Metaphysical Experiments

Metaphysical Experiments PDF Author: Bjørn Ekeberg
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 145295951X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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Book Description
An engaging critique of the science and metaphysics behind our understanding of the universe The James Webb Space Telescope, when launched in 2021, will be the premier orbital observatory, capable of studying every phase of the history of the universe, from the afterglow of the Big Bang to the formation of our solar system. Examining the theoretical basis for key experiments that have made this latest venture in astrophysics possible, Bjørn Ekeberg reveals that scientific cosmology actually operates in a twilight zone between the physical and metaphysical. Metaphysical Experiments explains how our current framework for understanding the universe, the Big Bang theory, is more determined by a deep faith in mathematical universality than empirical observation. Ekeberg draws on philosophical insights by Spinoza, Bergson, Heidegger, and Arendt; on the critical perspectives of Latour, Stengers, and Serres; and on cutting-edge physics research at the Large Hadron Collider, to show how the universe of modern physics was invented to reconcile a Christian metaphysical premise with a claim to the theoretical unification of nature. By focusing on the nonmathematical assumptions underlying some of the most significant events in modern science, Metaphysical Experiments offers a critical history of contemporary physics that demystifies such concepts as the universe, particles, singularity, gravity, blackbody radiation, the speed of light, wave/particle duality, natural constants, black holes, dark matter, and dark energy. Ekeberg’s incisive reading of the metaphysical underpinnings of scientific cosmology offers an innovative account of how we understand our place in the universe.

Metaphysical Experiments

Metaphysical Experiments PDF Author: Bjørn Ekeberg
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 145295951X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 182

Get Book Here

Book Description
An engaging critique of the science and metaphysics behind our understanding of the universe The James Webb Space Telescope, when launched in 2021, will be the premier orbital observatory, capable of studying every phase of the history of the universe, from the afterglow of the Big Bang to the formation of our solar system. Examining the theoretical basis for key experiments that have made this latest venture in astrophysics possible, Bjørn Ekeberg reveals that scientific cosmology actually operates in a twilight zone between the physical and metaphysical. Metaphysical Experiments explains how our current framework for understanding the universe, the Big Bang theory, is more determined by a deep faith in mathematical universality than empirical observation. Ekeberg draws on philosophical insights by Spinoza, Bergson, Heidegger, and Arendt; on the critical perspectives of Latour, Stengers, and Serres; and on cutting-edge physics research at the Large Hadron Collider, to show how the universe of modern physics was invented to reconcile a Christian metaphysical premise with a claim to the theoretical unification of nature. By focusing on the nonmathematical assumptions underlying some of the most significant events in modern science, Metaphysical Experiments offers a critical history of contemporary physics that demystifies such concepts as the universe, particles, singularity, gravity, blackbody radiation, the speed of light, wave/particle duality, natural constants, black holes, dark matter, and dark energy. Ekeberg’s incisive reading of the metaphysical underpinnings of scientific cosmology offers an innovative account of how we understand our place in the universe.

Experimental Metaphysics

Experimental Metaphysics PDF Author: David Rose
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1474278612
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
Metaphysics, almost entirely neglected by experimental philosophers, is the central focus of Experimental Metaphysics. The volume brings together a range of views aimed at addressing the question of how cognitive science might be relevant to metaphysics. With contributions from cognitive scientists and philosophers, chapters focus on theoretical and empirical issues involving the potential role of cognitive science in metaphysics. Alongside topics such as free will, objects and causation, in which relevant empirical evidence is discussed and connected to relevant metaphysical issues, more programmatic papers explore theoretical issues centered on the connection between cognitive science and metaphysics. This balanced approach exposes metaphysicians to philosophically relevant work in cognitive science, while showing cognitive scientists the ways in which their work might be important for philosophers. Presenting cutting-edge empirical and theoretical research, Experimental Metaphysics pushes forward the discussion and encourages further engagement with issues at the intersection of cognitive science and metaphysics.

