Unorthodox Humeanism

Author : Georg Sparber
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter
Page : 232 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2013-05-02
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9783110323986

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Unorthodox Humeanism by Georg Sparber Pdf

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.

Author : Dennis Dieks,Wenceslao J. Gonzalez,Stephan Hartmann,Michael Stöltzner,Marcel Weber
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 512 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 2012-02-02
Category : Science
ISBN : 9789400730304

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Probabilities, Laws, and Structures by Dennis Dieks,Wenceslao J. Gonzalez,Stephan Hartmann,Michael Stöltzner,Marcel Weber Pdf

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.​

Author : Gerhard Ernst,Andreas Hüttemann
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 219 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2010-01-21
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781139485432

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Time, Chance, and Reduction by Gerhard Ernst,Andreas Hüttemann Pdf

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.

Author : Friedrich Stadler
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 403 pages
File Size : 40,9 Mb
Release : 2010-05-19
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9789048191154

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The Present Situation in the Philosophy of Science by Friedrich Stadler Pdf

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.

Author : R.D. Ingthorsson
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 165 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 2021-01-26
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781000361032

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A Powerful Particulars View of Causation by R.D. Ingthorsson Pdf

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.

Author : Alisa Bokulich,Peter Bokulich
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 194 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 2011-01-21
Category : Science
ISBN : 9789048195978

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Scientific Structuralism by Alisa Bokulich,Peter Bokulich Pdf

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.

Author : Michael Esfeld
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 212 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2011
Category : Reductionism
ISBN : 9781136728501

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Conservative Reductionism by Michael Esfeld Pdf

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.

Author : Michael Heidelberger,Gregor Schiemann
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter
Page : 385 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 2009-12-22
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9783110210620

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The Significance of the Hypothetical in the Natural Sciences by Michael Heidelberger,Gregor Schiemann Pdf

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.

Author : Arthur James Wells
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 2744 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 2009
Category : Bibliography, National
ISBN : STANFORD:36105211722686

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The British National Bibliography by Arthur James Wells Pdf

Author : Michael B. Gill
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 257 pages
File Size : 54,7 Mb
Release : 2014
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780198714033

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Humean Moral Pluralism by Michael B. Gill Pdf

Michael B. Gill offers a new account of Humean moral pluralism: the view that there are different moral reasons for action, which are based on human sentiments. He explores its historical origins, and argues that it offers the most compelling view of our moral experience. Together, pluralism and Humeanism make a philosophically powerful couple.

Author : Christopher Williams
Publisher : Penn State Press
Page : 205 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 1998-12-01
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780271038643

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A Cultivated Reason by Christopher Williams Pdf

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.

Author : Andre C. Willis
Publisher : Penn State Press
Page : 262 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 2015-06-19
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780271065786

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Toward a Humean True Religion by Andre C. Willis Pdf

David Hume is traditionally seen as a devastating critic of religion. He is widely read as an infidel, a critic of the Christian faith, and an attacker of popular forms of worship. His reputation as irreligious is well forged among his readers, and his argument against miracles sits at the heart of the narrative overview of his work that perennially indoctrinates thousands of first-year philosophy students. In Toward a Humean True Religion, Andre Willis succeeds in complicating Hume’s split approach to religion, showing that Hume was not, in fact, dogmatically against religion in all times and places. Hume occupied a “watershed moment,” Willis contends, when old ideas of religion were being replaced by the modern idea of religion as a set of epistemically true but speculative claims. Thus, Willis repositions the relative weight of Hume’s antireligious sentiment, giving significance to the role of both historical and discursive forces instead of simply relying on Hume’s personal animus as its driving force. Willis muses about what a Humean “true religion” might look like and suggests that we think of this as a third way between the classical and modern notions of religion. He argues that the cumulative achievements of Hume’s mild philosophic theism, the aim of his moral rationalism, and the conclusion of his project on the passions provide the best content for this “true religion.”

Author : James F. Sennett,Douglas Groothuis
Publisher : InterVarsity Press
Page : 337 pages
File Size : 44,9 Mb
Release : 2005-10-04
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0830827676

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In Defense of Natural Theology by James F. Sennett,Douglas Groothuis Pdf

James F. Sennett and Douglas Groothuis have assembled a distinguished array of scholars to examine the Humean legacy with care and make the case for a more robust, if chastened, natural theology after Hume.

Author : John J. Tilley
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 524 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 1988
Category : Electronic
ISBN : WISC:89016535502

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Humean Rationality, Morality, and Reasons for Action by John J. Tilley Pdf

Author : David Landy
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 261 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 2017-09-22
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781351383240

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Hume’s Science of Human Nature by David Landy Pdf

Hume’s Science of Human Nature is an investigation of the philosophical commitments underlying Hume's methodology in pursuing what he calls ‘the science of human nature’. It argues that Hume understands scientific explanation as aiming at explaining the inductively-established universal regularities discovered in experience via an appeal to the nature of the substance underlying manifest phenomena. For years, scholars have taken Hume to employ a deliberately shallow and demonstrably untenable notion of scientific explanation. By contrast, Hume’s Science of Human Nature sets out to update our understanding of Hume’s methodology by using a more sophisticated picture of science as a model.