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Scientific Understanding and Representation: Modeling in the Physical Sciences (Routledge Studies in the Philosophy of Mathematics and Physics)
by Insa Lawler Kareem Khalifa Elay ShechThis volume assembles cutting-edge scholarship on scientific understanding, scientific representation, and their delicate interplay. Featuring several articles in an engaging ‘critical conversation’ format, the volume integrates discussions about understanding and representation with perennial issues in the philosophy of science, including the nature of scientific knowledge, idealizations, scientific realism, scientific inference, and scientific progress.In the philosophy of science, questions of scientific understanding and scientific representation have only recently been put in dialogue with each other. The chapters advance these discussions from a variety of fresh perspectives. They range from case studies in physics, chemistry, and neuroscience to the representational challenges of machine learning models; from special forms of representation such as maps and topological models to the relation between understanding and explanation; and from the role of idealized representations to the role of representation and understanding in scientific progress.Scientific Understanding and Representation will appeal to scholars and advanced students working in philosophy of science, philosophy of physics, philosophy of mathematics, and epistemology.
Scientific Understanding and Representation: Modeling in the Physical Sciences (Routledge Studies in the Philosophy of Mathematics and Physics)
by Insa Lawler Kareem Khalifa Elay ShechThis volume assembles cutting-edge scholarship on scientific understanding, scientific representation, and their delicate interplay. Featuring several articles in an engaging ‘critical conversation’ format, the volume integrates discussions about understanding and representation with perennial issues in the philosophy of science, including the nature of scientific knowledge, idealizations, scientific realism, scientific inference, and scientific progress.In the philosophy of science, questions of scientific understanding and scientific representation have only recently been put in dialogue with each other. The chapters advance these discussions from a variety of fresh perspectives. They range from case studies in physics, chemistry, and neuroscience to the representational challenges of machine learning models; from special forms of representation such as maps and topological models to the relation between understanding and explanation; and from the role of idealized representations to the role of representation and understanding in scientific progress.Scientific Understanding and Representation will appeal to scholars and advanced students working in philosophy of science, philosophy of physics, philosophy of mathematics, and epistemology.
Scientific Values and Civic Virtues
by Noretta KoertgeThis volume of contributed essays, a follow-up to Noretta Koertge's successful book on the science wars, A House Built on Sand, takes an affirming, positive view of the relationship between the values embodied in science, and the nature of a civil society. It argues that recent attacks on the probity of science undermine the possibility of rational discourse in the political arena. While science has traditionally been viewed as incorporating intellectual virtues like honesty and precision of language, the contributors to this volume point to additional benefits, examining the idea that science can serve as a source of, and inspiration for, civic virtues--in the need to be well-informed about the way the world works, in tolerating the viewpoints of others, and in functioning as a fully global enterprise dedicated to the public good. The contributors--who include philosophers, political scientists, physicists, biologists and engineers--look at examples of scientific virtues in action and how they might be used as inspirations and practical resources for improving civic society. The volume will appeal to a similarly broad audience interested in the relationship between science and society.
Scientific Visual Representations in History
by Matteo Valleriani Enrico Giannetto Giulia GianniniThis book explores continuity and ruptures in the historical use of visual representations in science and related disciplines such as art history and anthropology. The book also considers more recent developments that attest to the unprecedented importance of scientific visualizations, such as video recordings, animations, simulations, graphs, and enhanced realities. The volume collects historical reflections concerned with the use of visual material, visualization, and vision in science from a historical perspective, ranging across multiple cultures from antiquity until present day. The focus is on visual representations such as drawings, prints, tables, mathematical symbols, photos, data visualizations, mapping processes, and (on a meta-level) visualizations of data extracted from historical sources to visually support the historical research itself. Continuity and ruptures between the past and present use of visual material are presented against the backdrop of the epistemic functions of visual material in science. The function of visual material is defined according to three major epistemic categories: exploration, transformation, and transmission of knowledge.
Scientific Visualization: The Visual Extraction of Knowledge from Data (Mathematics and Visualization)
by Georges-Pierre Bonneau Thomas Ertl Gregory M. NielsonOne of the greatest scientific challenges of the 21st century is how to master, organize and extract useful knowledge from the overwhelming flow of information made available by today’s data acquisition systems and computing resources. Visualization is the premium means of taking up this challenge. This book is based on selected lectures given by leading experts in scientific visualization during a workshop held at Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany. Topics include user issues in visualization, large data visualization, unstructured mesh processing for visualization, volumetric visualization, flow visualization, medical visualization and visualization systems. The book contains more than 350 color illustrations.
