John F Symons

Blog RSS Feed

A Computational Modeling Strategy for Levels

Alan Baker paper on simulation and emergence...

In this month’s Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation the philosopher Alan Baker has a good paper on simulation and emergence which clarifies a couple of important points in the the existing literature: Simulation-Based Def...Read More

Review of Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Psychology...

Paco and I are really happy to read this review by Douglas Candland from this month’s PsycCritiques: Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books (American Psychological Association) Read More

Beautiful genetic algorithm application about 2 minutes into this video...

Hat tip to Reddit. About two minutes into the video from the BBC series The Secret Life of Chaos. This is truly a wonderful application of a genetic algorithm. Read More

Daniel Dennett: Critical Assessments of Leading Philosophers...

Just signed a contract with Routledge to edit a big collection of the best scholarship (articles, bits of books, maybe web stuff) published on Dan’s philosophy over the past 40 years. This will be a fun project for me. Four volumes on diff...Read More

Logic, Epistemology and the Unity of Science

Questions, Quantifiers and Quantum Physics: Essays on the Philosophy of Jaakko Hintikka

Synthese RSS Feed

Necessary limits to knowledge: unknowable truths
January 28th, 2010
Abstract The paper seeks a perfectly general argument regarding the non-contingent limits to any (human or non-human) knowledge. After expressing disappointment with the history of philosophy on this score, an argument is grounded in Fitch’s proof, which demonstrates the unknowability of some truths. The necessity of this unknowability is then defended by arguing for the necessity of Fitch’s premise—viz., there this is in fact some ignorance.
- Content Type Journal Article
- DOI 10.1007/s11229-009-9679-5
- Authors
  - Richard Routley, Australian National University Canberra Australia
Read More
A survey of some recent results on Spectrum Exchangeability in Polyadic Inductive Logic
January 27th, 2010
Abstract We give a unified account of some results in the development of Polyadic Inductive Logic in the last decade with particular reference to the Principle of Spectrum Exchangeability, its consequences for Instantial Relevance, Language Invariance and Johnson’s Sufficientness Principle, and the corresponding de Finetti style representation theorems.
- Content Type Journal Article
- DOI 10.1007/s11229-009-9711-9
- Authors
  - J. Landes, School of Mathematics, The University of Manchester M13 9PL Manchester UK
  - J. B. Paris, School of Mathematics, The University of Manchester M13 9PL Manchester UK
  - A. Vencovská, School of Mathematics, The University of Manchester M13 9PL Manchester UK
Read More
Supervenience and neuroscience
January 26th, 2010
Abstract The philosophical technical term “supervenience” is frequently used in the philosophy of mind as a concise way of characterizing the core idea of physicalism in a manner that is neutral with respect to debates between reductive physicalists and nonreductive physicalists. I argue against this alleged neutrality and side with reductive physicalists. I am especially interested here in debates between psychoneural reductionists and nonreductive functionalist physicalists. Central to my arguments will be considerations concerning how best to articulate the spirit of the idea of supervenience. I argue for a version of supervenience, “fine-grained supervenience,” which is the claim that if, at a given time, a single entity instantiates two distinct mental properties, it must do so in virtue of instantiating two distinct physical properties. I argue further that despite initial appearances to the contrary, such a construal of supervenience can be embraced only by reductive physicalists.
- Content Type Journal Article
- DOI 10.1007/s11229-010-9712-8
- Authors
  - Pete Mandik, William Paterson University Wayne NJ USA
Read More
Advances in belief dynamics: Introduction
January 2nd, 2010
Advances in belief dynamics: Introduction
- Content Type Journal Article
- DOI 10.1007/s11229-009-9710-x
- Authors
  - F. Liu, Tsinghua University Department of Philosophy Beijing China
  - O. Roy, University of Groningen Faculty of Philosophy Groningen The Netherlands
Read More
View more from the latest issue of Synthese