becomes unnecessary, being replaceable by energy, thus making the weak equivalence principle intrinsically verified. In dealing with mass, a new unit of measurement is foretold for it, which relies on the de Broglie frequency of atoms, the value of which can today be measured with an accuracy of a few parts in 10 9. Keywords Classical Force Fields; Special Relativity; Classical General Relativity; Units and Standards 1. Introduction Albert Einstein in the conclusions of his 1905 paper “Ist die Trägheit eines Körpers von seinem Energieinhalt abhängig?” (“Does the inertia of a body depend upon its energy content? ”) [1] says “The mass of a body is a measure of its energy-content ”. Despite of some claims that the reasoning that brought Einstein to the mass-energy relation was somehow approximated or even defective (starting from Max Planck in 1907 [2], to Herbert E. -
The Pragmatic Century
The Pragmatic Century Richard J. Bernstein There are many ways of telling the story of the vicissitudes of pragmatism in the United States. I want to begin with a brief account of what may be considered the standard story, because I intend to challenge it. The stan- dard story goes something like this. Pragmatism was popularized primar- ily through the lecturing and writing of William James at the beginning of the twentieth century. We can even date the explicit introduction of the term “pragmatism” by James in his 1898 address, delivered at the Univer- sity of California, Berkeley, “Philosophical Conceptions and Practical Results.” In that address, James generously acknowledged his debt to Peirce, “one of the most original contemporary thinkers,” and he refers to “the principle of practicalism—or pragmatism as he called it, when I first heard him enunciate it at Cambridge in the early 1970s.” James initially gives a rather metaphorical description of “Peirce’s principle”: “the soul and meaning of thought, he says, can never be made to direct itself towards anything but the production of belief, belief being the demica- dence which closes a musical phrase in the symphony of our intellectual life.” Furthermore, “beliefs, in short are really rules of action; and the whole function of thinking is but one step in the production of habits of action” (James 1967: 348). In 1898, Peirce was barely known as a philoso- pher (except to a small group of admirers like James). As James’s popular version of pragmatism spread, Peirce was so appalled and outraged that he renamed his own doctrine of meaning “‘pragmaticism,’ which is ugly enough to be safe from kidnappers” (Peirce 1931: 5.414).