The Scientific Work of René Descartes: 1596-1650 (Routledge Library Editions: Rene Descartes)
by J. F. ScottWhen originally published in 1952, this book filled a gap in the history of philosophy and science and remains an important work today, because it puts the main mathematical and physical discoveries of Descartes in an accessible form, for the benefit of English readers. Descartes is acknowledged to be the founder of modern mathematics, through his invention of analytical geometry and this volume charts Descartes’ role in bringing a unity into algebra and geometry and the development of mathematics into a discipline which could be properly analysed. Carefully paraphrasing the Géométrie, this volume retains much of Descartes’ original notation as well as the original diagrams. The volume also discusses the considerable contribution that Descartes made to the physical sciences which involved accurate work in optics, light, sight and colour.
The Scientific Work of René Descartes: 1596-1650 (Routledge Library Editions: Rene Descartes)
by J. F. ScottWhen originally published in 1952, this book filled a gap in the history of philosophy and science and remains an important work today, because it puts the main mathematical and physical discoveries of Descartes in an accessible form, for the benefit of English readers. Descartes is acknowledged to be the founder of modern mathematics, through his invention of analytical geometry and this volume charts Descartes’ role in bringing a unity into algebra and geometry and the development of mathematics into a discipline which could be properly analysed. Carefully paraphrasing the Géométrie, this volume retains much of Descartes’ original notation as well as the original diagrams. The volume also discusses the considerable contribution that Descartes made to the physical sciences which involved accurate work in optics, light, sight and colour.
Scientism: Prospects and Problems
by Jeroen de Ridder, Rik Peels, and René van WoudenbergCan only science deliver genuine knowledge about the world and ourselves? Is science our only guide to what exists? Scientism answers both questions with yes. Scientism is increasingly influential in popular scientific literature and intellectual life in general, but philosophers have hitherto largely ignored it. This collection is one of the first to develop and assess scientism as a serious philosophical position. It features twelve new essays by both proponents and critics of scientism. Before scientism can be evaluated, it needs to be clear what it is. Hence, the collection opens with essays that provide an overview of the many different versions of scientism and their mutual interrelations. Next, several card-carrying proponents of scientism make their case, either by developing and arguing directly for their preferred version of scientism or by responding to objections. Then, the floor is given to critics of scientism. It is examined whether scientism is epistemically vicious, whether scientism presents a plausible general epistemological outlook and whether science has limits. The final four essays zoom out and connect scientism to ongoing debates elsewhere in philosophy. What does scientism mean for religious epistemology? What can science tell us about morality and is a scientistic moral epistemology plausible? How is scientism related to physicalism? And is experimental philosophy really a form of scientism tailored to philosophy?
Scientism: Philosophy and the Infatuation with Science (International Library of Philosophy)
by Tom SorellFirst Published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Scientism: Philosophy and the Infatuation with Science (International Library of Philosophy)
by Tom SorellFirst Published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Scientism: The New Orthodoxy
by Richard N. Williams Daniel N. RobinsonScientism: The New Orthodoxy is a comprehensive philosophical overview of the question of scientism, discussing the role and place of science in the humanities, religion, and the social sciences.Clarifying and defining the key terms in play in discussions of scientism, this collection identifies the dimensions that differentiate science from scientism. Leading scholars appraise the means available to science, covering the impact of the neurosciences and the new challenges it presents for the law and the self. Illustrating the effect of scientism on the social sciences, and the humanities, Scientism: the New Orthodoxy addresses what science is and what it is not. This provocative collection is an important contribution to the social sciences and the humanities in the 21st century.Contributors include: Peter Hacker, Bastiaan van Fraassen, Daniel N. Robinson, Kenneth Schaffner, Roger Scruton, James K.A. Smith, Richard Swinburne, Lawrence Principe and Richard N. Williams.
