Whitehead and the Measurement Problem of Cosmology

Whitehead and the Measurement Problem of Cosmology PDF Author: Gary L. Herstein
Publisher:
ISBN: 9783937202952
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
Einstein's General Theory of Relativity links the metrical structure of the cosmic order (or "cosmology") to the contingent distributions of matter and energy throughout the universe, one of the chief areas of investigation in astrophysics. However, presently we have system of uniform relations whereby we can make our cosmological measurements intelligible. This book addresses "the measurement problem of cosmology," using both historical ideas (such as A.N. Whitehead's work in the 1920s) and contemporary evidence and theories. Gary L. Herstein is assistant professor of philosophy at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois. His areas of research are the philosophy of Whitehead and the theory of measurement.

Whitehead and the Measurement Problem of Cosmology

Whitehead and the Measurement Problem of Cosmology PDF Author: Gary L. Herstein
Publisher:
ISBN: 9783937202952
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 215

Get Book Here

Book Description
Einstein's General Theory of Relativity links the metrical structure of the cosmic order (or "cosmology") to the contingent distributions of matter and energy throughout the universe, one of the chief areas of investigation in astrophysics. However, presently we have system of uniform relations whereby we can make our cosmological measurements intelligible. This book addresses "the measurement problem of cosmology," using both historical ideas (such as A.N. Whitehead's work in the 1920s) and contemporary evidence and theories. Gary L. Herstein is assistant professor of philosophy at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois. His areas of research are the philosophy of Whitehead and the theory of measurement.

Whitehead and the Measurement Problem of Cosmology

Whitehead and the Measurement Problem of Cosmology PDF Author: Gary L. Herstein
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110328267
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
Einstein's General Theory of Relativity links the metrical structure of the cosmic order (or "cosmology") to the contingent distributions of matter and energy throughout the universe, one of the chief areas of investigation in astrophysics. However, presently we have neither devised nor discovered system of uniform relations whereby we can make our cosmological measurements intelligible. This is "the measurement problem of cosmology." Using both historical ideas (such as A.N. Whitehead's work in the 1920s) and contemporary evidence and theories, argue that the measurement problem has neither been fully understood nor rightly interpreted. With better grasp of this problem, such as am attempting to provide, the prospects for solution look brighter.

Thinking with Whitehead and the American Pragmatists

Thinking with Whitehead and the American Pragmatists PDF Author: Brian G. Henning
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 0739190326
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
Despite there being deep lines of convergence between the philosophies of Alfred North Whitehead, C. S. Peirce, William James, John Dewey, and other classical American philosophers, it remains an open question whether Whitehead is a pragmatist, and conversation between pragmatists and Whitehead scholars have been limited. Indeed, it is difficult to find an anthology of classical American philosophy that includes Whitehead’s writings. These camps began separately, and so they remain. This volume questions the wisdom of that separation, exploring their connections, both historical and in application. The essays in this volume embody original and creative work by leading scholars that not only furthers the understanding of American philosophy, but seeks to advance it by working at the intersection of experience and reality to incite novel and creative thought. This exploration is long overdue. Specific questions that are addressed are: Is Whitehead a pragmatist? What contrasts and affinities exist between American pragmatism and Whitehead’s thought? What new questions, strategies, and critiques emerge by juxtaposing their distinct perspectives?

The Quantum of Explanation

The Quantum of Explanation PDF Author: Randall E. Auxier
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1351792482
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
The Quantum of Explanation advances a bold new theory of how explanation ought to be understood in philosophical and cosmological inquiries. Using a complete interpretation of Alfred North Whitehead’s philosophical and mathematical writings and an interpretive structure that is essentially new, Auxier and Herstein argue that Whitehead has never been properly understood, nor has the depth and breadth of his contribution to the human search for knowledge been assimilated by his successors. This important book effectively applies Whitehead’s philosophy to problems in the interpretation of science, empirical knowledge, and nature. It develops a new account of philosophical naturalism that will contribute to the current naturalism debate in both Analytic and Continental philosophy. Auxier and Herstein also draw attention to some of the most important differences between the process theology tradition and Whitehead’s thought, arguing in favor of a Whiteheadian naturalism that is more or less independent of theological concerns. This book offers a clear and comprehensive introduction to Whitehead’s philosophy and is an essential resource for students and scholars interested in American philosophy, the philosophy of mathematics and physics, and issues associated with naturalism, explanation and radical empiricism.

Whitehead at Harvard, 1924-1925

Whitehead at Harvard, 1924-1925 PDF Author: Henning Brian G. Henning
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 1474459420
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
In these newly commissioned essays, leading Whitehead scholars ask a range of important questions about Whitehead's first year of philosophy lectures. Do these lectures challenge or confirm previous understandings of Whitehead's published works? What is revealed about the development of Whitehead's thought in the crucial period after London but before the publication of Science and the Modern World? What should we make of concepts and terms that were introduced in these lectures but were never incorporated into subsequent publications? Also included is the text of Whitehead's first lecture at Harvard, recently gifted to the Critical Edition, allowing for a clearer understanding of Whitehead's plans and goals for his first course of lectures in philosophy than has previously been possible.

Physics and Speculative Philosophy

Physics and Speculative Philosophy PDF Author: Timothy E. Eastman
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 311045047X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 245

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Book Description
Through both an historical and philosophical analysis of the concept of possibility, we show how including both potentiality and actuality as part of the real is both compatible with experience and contributes to solving key problems of fundamental process and emergence. The book is organized into four main sections that incorporate our routes to potentiality: (1) potentiality in modern science [history and philosophy; quantum physics and complexity]; (2) Relational Realism [ontological interpretation of quantum physics; philosophy and logic]; (3) Process Physics [ontological interpretation of relativity theory; physics and philosophy]; (4) on speculative philosophy and physics [limitations and approximations; process philosophy]. We conclude that certain fundamental problems in modern physics require complementary analyses of certain philosophical and metaphysical issues, and that such scholarship reveals intrinsic features and limits of determinism, potentiality and emergence that enable, among others, important progress on the quantum theory of measurement problem and new understandings of emergence.

Whitehead's Pancreativism

Whitehead's Pancreativism PDF Author: Michel Weber
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110330776
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
There is one question that any potential reader who suspects that Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947) might be important for past, contemporary, and future philosophy inevitably raises: how should I read Whitehead? How can I make sense of this incredibly dense tissue of imaginative systematizing, spread over decades of work in disciplines so different and specialized as algebra, geometry, logic, relativistic physics and philosophy of science? Accordingly, this monograph has two main complementary objectives. The first one is to propose a set of efficient hermeneutical tools to get the reader started. These straightforward tools provide answers that are highly coherent and probably the most applicable to Whitehead's entire corpus. The second objective is to illustrate how the several parts of Process and Reality are interconnected, something that all commentators have either failed to recognise or only incompletely acknowledged.

The Epochal Nature of Process in Whitehead's Metaphysics

The Epochal Nature of Process in Whitehead's Metaphysics PDF Author: F. Bradford Wallack
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780873954549
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description
“While my book attempts to reflect the full range of scholarly debate, I have also attempted to make it useful to anyone interested in Whitehead. To this end, I have introduced the Whiteheadian terms one by one, explaining each in the light of my interpretation, and I have used examples wherever possible. I try to show that Whitehead intended his philosophy have a place in our lives by reshaping our common conceptions, and that he did not intend it to be relegated to purely abstract or esoteric application.” — F. Bradford Wallack The twentieth century has seen the greatest innovations in philosophical cosmology since Newton and Descartes, and Alfred North Whitehead was the first and greatest of the philosophers to work out these innovations in systematic ways. In a book that will be controversial in the philosophical community, F. Bradford Wallack argues that interpretations widely accepted by Whiteheadians need revaluation because these interpretations are based on materialist and substantialist assumptions that Whitehead sought to replace. Specifically, she proposes a thorough revision of accepted interpretations of Whitehead’s concept of the actual entity. Wallack then elucidates Whitehead’s ideas in order of their increasing dependence upon other basic Whiteheadian terms to complete the study of Whiteheadian time and to clarify its purpose within the cosmology of Process and Reality. Whitehead’s philosophy then emerges as more intelligible and cohesive than is generally believed.

Physics and Whitehead

Physics and Whitehead PDF Author: Timothy E. Eastman
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780791459140
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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Book Description
Leading scholars explore the connections between quantum physics and process philosophy.

Applied Process Thought II

Applied Process Thought II PDF Author: Mark Dibben
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110328100
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 423

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Book Description
Concentrating mainly on the process philosophy developed by Alfred North Whitehead, this series of essays brings together some of the newest developments in the application of process thinking to the physical and social sciences. These essays, by established scholars in the field, demonstrate how a wider and deeper understanding of the world can be obtained using process philosophical concepts, how the distortions and blockages inevitably inherent in substantivist talk can be set aside, and how new and fertile lines of research in the sciences can be opened as a result.