Beyond Rationality


Book Description

The first textbook to present a framework of the Behavioral Political Science paradigm for understanding political decision-making.




Multiformity of Science


Book Description

Preliminary Material -- PREFACE -- IDEALIZATION AND CONCRETIZATION IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES -- PLATO'S PHILOSOPHY AND THE ESSENCE OF THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD -- THE IDEALIZATIONAL THEORY OF SCIENCE AND PHYSICS OF THE MICROWORLD -- THE IDEALIZATIONAL CONCEPTION OF SCIENCE AND THE STRUCTURE OF THE LAW OF UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION -- ON KINDS OF KNOWLEDGE -- SCIENTIFIC AND EVERYDAY KNOWLEDGE -- UNIVERSALITY OF SCIENTIFIC LAWS -- THE ROLE OF THEORY IN PHYSICAL SCIENCES -- THE LEIBNIZ-EINSTEIN PRINCIPLE OF THE MINIMIZATION OF PREMISES -- ON KINDS OF INTERPRETATION PROCEDURES IN SCIENCE -- THE PROBLEM OF THE RATIONALITY OF SCIENCE -- PRINCIPLES AND KINDS OF SCIENTIFIC RATIONALITY -- THE RATIONALITY OF SCIENCE AND LIMITATIONS OF SCIENTIFIC METHODS -- WHAT HAS CHANGED IN THE PHILOSOPHICAL VIEW OF SCIENCE? -- TYPES OF DETERMINATION VS. THE DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENCE IN HISTORICAL EPISTEMOLOGY -- RELATION OF CORRESPONDENCE AND LOGICAL CONSEQUENCE -- EXPERIMENT AND SCIENCE -- HEGEL'S HISTORICISM AND CONTEMPORARY CONCEPTIONS OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENCE -- ARE THERE DEFINITIVELY FALSIFYING PROCEDURES IN SCIENCE? -- ON THE SO-CALLED COMPLEMENTARY EXPERIMENTS. THE EXAMPLE OF FIZEAU'S AND MICHELSON'S EXPERIMENTS -- TESTABILITY OF KNOWLEDGE AT VARIOUS LEVELS OF ITS DEVELOPMENT -- ATOMISTIC EMPIRICISM OR HOLISTIC EMPIRICISM? -- THE NOTION OF AN AD HOC HYPOTHESIS -- ON THE PECULIARITY OF PHYSICS AND ITS DIVISIONS -- MODELS OF RATIONALITY IN PHYSICS -- TRANSCENDENTAL PHILOSOPHY AND PHYSICS OF THE MICROWORLD -- THE UNIVERSALITY OF SCIENTIFIC LAWS AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE UNIVERSE -- ASPECTS OF THE PROBLEM OF THE SPATIOTEMPORAL INFINITY OF THE WORLD -- THE PECULIAR STATUS OF COSMOLOGY AS A SCIENCE -- THE ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSE AND CONTEMPORARY COSMOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY -- NEWTON'S FIELDS OF STUDY AND METHODOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES -- HEGEL AND CONTEMPORARY NATURAL SCIENCES -- UNITY OR VARIETY OF NATURE? -- THE PLACE OF PROCESSES IN THE STRUCTURE OF REALITY -- SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND THE CURRENT TRENDS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF CULTURE -- HEGEL'S CATEGORY OF TOTALITY AND HIS CONCEPT OF STATE -- THE BEING OF BEINGS IN HEIDEGGER'S SEIN UND ZEIT -- REFERENCES -- POZNAŃ STUDIES IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE SCIENCES AND THE HUMANITIES.




How Scientific Instruments Speak


Book Description

Science is highly dependent on technologies to observe scientific objects. For example, astronomers need telescopes to observe planetary movements, and cognitive neuroscience depends on brain imaging technologies to investigate human cognition. But how do such technologies shape scientific practice, and how do new scientific objects come into being when new technologies are used in science? In How Scientific Instruments Speak, Bas de Boer develops a philosophical account of how technologies shape the reality that scientists study, arguing that we should understand scientific instruments as mediating technologies. Rather than mute tools serving pre-existing human goals, scientific instruments play an active role in shaping scientific work. De Boer uses this account to discuss how brain imaging and stimulation technologies mediate the way in which cognitive neuroscientists investigate human cognitive functions. The development of cognitive neuroscience runs parallel with the development of advanced brain imaging technologies, drawing a lot of public attention—sometimes called “neurohype”—because of its alleged capacity to demystify the human mind. By analyzing how the objects that cognitive neuroscientists study are mediated by brain imaging technologies, de Boer explicates the processes by which human cognition is investigated.