Scientism: The New Orthodoxy
by Richard N. Williams Daniel N. RobinsonScientism: The New Orthodoxy is a comprehensive philosophical overview of the question of scientism, discussing the role and place of science in the humanities, religion, and the social sciences.Clarifying and defining the key terms in play in discussions of scientism, this collection identifies the dimensions that differentiate science from scientism. Leading scholars appraise the means available to science, covering the impact of the neurosciences and the new challenges it presents for the law and the self. Illustrating the effect of scientism on the social sciences, and the humanities, Scientism: the New Orthodoxy addresses what science is and what it is not. This provocative collection is an important contribution to the social sciences and the humanities in the 21st century.Contributors include: Peter Hacker, Bastiaan van Fraassen, Daniel N. Robinson, Kenneth Schaffner, Roger Scruton, James K.A. Smith, Richard Swinburne, Lawrence Principe and Richard N. Williams.
Scientism: Prospects and Problems
Can only science deliver genuine knowledge about the world and ourselves? Is science our only guide to what exists? Scientism answers both questions with yes. Scientism is increasingly influential in popular scientific literature and intellectual life in general, but philosophers have hitherto largely ignored it. This collection is one of the first to develop and assess scientism as a serious philosophical position. It features twelve new essays by both proponents and critics of scientism. Before scientism can be evaluated, it needs to be clear what it is. Hence, the collection opens with essays that provide an overview of the many different versions of scientism and their mutual interrelations. Next, several card-carrying proponents of scientism make their case, either by developing and arguing directly for their preferred version of scientism or by responding to objections. Then, the floor is given to critics of scientism. It is examined whether scientism is epistemically vicious, whether scientism presents a plausible general epistemological outlook and whether science has limits. The final four essays zoom out and connect scientism to ongoing debates elsewhere in philosophy. What does scientism mean for religious epistemology? What can science tell us about morality and is a scientistic moral epistemology plausible? How is scientism related to physicalism? And is experimental philosophy really a form of scientism tailored to philosophy?
Scientism and Education: Empirical Research as Neo-Liberal Ideology
by Emery J. Hyslop-Margison Ayaz NaseemThis volume offers a critical examination of the mounting pressure placed on educators to apply scientific principles to improve education. By revealing many of the epistemological problems confronted by the social sciences, including education, the authors undermine the prevailing view that a science of education is possible or desirable. Instead it proposes alternative practices to strengthen democratic learning practices.
The Scientist as Philosopher: Philosophical Consequences of Great Scientific Discoveries
by Friedel WeinertClearly written and well illustrated, the book first places the scientist-philosophers in the limelight as we learn how their great scientific discoveries forced them to reconsider the time-honored notions with which science had described the natural world. Then, the book explains that what we understand by nature and science have undergone fundamental conceptual changes as a result of the discoveries of electromagnetism, thermodynamics and atomic structure. The author concludes that the dance between science and philosophy is an evolutionary process, which will keep them forever entwined.
The Scientist's Atom and the Philosopher's Stone: How Science Succeeded and Philosophy Failed to Gain Knowledge of Atoms (Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science #279)
by Alan ChalmersDrawing on the results of his own scholarly research as well as that of others the author offers, for the first time, a comprehensive and documented history of theories of the atom from Democritus to the twentieth century. This is not history for its own sake. By critically reflecting on the various versions of atomic theories of the past the author is able to grapple with the question of what sets scientific knowledge apart from other kinds of knowledge, philosophical knowledge in particular. He thereby engages historically with issues concerning the nature and status of scientific knowledge that were dealt with in a more abstract way in his What Is This Thing Called Science?, a book that has been a standard text in philosophy of science for three decades and which is available in nineteen languages. Speculations about the fundamental structure of matter from Democritus to the seventeenth-century mechanical philosophers and beyond are construed as categorically distinct from atomic theories amenable to experimental investigation and support and as contributing little to the latter from a historical point of view. The thesis will provoke historians and philosophers of science alike and will require a revision of a range of standard views in the history of science and philosophy. The book is key reading for students and scholars in History and Philosophy of Science and will be instructive for and provide a challenge to philosophers, historians and scientists more generally.
