Category: philosophy
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Investigations into the Applicability of Geometry
Douglas Bertrand Marshall, Investigations into the Applicability of Geometry, Ph.D. Thesis, Harvard University (2011) Below pages correspond to those in PDF. Beginning of Abstract “Philosophical reflection about the sciences has persistently given rise to worries that mathematics, while true of its own special objects, is inapplicable to nature or to the physical world. Focusing on…
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DNA to represent proteins
Recently I have read Bas C van Fraassen Scientific Representation: Paradoxes of Perspective where a representation is defined as p. 21 “Z uses X to depict Y as F” Does it make sense to say “Z uses” when Z is not a human being? For example, what is a meaning of a sentence “a robot…
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Rainbow as Public Hallucinations
From Bas C van Fraassen Scientific Representation: Paradoxes of Perspective p. 98 ‘The ‘window into the invisible world’ metaphor has dominated modern philosophical thinking about science as much as the «mirror of nature» metaphor dominated modern epistemology and metaphysics. It will serve us better to dislodge or at least weaken its grip on philosophical discourses,…
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Aping Mankind
Citations from Tallis – Aping Mankind: Neuromania, Darwinitis and the Misrepresentation of Humanity. Aristotle: Brain to Cool the Blood. Religion and Biologism. Surroundedness of an Organism.
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Selves: An Essay in Revisionary Metaphysics
Galen Strawson, Selves: An Essay in Revisionary Metaphysics From Section 1.7 Thing, object p. 11 “For the moment, though, the brief is to show that selves exist, and that they’re things or objects or ‘substances’ of some sort, and hence, given materialism, physical objects. One possibility is that there are in fact no better candidates…
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Geoffrey Gorham: Philosophy of Science
Comments on the book. Quotes from Feyerabend. Einstein on Time. Quotes from Jim Holt, Time bandits. Astrology as Science: Mars Effect.
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Stephen Hawking: Philosophy is Dead
My thoughts after reading The Grand Design by Hawking and Mlodinow.
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From Boltzmann’s fluctuation hypothesis to Boltzmann’s Brain
Quotes from Huw Price – The Thermodynamic Arrow: Puzzles and Pseudo-Puzzles. Also from Sean Carroll – Boltzmann Anthropic Brain.