Download or read book Logic Methodology and Philosophy of Science IX written by Dag Prawitz and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 1994 with total page 1006 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is the product of the Proceedings of the 9th International Congress of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science and contains the text of most of the invited lectures. Divided into 15 sections, the book covers a wide range of different issues. The reader is given the opportunity to learn about the latest thinking in relevant areas other than those in which they themselves may normally specialise.

Download or read book The Convergence of Scientific Knowledge written by Vincent F. Hendricks and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-03-09 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is this, this ain't something else, this is this -Robert De Niro, Deerhunter his book may to some extent be viewed as the continuation of my T Doctoral thesis Epistemology, Methodology and Reliability. The dissertation was, first of all, a methodological study of the reliable performance of the AGM-axioms (Alchourr6n, Gardenfors and Makin son) of belief revision. Second of all the dissertation included the first steps toward an epistemology for the limiting convergence of knowledge for scientific inquiry methods of both discovery and assessment. The idea of methodological reliability as a desirable property of a scientific method was introduced to me while I was a visiting Ph. D. -student at the Department of Philosophy, Carnegie Mellon University in Pitts burgh, Pennsylvania, USA in 1995-96. Here I became acquainted with formal learning theory. Learning theory provides a variety of formal tools for investigating a number of important issues within epistemology, methodology and the philosophy of science. Especially with respect to the problem of induc tion, but not exclusively. The Convergence of Scientific Knowledge-a view from the limit utilizes a few concepts from formal learning theory to study problems in modal logic and epistemology. It should be duely noted that this book has virtually nothing to do with formal learning theory or inductive learning problems.

Download or read book Our Common Cosmos written by Zoë Lehmann Imfeld and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-12-27 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume collects an international body of voices, as a timely response to a rapidly advancing field of the natural sciences. The contributors explore how the disciplines of theology, earth and space sciences contribute to the debate on constantly expanding ethical challenges, and the prospect of humanity's future. The discussions offered in this volume see the 'community' as central to a sustainable and ethical approach to earth and space sciences, examining the role of theology in this communal approach, but also recognizing theology itself as part of a community of humanity disciplines. Examining the necessity for interaction between disciplines, this collection draws on voices from biodiversity studies, geology, aesthetics, literature, astrophysics, and others, to illustrate precisely why a constructive and sustainable dialogue is needed within the current scientific climate.

Download or read book Naturalism in Mathematics written by Penelope Maddy and published by Clarendon Press. This book was released on 1997-11-13 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our much-valued mathematical knowledge rests on two supports: the logic of proof and the axioms from which those proofs begin. Naturalism in Mathematics investigates the status of the latter, the fundamental assumptions of mathematics. These were once held to be self-evident, but progress in work on the foundations of mathematics, especially in set theory, has rendered that comforting notion obsolete. Given that candidates for axiomatic status cannot be proved, what sorts of considerations can be offered for or against them? That is the central question addressed in this book. One answer is that mathematics aims to describe an objective world of mathematical objects, and that axiom candidates should be judged by their truth or falsity in that world. This promising view—realism—is assessed and finally rejected in favour of another—naturalism—which attends less to metaphysical considerations of objective truth and falsity, and more to practical considerations drawn from within mathematics itself. Penelope Maddy defines this naturalism, explains the motivation for it, and shows how it can be helpfully applied in the assessment of candidates for axiomatic status in set theory. Maddy's clear, original treatment of this fundamental issue is informed by current work in both philosophy and mathematics, and will be accessible and enlightening to readers from both disciplines.

Download or read book Dag Prawitz on Proofs and Meaning written by Heinrich Wansing and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-11-27 with total page 469 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is dedicated to Prof. Dag Prawitz and his outstanding contributions to philosophical and mathematical logic. Prawitz's eminent contributions to structural proof theory, or general proof theory, as he calls it, and inference-based meaning theories have been extremely influential in the development of modern proof theory and anti-realistic semantics. In particular, Prawitz is the main author on natural deduction in addition to Gerhard Gentzen, who defined natural deduction in his PhD thesis published in 1934. The book opens with an introductory paper that surveys Prawitz's numerous contributions to proof theory and proof-theoretic semantics and puts his work into a somewhat broader perspective, both historically and systematically. Chapters include either in-depth studies of certain aspects of Dag Prawitz's work or address open research problems that are concerned with core issues in structural proof theory and range from philosophical essays to papers of a mathematical nature. Investigations into the necessity of thought and the theory of grounds and computational justifications as well as an examination of Prawitz's conception of the validity of inferences in the light of three “dogmas of proof-theoretic semantics” are included. More formal papers deal with the constructive behaviour of fragments of classical logic and fragments of the modal logic S4 among other topics. In addition, there are chapters about inversion principles, normalization of p roofs, and the notion of proof-theoretic harmony and other areas of a more mathematical persuasion. Dag Prawitz also writes a chapter in which he explains his current views on the epistemic dimension of proofs and addresses the question why some inferences succeed in conferring evidence on their conclusions when applied to premises for which one already possesses evidence.

Download or read book Legal Power and Legal Competence written by Gonzalo Villa-Rosas and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-07-11 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume explores the concepts of legal power and legal competence in fourteen original, cutting-edge chapters by leading legal theorists. Legal power and legal competence are major topics in jurisprudence, as they concern a range of practices, common to all modern legal systems, that empower individuals to bring about changes in the respective system by changing their own legal position or the legal positions of others. This compilation covers five broad themes. The chapters in the first section address open questions on the meaning of legal power and legal competence, while those in the second tackle problems regarding their normativity. The third section is devoted to specifically exploring the relationship between legal power and constitutive norms. The fourth focuses on the analysis of legal officials and legal offices, while the fifth and final section assesses various theories of legal power and legal competence.

Download or read book The Creation of Wittgenstein written by Thomas H. Wallgren and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2023-02-23 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Making extensive use of unique archival resources this collection presents, for the first time, an in-depth study of the work and influence of Wittgenstein's original literary heirs, Rush Rhees, Elizabeth Anscombe and Georg Henrik von Wright as editors of Wittgenstein's posthumous writings. Presenting philosophical portraits of Rhees, Anscombe and von Wright, a team of international contributors provide a history of their collaboration and discuss how the individual philosophical views of the literary heirs shaped what we now know as the works of Wittgenstein. They consider the link between philosophically relevant aspects of their biography, their friendship with Wittgenstein and the development of their philosophical personalities, offering us a new appreciation of the dynamics of their editorial collaboration and how each of the heirs worked individually as an editor to create Wittgenstein's philosophy. Each chapter reveals what the editors did to enrich and shape our understanding of Wittgenstein's philosophical contribution on topics such as rule-following, logical necessity, aesthetics and the methods and aims of philosophy. This thorough critical analysis of the editorial history of Wittgenstein's works allows us to finally appreciate the profound impact the editors have had on our understanding of his philosophy, his views and his cultural significance.

Download or read book Likeness to Truth written by G. Oddie and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The concept of likeness to truth, like that of truth itself, is fundamental to a realist conception of inquiry. To demonstrate this we need only make two rather modest aim of an inquiry, as an inquiry, is realist assumptions: the truth doctrine (that the the truth of some matter) and the progress doctrine (that one false theory may realise this aim better than another). Together these yield the conclusion that a false theory may be more truthlike, or closer to the truth, than another. It is the aim of this book to give a rigorous philosophical analysis of the concept of likeness to truth, and to examine the consequences, some of them no doubt surprising to those who have been unduly impressed by the (admittedly important) true/false dichotomy. Truthlikeness is not only a requirement of a particular philosophical outlook, it is as deeply embedded in common sense as the concept of truth. Everyone seems to be capable of grading various propositions, in different (hypothetical) situations, according to their closeness to the truth in those situations. And (if my experience is anything to go by) there is remarkable unanimity on these pretheoretical judge ments. This is not proof that there is a single coherent concept underlying these judgements. The whole point of engaging in philosophical analysis is to make this claim plausible.

Download or read book Reductionism Emergence and Levels of Reality written by Sergio Chibbaro and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-05-13 with total page 171 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scientists have always attempted to explain the world in terms of a few unifying principles. In the fifth century B.C. Democritus boldly claimed that reality is simply a collection of indivisible and eternal parts or atoms. Over the centuries his doctrine has remained a landmark, and much progress in physics is due to its distinction between subjective perception and objective reality. This book discusses theory reduction in physics, which states that the whole is nothing more than the sum of its parts: the properties of things are directly determined by their constituent parts. Reductionism deals with the relation between different theories that address different levels of reality, and uses extrapolations to apply that relation in different sciences. Reality shows a complex structure of connections, and the dream of a unified interpretation of all phenomena in several simple laws continues to attract anyone with genuine philosophical and scientific interests. If the most radical reductionist point of view is correct, the relationship between disciplines is strictly inclusive: chemistry becomes physics, biology becomes chemistry, and so on. Eventually, only one science, indeed just a single theory, would survive, with all others merging in the Theory of Everything. Is the current coexistence of different sciences a mere historical venture which will end when the Theory of Everything has been established? Can there be a unified description of nature? Rather than an analysis of full reductionism, this book focuses on aspects of theory reduction in physics and stimulates reflection on related questions: is there any evidence of actual reduction? Are the examples used in the philosophy of science too simplistic? What has been endangered by the search for (the) ultimate truth? Has the dream of reductionist reason created any monsters? Is big science one such monster? What is the point of embedding science Y within science X, if predictions cannot be made on that basis?