On the Metaphysics of Experimental Physics

On the Metaphysics of Experimental Physics PDF Author: K. Rogers
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230505104
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
This provocative and critical work addresses the question of why scientific realists and positivists consider experimental physics to be a natural and empirical science. Taking insights from contemporary science studies, continental philosophy, and the history of physics, this book describes and analyses the metaphysical presuppositions that underwrite the technological use of experimental apparatus and instruments to explore, model, and understand nature. By revealing this metaphysical foundation, the author questions whether experimental physics is a natural and empirical science at all.

21 Metaphysical Secrets

21 Metaphysical Secrets PDF Author: Erik Tao
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781977907837
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 72

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Book Description
Discover The 21 Secrets of Metaphysics: Use The Law of Attraction And Manifestation. Are you an unconventional thinker who likes to go his own path and not blindly follow other opinions? Are you eager to continuously improve yourself? Are you seeking the answers for the big questions in life? If you can resonate with those questions you should not hesitate longer and buy The 21 Secrets of Metaphysics. Among others this book will reveal you the secrets to: How to use the Law of Attraction How to find your Purpose in Life The Nature of Reality How to manifest Success in Life How to control your Thought How to (re-)program your Beliefs Because theory without practice is nothing this book comes with 9 Do-It-Yourself Energy Experiments. The 9 Do-It-Yourself Energy Experiments can be best described as a real-life laboratory. They are easy to carry out and will give powerful tools into your hands to take control over your mind, massively improve your happiness, and get a better sense for the reality we live in. Do not wait longer to discover YOUR KEY to a new and better life. Do not wait longer to GET the 21 Secrets of Metaphysics TODAY. No Regrets Guaranteed.

The Iranian Metaphysicals

The Iranian Metaphysicals PDF Author: Alireza Doostdar
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691163782
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
What do the occult sciences, séances with the souls of the dead, and appeals to saintly powers have to do with rationality? Since the late nineteenth century, modernizing intellectuals, religious leaders, and statesmen in Iran have attempted to curtail many such practices as "superstitious," instead encouraging the development of rational religious sensibilities and dispositions. However, far from diminishing the diverse methods through which Iranians engage with the immaterial realm, these rationalizing processes have multiplied the possibilities for metaphysical experimentation. The Iranian Metaphysicals examines these experiments and their transformations over the past century. Drawing on years of ethnographic and archival research, Alireza Doostdar shows that metaphysical experimentation lies at the center of some of the most influential intellectual and religious movements in modern Iran. These forms of exploration have not only produced a plurality of rational orientations toward metaphysical phenomena but have also fundamentally shaped what is understood as orthodox Shi‘i Islam, including the forms of Islamic rationality at the heart of projects for building and sustaining an Islamic Republic. Delving into frequently neglected aspects of Iranian spirituality, politics, and intellectual inquiry, The Iranian Metaphysicals challenges widely held assumptions about Islam, rationality, and the relationship between science and religion.

The Routledge Companion to Thought Experiments

The Routledge Companion to Thought Experiments PDF Author: Michael T Stuart
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351705512
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 709

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Book Description
Thought experiments are a means of imaginative reasoning that lie at the heart of philosophy, from the pre-Socratics to the modern era, and they also play central roles in a range of fields, from physics to politics. The Routledge Companion to Thought Experiments is an invaluable guide and reference source to this multifaceted subject. Comprising over 30 chapters by a team of international contributors, the Companion covers the following important areas: · the history of thought experiments, from antiquity to the trolley problem and quantum non-locality; · thought experiments in the humanities, arts, and sciences, including ethics, physics, theology, biology, mathematics, economics, and politics; · theories about the nature of thought experiments; · new discussions concerning the impact of experimental philosophy, cross-cultural comparison studies, metaphilosophy, computer simulations, idealization, dialectics, cognitive science, the artistic nature of thought experiments, and metaphysical issues. This broad ranging Companion goes backwards through history and sideways across disciplines. It also engages with philosophical perspectives from empiricism, rationalism, naturalism, skepticism, pluralism, contextualism, and neo-Kantianism to phenomenology. This volume will be valuable for anyone studying the methods of philosophy or any discipline that employs thought experiments, as well as anyone interested in the power and limits of the mind.