Applications of Quantum Mechanical Techniques to Areas Outside of Quantum Mechanics. 2nd Edition


Book Description

This book deals with applications of quantum mechanical techniques to areas outside of quantum mechanics, so-called quantum-like modeling. Research in this area has grown over the last 15 years. But even already more than 50 years ago, the interaction between Physics Nobelist Pauli and the psychologist Carl Jung in the 1950’s on seeking to find analogous uses of the complementarity principle from quantum mechanics in psychology needs noting. This book does NOT want to advance that society is quantum mechanical! The macroscopic world is manifestly not quantum mechanical. But this rules not out that one can use concepts and the mathematical apparatus from quantum physics in a macroscopic environment. A mainstay ingredient of quantum mechanics, is ‘quantum probability’ and this tool has been proven to be useful in the mathematical modelling of decision making. In the most basic experiment of quantum physics, the double slit experiment, it is known (from the works of A. Khrennikov) that the law of total probability is violated. It is now well documented that several decision making paradoxes in psychology and economics (such as the Ellsberg paradox) do exhibit this violation of the law of total probability. When data is collected with experiments which test ‘non-rational’ decision making behaviour, one can observe that such data often exhibits a complex non-commutative structure, which may be even more complex than if one considers the structure allied to the basic two slit experiment. The community exploring quantum-like models has tried to address how quantum probability can help in better explaining those paradoxes. Research has now been published in very high standing journals on resolving some of the paradoxes with the mathematics of quantum physics. The aim of this book is to collect the contributions of world’s leading experts in quantum like modeling in decision making, psychology, cognition, economics, and finance.




Epistemology of the Human Sciences


Book Description

This book argues for evolutionary epistemology and distinguishing functionality from physicality in the social sciences. It explores the implications for this approach to understanding in biology, economics, psychology and political science. Presenting a comprehensive overview of philosophical topics in the social sciences, the book emphasizes how all human cognition and behavior is characterized by functionality and complexity, and thus cannot be explained by the point predictions and exact laws found in the physical sciences. Realms of functional complexity – such as the market order in economics, the social rules of conduct, and the human CNS – require a focus on explanations of the principles involved rather than predicting exact outcomes. This requires study of the historical context to understand behavior and cognition. This approach notes that functional complexity is central to classical liberal ideas such as division of labour and knowledge, and how this is a far more powerful and adequate account of social organization than central planning. Through comparison of these approaches, as well as its interdisciplinary scope, this book will interest both academics and students in philosophy, biology, economics, psychology and all other social sciences.




Modeling Bounded Rationality


Book Description

The notion of bounded rationality was initiated in the 1950s by Herbert Simon; only recently has it influenced mainstream economics. In this book, Ariel Rubinstein defines models of bounded rationality as those in which elements of the process of choice are explicitly embedded. The book focuses on the challenges of modeling bounded rationality, rather than on substantial economic implications. In the first part of the book, the author considers the modeling of choice. After discussing some psychological findings, he proceeds to the modeling of procedural rationality, knowledge, memory, the choice of what to know, and group decisions.In the second part, he discusses the fundamental difficulties of modeling bounded rationality in games. He begins with the modeling of a game with procedural rational players and then surveys repeated games with complexity considerations. He ends with a discussion of computability constraints in games. The final chapter includes a critique by Herbert Simon of the author's methodology and the author's response. The Zeuthen Lecture Book series is sponsored by the Institute of Economics at the University of Copenhagen.




Statistical Inference as Severe Testing


Book Description

Mounting failures of replication in social and biological sciences give a new urgency to critically appraising proposed reforms. This book pulls back the cover on disagreements between experts charged with restoring integrity to science. It denies two pervasive views of the role of probability in inference: to assign degrees of belief, and to control error rates in a long run. If statistical consumers are unaware of assumptions behind rival evidence reforms, they can't scrutinize the consequences that affect them (in personalized medicine, psychology, etc.). The book sets sail with a simple tool: if little has been done to rule out flaws in inferring a claim, then it has not passed a severe test. Many methods advocated by data experts do not stand up to severe scrutiny and are in tension with successful strategies for blocking or accounting for cherry picking and selective reporting. Through a series of excursions and exhibits, the philosophy and history of inductive inference come alive. Philosophical tools are put to work to solve problems about science and pseudoscience, induction and falsification.




Econophysics


Book Description

Filling the gap for an up-to-date textbook in this relatively new interdisciplinary research field, this volume provides readers with a thorough and comprehensive introduction. Based on extensive teaching experience, it includes numerous worked examples and highlights in special biographical boxes some of the most outstanding personalities and their contributions to both physics and economics. The whole is rounded off by several appendices containing important background material.




Beyond Subjectivity and Representation


Book Description

Drawing on the writings of Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Merleau-Ponty in her criticisms of dualism, Mullen (philosophy and religious studies, Christopher Newport U., Newport News, VA) aims to develop a non-ontotheological notion of truth and value rooted in the body. Metamorphosis serves as the metaphor enabling this thinking beyond the "divided line" of being and becoming. Appends commentaries on Nietzsche vs. Socrates, and the mirror-play of flesh and text. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR