Inference, Explanation, and Other Frustrations

Inference, Explanation, and Other Frustrations PDF Author: John Earman
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520309871
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 314

Get Book Here

Book Description
These provocative essays by leading philosophers of science exemplify and illuminate the contemporary uncertainty and excitement in the field. The papers are rich in new perspectives, and their far-reaching criticisms challenge arguments long prevalent in classic philosophical problems of induction, empiricism, and realism. By turns empirical or analytic, historical or programmatic, confessional or argumentative, the authors' arguments both describe and demonstrate the fact that philosophy of science is in a ferment more intense than at any time since the heyday of logical positivism early in the twentieth century. Contents: “Thoroughly Modern Meno,” Clark Glymour and Kevin Kelly “The Concept of Induction in the Light of the Interrogative Approach to Inquiry,” Jaakko Hintikka “Aristotelian Natures and Modern Experimental Method,” Nancy Cartwright “Genetic Inference: A Reconsideration of “David Hume's Empiricism,” Barbara D. Massey and Gerald J. Massey “Philosophy and the Exact Sciences: Logical Positivism as a Case Study,” Michael Friedman “Language and Interpretation: Philosophical Reflections and Empirical Inquiry,” Noam Chomsky “Constructivism, Realism, and Philosophical Method,” Richard Boyd “Do We Need a Hierarchical Model of Science?” Diderik Batens “Theories of Theories: A View from Cognitive Science,” Richard E. Grandy “Procedural Syntax for Theory Elements,” Joseph D. Sneed “Why Functionalism Didn't Work,” Hilary Putnam “Physicalism,” Hartry Field This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1992.

Inference, Explanation, and Other Frustrations

Inference, Explanation, and Other Frustrations PDF Author: John Earman
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520309871
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 314

Get Book Here

Book Description
These provocative essays by leading philosophers of science exemplify and illuminate the contemporary uncertainty and excitement in the field. The papers are rich in new perspectives, and their far-reaching criticisms challenge arguments long prevalent in classic philosophical problems of induction, empiricism, and realism. By turns empirical or analytic, historical or programmatic, confessional or argumentative, the authors' arguments both describe and demonstrate the fact that philosophy of science is in a ferment more intense than at any time since the heyday of logical positivism early in the twentieth century. Contents: “Thoroughly Modern Meno,” Clark Glymour and Kevin Kelly “The Concept of Induction in the Light of the Interrogative Approach to Inquiry,” Jaakko Hintikka “Aristotelian Natures and Modern Experimental Method,” Nancy Cartwright “Genetic Inference: A Reconsideration of “David Hume's Empiricism,” Barbara D. Massey and Gerald J. Massey “Philosophy and the Exact Sciences: Logical Positivism as a Case Study,” Michael Friedman “Language and Interpretation: Philosophical Reflections and Empirical Inquiry,” Noam Chomsky “Constructivism, Realism, and Philosophical Method,” Richard Boyd “Do We Need a Hierarchical Model of Science?” Diderik Batens “Theories of Theories: A View from Cognitive Science,” Richard E. Grandy “Procedural Syntax for Theory Elements,” Joseph D. Sneed “Why Functionalism Didn't Work,” Hilary Putnam “Physicalism,” Hartry Field This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1992.

Experience, Reality, and Scientific Explanation

Experience, Reality, and Scientific Explanation PDF Author: Maria Carla Galavotti
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401591911
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 276

Get Book Here

Book Description
The papers collected here comprise the proceedings of a Workshop in honor ofMerrilee and Wes Salmon, held in Florence on May 17-18, 1996. The aim of the meeting was to pay homage to these two American scholars, whose contact with Italian and European Universities and Institutes had a major influence on "Continental" thought in the field of epistemology and probability. In fact, Merrilee and Wes spent various periods lecturing at the Universities of Bologna, Florence, Rome, Trieste, Catania and Pisa, as well as in the University of Constance, where they helped to build a strong cultural "bridge" with the Pittsburgh Center for the Philosophy of Science. The Florence Center for the History and Philosophy of Science is particularly thankful to the Salmons for their ongoing cooperation and frequent visits. We must not forget that Wes Salmon was in the Florence Center and at the Philosophy Department of Florence, as visiting scholar, on many occasions, and that he made important contributions which have later appeared in Italian journals, such as Iride and Rivista di jilosojia. Merrilee was a speaker at the Conference on "Genetics, Linguistics, and Archaeology" (May 20-24,1991), organized by the Florence Center. Both Wes and Merrilee often enlivened the arguments of the initiatives they took part in.

Handbook of Epistemology

Handbook of Epistemology PDF Author: I. Niiniluoto
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9781402019852
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 1074

Get Book Here

Book Description
The twenty-eight essays in this Handbook, all by leading experts in the field, provide the most extensive treatment of various epistemological problems, supplemented by a historical account of this field. The entries are self-contained and substantial contributions to topics such as the sources of knowledge and belief, knowledge acquisition, and truth and justification. There are extensive essays on knowledge in specific fields: the sciences, mathematics, the humanities and the social sciences, religion, and language. Special attention is paid to current discussions on evolutionary epistemology, relativism, the relation between epistemology and cognitive science, sociology of knowledge, epistemic logic, knowledge and art, and feminist epistemology. This collection is a must-have for anybody interested in human knowledge, and its fortunes and misfortunes.

The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Philosophers in America

The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Philosophers in America PDF Author: John R. Shook
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472570561
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 1105

Get Book Here

Book Description
For scholars working on almost any aspect of American thought, The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia to Philosophers in America presents an indispensable reference work. Selecting over 700 figures from the Dictionary of Early American Philosophers and the Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers, this condensed edition includes key contributors to philosophical thought. From 1600 to the present day, entries cover psychology, pedagogy, sociology, anthropology, education, theology and political science, before these disciplines came to be considered distinct from philosophy. Clear and accessible, each entry contains a short biography of the writer, an exposition and analysis of his or her doctrines and ideas, a bibliography of writings and suggestions for further reading. Featuring a new preface by the editor and a comprehensive introduction, The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia to Philosophers in America includes 30 new entries on twenty-first century thinkers including Martha Nussbaum and Patricia Churchland. With in-depth overviews of Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Noah Porter, Frederick Rauch, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson, this is an invaluable one-stop research volume to understanding leading figures in American thought and the development of American intellectual history.

Dialogues with Davidson

Dialogues with Davidson PDF Author: Jeff Malpas
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262294958
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 509

Get Book Here

Book Description
Leading scholars discuss Donald Davidson's work in relation to a wide range of contemporary philosophical issues and approaches. The work of the philosopher Donald Davidson (1917–2003) is not only wide ranging in its influence and vision, but also in the breadth of issues that it encompasses. Davidson's work includes seminal contributions to philosophy of language and mind, to philosophy of action, and to epistemology and metaphysics. In Dialogues with Davidson, leading scholars engage with Davidson's work as it connects not only with aspects of current analytic thinking but also with a wider set of perspectives, including those of hermeneutics, phenomenology, the history of philosophy, feminist epistemology, and contemporary social theory. They link Davidson's work to other thinkers, including Collingwood, Kant, Derrida, Heidegger, and Gadamer. The essays demonstrate the continuing significance of Davidson's philosophy, not only in terms of the philosophical relevance of the ideas he advanced, but also in the further connections and insights those ideas engender.

Socializing Metaphysics

Socializing Metaphysics PDF Author: Frederick Schmitt
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
ISBN: 0585466653
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 401

Get Book Here

Book Description
Human life is conducted within a network of social relations, social groups, and societies. Grasping the implications of that fact starts with understanding social metaphysics. Social metaphysics provides a foundation for social theory, as well as for social epistemology, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, action theory, ethics, and political philosophy. This volume will interest anyone concerned with mind, action, or the foundations of social theory. Socializing Metaphysics supplies diverse answers, from a broad array of voices, to the basic questions of social metaphysics. What is it for human beings to stand in social relations or form social groups? Do these relations and groups bring about something above and beyond the individuals involved? Is there any sense to the notion of a human being apart from social relations? How can an individual achieve autonomy within a society? In what sense are human kinds like race and gender socially constructed? The answers are found within.

Concepts, Theories, and Rationality in the Biological Sciences

Concepts, Theories, and Rationality in the Biological Sciences PDF Author: Gereon Wolters
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
ISBN: 0822970422
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 434

Get Book Here

Book Description
Leading biologists and philosophers of biology discuss the basic theories and concepts of biology and their connections with ethics, economics, and psychology, providing a remarkably unified report on the "state of the art" in the philosophy of biology in this volume from the Pittsburgh-Konstanz series.

Philosophy of Computing

Philosophy of Computing PDF Author: Björn Lundgren
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030752674
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 264

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book features a unique selection of works presented at the 2019 annual international conference of the International Association for Computing and Philosophy (IACAP). Every contribution has been peer-reviewed, revised, and extended. The included chapters are thematically diverse; topics include epistemology, dynamic epistemic logic, topology, philosophy of science and computation, game theory and abductive inferences, automated reasoning and mathematical proofs, computer simulations, scientific modelling, applied ethics, pedagogy, human-robot interactions, and big data, algorithms, and artificial intelligence. The volume is a testament to the value of interdisciplinary approaches to the computational and informational turn. We live in a time of tremendous development, which requires rigorous reflection on the philosophical nature of these technologies and how they are changing the world. How can we understand these technologies? How do these technologies change our understanding of the world? And how do these technologies affect our place as humans in the world? These questions, and more, are addressed in this volume which is of interest to philosophers, engineers, and computer scientists alike.

Counterfactuals and Scientific Realism

Counterfactuals and Scientific Realism PDF Author: Michael J. Shaffer
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137271582
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 327

Get Book Here

Book Description
The author attempts to show that scientific realism is compatible with the presence of idealization in the sciences. His main contention is that idealized theories can be treated as counterfactuals about how things are in worlds that are similar to but simpler than the actual world.

Philosophy of Logic

Philosophy of Logic PDF Author:
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 008046663X
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 1219

Get Book Here

Book Description
The papers presented in this volume examine topics of central interest in contemporary philosophy of logic. They include reflections on the nature of logic and its relevance for philosophy today, and explore in depth developments in informal logic and the relation of informal to symbolic logic, mathematical metatheory and the limiting metatheorems, modal logic, many-valued logic, relevance and paraconsistent logic, free logics, extensional v. intensional logics, the logic of fiction, epistemic logic, formal logical and semantic paradoxes, the concept of truth, the formal theory of entailment, objectual and substitutional interpretation of the quantifiers, infinity and domain constraints, the Löwenheim-Skolem theorem and Skolem paradox, vagueness, modal realism v. actualism, counterfactuals and the logic of causation, applications of logic and mathematics to the physical sciences, logically possible worlds and counterpart semantics, and the legacy of Hilbert's program and logicism. The handbook is meant to be both a compendium of new work in symbolic logic and an authoritative resource for students and researchers, a book to be consulted for specific information about recent developments in logic and to be read with pleasure for its technical acumen and philosophical insights.- Written by leading logicians and philosophers- Comprehensive authoritative coverage of all major areas of contemporary research in symbolic logic- Clear, in-depth expositions of technical detail- Progressive organization from general considerations to informal to symbolic logic to nonclassical logics- Presents current work in symbolic logic within a unified framework- Accessible to students, engaging for experts and professionals- Insightful philosophical discussions of all aspects of logic- Useful bibliographies in every chapter