Experiment and Metaphysics

Experiment and Metaphysics PDF Author: Edgar Wind
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351198572
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
"Edgar Wind was one of the most distinguished art historians and philosophers of the twentieth century. He made crucial contributions to debates on aesthetics and on the interdisciplinary nature of cultural history involving such other leading figures as Ernst Cassirer and Erwin Panofsky. It is not always realised, however, that his early thinking was moulded by a concern with the German philosophical tradition, culminating in the analysis of the meaning and function of scientific experimentation and proof. This first edition in English of Edgar Wind's important work Das Experiment und die Metaphysik: Zur Auflosung der kosmologischen Antinomien (1934) also carries a new introduction by Matthew Rampley, placing Wind's philosophical thinking in context. The work is being published to coincide with the opening in 2000 of the Sackler Library at Oxford, which will include a Wind Reading Room."

Quantum Ontology

Quantum Ontology PDF Author: Peter J. Lewis
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190618795
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
Metaphysicians should pay attention to quantum mechanics. Why? Not because it provides definitive answers to many metaphysical questions-the theory itself is remarkably silent on the nature of the physical world, and the various interpretations of the theory on offer present conflicting ontological pictures. Rather, quantum mechanics is essential to the metaphysician because it reshapes standard metaphysical debates and opens up unforeseen new metaphysical possibilities. Even if quantum mechanics provides few clear answers, there are good reasons to think that any adequate understanding of the quantum world will result in a radical reshaping of our classical world-view in some way or other. Whatever the world is like at the atomic scale, it is almost certainly not the swarm of particles pushed around by forces that is often presupposed. This book guides readers through the theory of quantum mechanics and its implications for metaphysics in a clear and accessible way. The theory and its various interpretations are presented with a minimum of technicality. The consequences of these interpretations for metaphysical debates concerning realism, indeterminacy, causation, determinism, holism, and individuality (among other topics) are explored in detail, stressing the novel form that the debates take given the empirical facts in the quantum domain. While quantum mechanics may not deliver unconditional pronouncements on these issues, the range of possibilities consistent with our knowledge of the empirical world is relatively small-and each possibility is metaphysically revisionary in some way. This book will appeal to researchers, students, and anybody else interested in how science informs our world-view.

Experimental Metaphysics

Experimental Metaphysics PDF Author: Robert S. Cohen
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9789048148080
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Experimental Metaphysics is intended for theoretical physicists and philosophers of science and is devoted to fundamental issues in the quantum domain. The book presents a number of discussions of experiments, theoretical puzzles and alternative interpretations, and philosophical treatments of the metaphysical foundations of science and the way these throw a scientific light on metaphysics. Hence the title: `experimental metaphysics' is a term coined by Abner Shimony, to whom the book is dedicated. This collection of 16 scientific and philosophical essays by leading physicists, philosophers and historians of science deals with current research and the most basic issues in quantum physics.

Experimental Metaphysics

Experimental Metaphysics PDF Author: Robert S. Cohen
Publisher: Springer
ISBN:
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
Experimental Metaphysics is intended for theoretical physicists and philosophers of science and is devoted to fundamental issues in the quantum domain. The book presents a number of discussions of experiments, theoretical puzzles and alternative interpretations, and philosophical treatments of the metaphysical foundations of science and the way these throw a scientific light on metaphysics. Hence the title: `experimental metaphysics' is a term coined by Abner Shimony, to whom the book is dedicated. This collection of 16 scientific and philosophical essays by leading physicists, philosophers and historians of science deals with current research and the most basic issues in quantum physics.