Scientists, Democracy and Society: A Community of Inquirers (Logic, Argumentation & Reasoning #16)
by Pierluigi BarrottaThis monograph examines the relationship between science and democracy. The author argues that there is no clear-cut division between science and the rest of society. Rather, scientists and laypeople form a single community of inquiry, which aims at the truth.To defend his theory, the author shows that science and society are both heterogeneous and fragmented. They display variable and shifting alliances between components. He also explains how information flow between science and society is bi-directional through “transactional” processes. In other words, science and society mutually define themselves. The author also explains how science is both objective and laden with values.Coverage includes a wide range of topics, such as: the ideal of value-free science, the is/ought divide, “thick terms” and the language of science, inductive risk, the dichotomy between pure science and applied science, constructivism and the philosophy of risk. It also looks at the concepts of truth and objectivity, the autonomy of science, moral and social inquiry, perfectionism and democracy, and the role of experts in democratic societies. The style is philosophical, but the book features many examples and case-studies. It will appeal to philosophers of science, those in science and technology studies as well as interested general readers.
Scientists' Expertise as Performance: Between State and Society, 1860–1960 (History and Philosophy of Technoscience)
by Joris Vandendriessche Evert Peeters Kaat WilsThe essays in this collection explore our reliance on experts within a historical context and across a wide range of fields, including agriculture, engineering, health sciences and labour management. Contributors argue that experts were highly aware of their audiences and used performance to gain both scientific and popular support.
Scientists' Expertise as Performance: Between State and Society, 1860–1960 (History and Philosophy of Technoscience #6)
by Joris Vandendriessche Evert Peeters Kaat WilsThe essays in this collection explore our reliance on experts within a historical context and across a wide range of fields, including agriculture, engineering, health sciences and labour management. Contributors argue that experts were highly aware of their audiences and used performance to gain both scientific and popular support.
The Scope and Limits of Partiality
by Diane JeskeThe Scope and Limits of Partiality takes as its starting point the fact that we demonstrate partiality toward those to whom we stand in intimate relationships, a fact which presents both theoretical and practical challenges. At the theoretical level, Diane Jeske argues that we have fundamental reasons to care for our intimates, but that that fact alone does not justify our practices of partiality. This is because we also have fundamental reasons to care for persons in need, be they intimates or strangers. At the normative level, she argues that our intimate relationships, be they to other persons or to non-human animals, add great value to our lives, and that public policy ought to acknowledge the great diversity of intimate relationships rather than emphasizing romance and marriage in the way that it does. In the theoretical half of the book, Jeske defends the 'relationships view' of reasons of intimacy against its primary competitors. First, Jeske argues that consequentialist attempts to accommodate partiality fail to address the fundamental issues regarding our reasons to care for intimates. Second, she argues that the main non-consequentialist alternatives to the relationships view - the 'projects view' and the 'individuals view' - fail to present compelling cases against the relationships view. In the normative half of the book, Jeske offers a detailed picture of the intimate relationship of friendship, arguing against views that over intellectualize or romanticize friendship by drawing upon her own lived experience of friendship. She then considers our relationships to our companion dogs and cats, showing that these relationships are unique sites for intimacy, and, thus, for value. Finally, she turns to consider how intimacy is treated in the public sphere, focusing on the special cultural and legal attention given to marriage, and to how we ought to approach our intimate relationships and our reasons to care for our intimates in a highly imperfect world where so many people are deprived of the basic necessities of life. The Scope and Limits of Partiality presents a comprehensive account of intimacy and partiality in both theory and reality.
The Scope and Limits of Partiality
by Diane JeskeThe Scope and Limits of Partiality takes as its starting point the fact that we demonstrate partiality toward those to whom we stand in intimate relationships, a fact which presents both theoretical and practical challenges. At the theoretical level, Diane Jeske argues that we have fundamental reasons to care for our intimates, but that that fact alone does not justify our practices of partiality. This is because we also have fundamental reasons to care for persons in need, be they intimates or strangers. At the normative level, she argues that our intimate relationships, be they to other persons or to non-human animals, add great value to our lives, and that public policy ought to acknowledge the great diversity of intimate relationships rather than emphasizing romance and marriage in the way that it does. In the theoretical half of the book, Jeske defends the 'relationships view' of reasons of intimacy against its primary competitors. First, Jeske argues that consequentialist attempts to accommodate partiality fail to address the fundamental issues regarding our reasons to care for intimates. Second, she argues that the main non-consequentialist alternatives to the relationships view - the 'projects view' and the 'individuals view' - fail to present compelling cases against the relationships view. In the normative half of the book, Jeske offers a detailed picture of the intimate relationship of friendship, arguing against views that over intellectualize or romanticize friendship by drawing upon her own lived experience of friendship. She then considers our relationships to our companion dogs and cats, showing that these relationships are unique sites for intimacy, and, thus, for value. Finally, she turns to consider how intimacy is treated in the public sphere, focusing on the special cultural and legal attention given to marriage, and to how we ought to approach our intimate relationships and our reasons to care for our intimates in a highly imperfect world where so many people are deprived of the basic necessities of life. The Scope and Limits of Partiality presents a comprehensive account of intimacy and partiality in both theory and reality.