Download or read book Computability Enumerability Unsolvability written by S. B. Cooper and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1996-01-11 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fundamental ideas concerning computation and recursion naturally find their place at the interface between logic and theoretical computer science. The contributions in this book, by leaders in the field, provide a picture of current ideas and methods in the ongoing investigations into the pure mathematical foundations of computability theory. The topics range over computable functions, enumerable sets, degree structures, complexity, subrecursiveness, domains and inductive inference. A number of the articles contain introductory and background material which it is hoped will make this volume an invaluable resource.

Download or read book Scientific Rationality The Sociological Turn written by J.R. Brown and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-11-11 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Leibniz s Metaphysics of Nature written by N. Rescher and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 139 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The essays included in this volume are a mixture of old and new. Three of them make their first appearance in print on this occa sion (Nos III, IV, and V). The remaining four are based upon materials previously published in learned journals or anthologies. (However, these previously published papers have been revised and, generally, expanded for inclusion here.) Detailed acknowl edgement of prior publications is made in the notes to the relevant articles. I am grateful to the editors of these several publications for their kind permission to use this material. I am grateful to an anonymous reader for the Western Ontario Series for some useful corrigenda. And I should like to thank John Horty and Lily Knezevich for their help in seeing this material through the press. NICHOLAS RESCHER Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania May, 1980 xi INTRODUCTION The unifying theme of these essays is their concern with Leibniz's metaphysics of nature. In particular, they revolve about his cos mology of creation and his conception of the real world as one among infinitely many equipossible alternatives.

Download or read book IFS written by W.L. Harper and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 1980-12-31 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With publication of the present volume, The University of Western Ontario Series in Philosophy of Science enters its second phase. The first fourteen volumes in the Series were produced under the managing editorship of Professor James J. Leach, with the cooperation of a local editorial board. Many of these volumes resulted from colloguia and workshops held in con nection with the University of Western Ontario Graduate Programme in Philosophy of Science. Throughout its seven year history, the Series has been devoted to publication of high quality work in philosophy of science con sidered in its widest extent, including work in philosophy of the special sciences and history of the conceptual development of science. In future, this general editorial emphasis will be maintained, and hopefully, broadened to include important works by scholars working outside the local context. Appointment of a new managing editor, together with an expanded editorial board, brings with it the hope of an enlarged international presence for the Series. Serving the publication needs of those working in the various subfields within philosophy of science is a many-faceted operation. Thus in future the Series will continue to produce edited proceedings of worthwhile scholarly meetings and edited collections of seminal background papers. How ever, the publication priorities will shift emphasis to favour production of monographs in the various fields covered by the scope of the Series. THE MANAGING EDITOR vii W. L. Harper, R. Stalnaker, and G. Pearce (eds.), lIs, vii.

Download or read book The Cambridge Companion to Logical Empiricism written by Alan Richardson and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2007-09-03 with total page 624 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If there is a movement or school that epitomizes analytic philosophy in the middle of the twentieth century, it is logical empiricism. Logical empiricists created a scientifically and technically informed philosophy of science, established mathematical logic as a topic in and tool for philosophy, and initiated the project of formal semantics. Accounts of analytic philosophy written in the middle of the twentieth century gave logical empiricism a central place in the project. The second wave of interpretative accounts was constructed to show how philosophy should progress, or had progressed, beyond logical empiricism. The essays survey the formative stages of logical empiricism in central Europe and its acculturation in North America, discussing its main topics, and achievements and failures, in different areas of philosophy of science, and assessing its influence on philosophy, past, present, and future.

Download or read book Brainchildren written by Daniel C. Dennett and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 1998-02-17 with total page 438 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new collection of wide-ranging essays from one of cognitive science's most distingushed figures. Minds are complex artifacts, partly biological and partly social; only a unified, multidisciplinary approach will yield a realistic theory of how they came into existence and how they work. One of the foremost workers in this multidisciplinary field is Daniel Dennett. This book brings together his essays on the philosphy of mind, artificial intelligence, and cognitive ethology that appeared in inaccessible journals from 1984 to 1996. Highlights include "Can Machines Think?," "The Unimagined Preposterousness of Zombies," "Artificial Life as Philosophy," and "Animal Consciousness: What Matters and Why." Collected in a single volume, the essays are now available to a wider audience.

Download or read book Algebra and Analysis written by M. M. Arslanov and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2016-11-21 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The series is aimed specifically at publishing peer reviewed reviews and contributions presented at workshops and conferences. Each volume is associated with a particular conference, symposium or workshop. These events cover various topics within pure and applied mathematics and provide up-to-date coverage of new developments, methods and applications.

Download or read book Ways of Proof Theory written by Ralf Schindler and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2013-05-02 with total page 495 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On the occasion of the retirement of Wolfram Pohlers the Institut für Mathematische Logik und Grundlagenforschung of the University of Münster organized a colloquium and a workshop which took place July 17 – 19, 2008. This event brought together proof theorists from many parts of the world who have been acting as teachers, students and collaborators of Wolfram Pohlers and who have been shaping the field of proof theory over the years. The present volume collects papers by the speakers of the colloquium and workshop; and they produce a documentation of the state of the art of contemporary proof theory.