14065 research outputs found
Sort by
Naturalistic intuitionism for physics
Get PDFRecently, a novel intuitionistic reconstruction of the foundations of physics has been primarily developed by Nicolas Gisin and Flavio Del Santo drawing on naturalism. Our goal in this paper is to examine and develop the philosophical background of their naturalistic intuitionism for physics in contrast with Brouwer's defense of his intuitionistic mathematics. To be exact, we propose a systematic rearticulation of Brouwer's so-called two acts of intuitionism to serve as the self-contained philosophical framework justifying naturalistic intuitionism in physics. This revision is accompanied by an investigation of the distinctive naturalistic treatment of some central intuitionistic topics, including logic, language, time, ontology, meaning, and truth
Nuclear energy: modeling dimensions from an “adequacy for purpose” view
Get PDFIn emergencies, political decisions often require rapid scientific input, highlighting the critical role of expertise—especially in complex fields like nuclear energy, where safety, regulation, public trust, and political pressures intersect. This paper adopts the “adequacy-for-purpose” approach, which evaluates scientific models based on their fitness for specific goals, to assess modeling dimensions in the nuclear case. We focus on four key areas: reactor design, environmental impact, economic sustainability, and risk mitigation. Through this lens, we examine how models can be developed, adapted, and evaluated to support decision-making. Using adequacy-for-purpose as a guiding principle, we explore the intertwinement of the various modeling dimensions in the nuclear energy case. Our goal is to offer an adaptive framework that bridges theoretical rigor with real-world applicability, providing policymakers with clear, evidence-based guidance
Automating Pursuitworthiness: Four Concerns About The Proper Roles for Machine Learning in Scientific Discovery
Get PDFMachine learning (ML) systems play increasingly important roles in scientific discovery. Recent efforts seek to build ML systems that predict upcoming discoveries and who is likely to make them, identify emerging research trends, and suggest novel concepts, questions, hypotheses and experiments to investigators. These predictive discovery and recommender systems (PDRS) hence aim to augment and automate key activities that are central to the roles currently played by human researchers. This paper argues, first, that PDRS raise novel conceptual and methodological disruptions, creating uncertainty around whether PDRS can and should play such roles. Second, the paper draws out four major questions, and associated concerns, about the roles PDRS are envisioned to play. These issues have not received attention in the literature thus far, leaving unclear what the proper roles of PDRS in science could be and how these roles should be carved out through appropriate designs and divisions of labor. To address these issues, the paper explores concerns about PDRS’ potential impacts, their likely limitations, and how PDRS fit into our broader views of how science should function
The Costs of Rejecting Quantum Immortality
Get PDFProponents of the Many Worlds Interpretation (MWI) of quantum mechanics are divided in their attitudes to the idea of quantum immortality. Some, e.g. Max Tegmark (immortalists), believe one should always expect to experience subjective survival in a quantum suicide thought experiment, because one can only ever be on a branch of the universal wavefunction where one is alive. Others, e.g. Sean Carroll, David Papineau and David Wallace (mortalists), believe that the truth of the MWI has no such consequences and that our situation is analogous to that of an observer in a single, non-branching, stochastically-evolving universe. A related question concerns whether we can take survival of a quantum suicide experiment as evidence confirming the MWI. This paper focuses on the core principles underlying these debates by considering each of these questions in turn for idealised cases of quantum immortality, arguing that while rejecting such applications of the idea of quantum immortality is tenable, to do so requires Everettians to pay various methodological and metaphysical costs that are in tension with the particular strand of austere Everettianism exemplified by Carroll, Papineau and Wallace in particular
Structural Realism in the realm of the periodic system of chemistry
Get PDFAfter briefly reviewing the meaning and recent literature on structural realism in general, the authors propose that the periodic system provides an example of structural realism in chemistry, a subject that has received very little attention. The dual meaning of the term element is discussed, as previously described by Mendeleev and Paneth. It is argued that the structure of the periodic system, which concerns the abstract elements, is ‘more real’ than the elements in the sense of simple substances. The challenges that the periodic system has faced since its discovery are reviewed, as are the evolving theoretical explanations for the periodic system, in order to illustrate its resilience. It is also proposed that considering elements as abstract basic substances, as they were called by Paneth, can serve to settle various ongoing debates regarding the placement of certain elements in the periodic table
Language Comprehension and the Rhythm of Perception
Get PDFIt is widely agreed that language understanding has a
distinctive phenomenology, as illustrated by phenomenal
contrast cases. Yet it remains unclear how to
account for the perceptual phenomenology of language
experience. I advance a rhythmic account, which explains
this phenomenology in terms of changes in the
rhythm of sensory capacities in both reading and speech
perception. After presenting conceptual and empirical
foundations for the account, I argue that it should be
abductively preferred over competing views, especially
the semantic perceptual view, which holds that we literally
perceive linguistic meaning
Heraclitus + Einstein = ?
Get PDFThis is a non-technical piece concerning a radical type of spacetime asymmetry. The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus is known for his theory of constant flux: "It is not possible to step twice into the same river.” It turns out that one can explore this idea within the context of Einstein's general relativity. A four-dimensional "Heraclitus spacetime" is a model of the universe in which no two events have the same structure. Such models exhibit a radical type of spacetime asymmetry. I first introduce the notion of Heraclitus spacetime. Next, I highlight a curious result: if a model universe has the Heraclitus property, then its local structure completely fixes its global structure as well (i.e. its shape). Finally, I sketch a way in which the radical asymmetry present in a Heraclitus spacetime can be used to clarify a number of topics in the philosophy of spacetime physics
Support Functions: Reframing Conventional Statistical Methods
Get PDFConventional statistical inference is awkward, which has the consequence that it is difficult to explain and even difficult to use properly. The problem is not with its fundamental elements (confidence intervals and hypothesis tests), but instead with how they are packaged. Here support functions are offered as an alternative package, which very much improves real-world practice and provides conceptual clarity to the process of scientific inference
Re-evaluating Boundary Conditions of the Concept of Life
Get PDFIt is argued that a central challenge to the task of developing a foundational model for life lies within the implicit propositions of the Western scientific view. These propositions constrain thinking about the concept of life. Three implicit boundary conditions in particular
- life as a property of a system, life as a purely biological phenomenon, and life as a binary concept - are identified, and it is suggested to replace them with three operational principles - synonymity of ’life’ with ’processes of change’; the foundation of change upon interaction; the recursion and integration of change over boundary conditions
Common Origin Inferences and the Material Theory of Induction
Get PDFThe outstanding problem for common origin inferences (“COIs”) is to understand why they succeed when they do, and why they fail when they do. The material theory of induction provides a solution: COIs are warranted by background facts. Whether a COI succeeds or fails depends on the truth of its warranting propositions. Examples from matter theory and Newton’s Principia illustrate how COIs can fail; and an example from relativity theory illustrates a success. Hypotheses, according to the material theory, can be posited as a temporary expedient to initiate an inductive enterprise. This use of hypotheses enables COIs to serve as incentives for further research. It is illustrated with the example of the Copernican hypothesis