The Scope and Structure of Civil Codes (Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice #32)
by Julio César RiveraThis detailed analysis of the content and configuration of civil codes in diverse jurisdictions also examines their relationship with some branches of private law as: family law, commercial law, consumer law and private international law. It analyzes the codification, decodification and recodification processes illuminating the dialogue between current codes – and private law legislation in general – with Constitutions and International Conventions.The commentary elucidates the changing requirements of civil law as it shifted from an early protection of patrimony to a support for commercial and contractual law. It also explains the varying trajectories of civil law, which in some jurisdictions was merged with religious legal tenets in its codification of familial relations, while in others it was fused with commercial law or, indeed, codified from scratch as a discrete legal corpus. Elsewhere, the volume provides material on differing approaches to consumer law, where relevant legislation may be scattered across numerous statutes, and also on private international law, a topic of increasing relevance in a world where business corporations have interests in multiple jurisdictions (and often play one off against another).The volume features invited contributions from leading scholars in the field of private law brought together for an in depth analysis of the current regulatory attitude in this field of the law in jurisdictions with diverse legal systems and traditions. In current times we are witnessing the adoption of diverging regulatory solutions. Through the analysis of the past and present of private law regulation, the volume unveils the underlying trends and relevance of the codification method across the world.
The Scope of Consent
by Tom DoughertyThe scope of someone's consent is the range of actions that they permit by giving consent. The Scope of Consent investigates the under-explored question of which normative principle governs the scope of consent. To answer this question, the book's investigation involves taking a stance on what constitutes consent. By appealing to the idea that someone can justify their behaviour by appealing to another person's consent, Dougherty defends the view that consent consists in behaviour that expresses a consent-giver's will for how a consent-receiver behaves. The ultimate conclusion of the book is that the scope of consent is determined by certain evidence that bears on the appropriate interpretation of the consent.
The Scope of Consent
by Tom DoughertyThe scope of someone's consent is the range of actions that they permit by giving consent. The Scope of Consent investigates the under-explored question of which normative principle governs the scope of consent. To answer this question, the book's investigation involves taking a stance on what constitutes consent. By appealing to the idea that someone can justify their behaviour by appealing to another person's consent, Dougherty defends the view that consent consists in behaviour that expresses a consent-giver's will for how a consent-receiver behaves. The ultimate conclusion of the book is that the scope of consent is determined by certain evidence that bears on the appropriate interpretation of the consent.
The Scope of Tolerance: Studies on the Costs of Free Expression and Freedom of the Press (Extremism and Democracy #Vol. 7)
by Raphael Cohen-AlmagorOne of the dangers in any political system is that the principles that underlie and characterize it may, through their application, bring about its destruction. Liberal democracy is no exception. Moreover, because democracy is relatively a young phenomenon, it lacks experience in dealing with pitfalls involved in the working of the system - the ‘catch’ of democracy. This is an interdisciplinary study concerned with the limits of tolerance, this ‘democratic catch’, and the costs of freedom of expression. Rights are costly, and someone must pay for them. We can and should ask about the justification for bearing the costs, weighing them against the harms inflicted upon society as a result of a wide scope of tolerance. While recognizing that we have the need to express ourselves, we should also inquire about the justifications for tolerating the damaging speech and whether these are weighty enough. This book combines theory and practice, examining issues of contention from philosophical, legal and media perspectives and covers such issues as: media invasion into one’s privacy offensive speech incitement hate speech holocaust denial media coverage of terrorism. This book is essential reading for anyone who has research interests in political theory, extremism, and free speech.