Processes

Philosophy ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 72 (279) ◽  
pp. 19-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rowland Stout
Keyword(s):  
Alternative Conception ◽  
Temporal Parts ◽  
Physical Objects

A natural picture to have of events and processes is of entities which extend through time and which have temporal parts, just as physical objects extend through space and have spatial parts. While accepting this picture of events, in this paper I want to present an alternative conception of processes as entities which, like physical objects, do not extend in time and do not have temporal parts, but rather persist in time. Processes and events belong to metaphysically distinct categories. Moreover the category of events is not the more basic of the two.

scholarly journals Textual Continuity

2022 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
John K. Young
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Process ◽  
Temporal Parts ◽  
Physical Objects

While textual variation has long been understood as a defining element of the genetic process, and indeed of textuality itself, this essay considers textual continuity not as the absence of revision but as potential revision that does not occur. In the archival materials associated with Toni Morrison’s and Tim O’Brien’s novels, we find various instances of a text remaining meaningfully the “same” across different versions. This emphasis on continuity implies a further possible reorientation, toward a sense of works in development, with individual documents construed less as physical objects or containers and more as “temporal parts”.

Unclean Truth

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucy Talbot
Keyword(s):  
Human Remains ◽  
Liminal Space ◽  
Pedagogical Tool ◽  
Victorian Era ◽  
Museum Exhibits ◽  
New Methods ◽  
Object Biography ◽  
Physical Form ◽  
English Society ◽  
Physical Objects

The Metropolitan Police’s Crime Museum, famously known as the Black Museum, exhibits evidence from some of the most appalling crimes committed within English society from the late-Victorian era into modernity. Public admittance to this museum is strictly prohibited, preventing all but police staff from viewing the macabre exhibitions held within. The physical objects on display may vary, but whether the viewer is confronted with household items, weaponry or human remains, the evidence before them is undeniably associated with the immorality surrounding the performance of a socially bad death, of murder. These items have an object biography, they are both contextualized and contextualize the environment in which they reside. But one must question the purpose of such a museum, does it merely act as a Chamber of Horrors evoking the anomie of English society in physical form, or do these exhibits have an educational intent, restricted to their liminal space inside New Scotland Yard, to be used as a pedagogical tool in the development of new methods of murder investigation.

Some Issues of Detection and Investigation of Traces of Crimes

2019 ◽  
pp. 49-60
Author(s):  
Nikolai Karepanov
Keyword(s):  
Science And Technology ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Material Objects ◽  
Sign Systems ◽  
Payment Cards ◽  
Physical Objects ◽  
Human Hands

The author argues that traces include surrounding reality objects (physical objects and fields), altered by phenomena or events that occurred as a result of movement, processes and actions. The identification and investigation of traces of the investigated events is most often carried out at the places of their occurrence, separately studied and analyzed after their seizure in specially adapted and appropriately equipped conditions. The methods of traces detection are very diverse and are being constantly improved, so it is difficult even to classify them. Still, it is possible to distinguish some methodologies proposed in theory and practice. The author considers some methods of identifying traces when searching for living persons and corpses, identifying corpses; identifying and fixing traces of human hands; identifying traces on payment cards; identifying electronic traces, identifying traces of removing embossed images; identifying traces using the latest achievements of science and technology; identifying traces and constructing sign systems in description of material objects. The necessity of introduction of a standard of detecting and investigating the traces of crimes is also discussed, and a system of actions that should be included into this standard is proposed.

Platón, Einstein y el triunfo de la imaginatividad cosmológica

1998 ◽  
pp. 87-98
Author(s):  
T. M. Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Dynamic Model ◽  
Striking Similarity ◽  
Empirical World ◽  
The World ◽  
Modern Cosmology ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Physical Objects ◽  
Changing World

This article argues the following five claims: 1. Plato’s description of the origins of cosmos in the Timaeus is not a myth, nor something unlikely: when he called it an eikos mythos or eikos logos, he meant a likely or trustworthy account on this very subject. 2. Among the details in this account, the following are prominent and surprising: a) the world was fashioned in time, in that precise point that was the beginning of time; b) several kinds of duration can be distinguished in cosmology (mainly eternity, sempiternity, perpetuity and time); and c) space is an entity characterized by movement and tension. 3. In the Statesman, Plato repeats much the same thing, adding this time the strange notion that the universe’s circular movement is periodically reversed. 4. In spite of the important differences in detail, there is a striking similarity between Plato’s account of the origins of the world and the explanation adopted by much of modern cosmology. 5. What Plato shares with so many instances of recent thought is here termed “cosmological imaginativity”. A first section of the paper deals exclusively with the Timaeus. Claims 1 and 2a are supported by a revision of the meanings of mythos and logos, followed by brief reference and discussion of the argument at Timaeus 27d, leading to the conclusion that Plato affirms that the ever-changing world has indeed had a beginning in time. Claim 2b describes five different types of duration, corresponding to Forms, the Demiurge, Space, the [empirical] world and its contents, physical objects. The second section is concerned with the myth in the Statesman, discussing it as a parallel and describing its peculiar turn to the Timaeus’ cosmology and cosmogony, a complex spheric and dynamic model. After digressing into some important ideas in modern cosmology, touching especially on affinities of some of Einstein’s ideas with of Plato’s own, the paper closes with a discussion of cosmological imaginativity, oriented to recover and recognize fully Plato’s greatness as a cosmologist.

The Role and Location of Indeterminism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Evan Franklin
Keyword(s):  
Free Will ◽  
Alternative Conception ◽  
Basic Action ◽  
Moral Accountability ◽  
Libertarian Theory ◽  
The Moment

According to incompatibilists, free will and moral accountability exist only in nondeterministic worlds. But which ones? Where exactly must indeterminism be located, and what role must it play to make room for the possibility of freedom and accountability? This chapter evaluates three possible libertarian answers—non-action-centered accounts, nonbasic action-centered accounts, and basic action-centered accounts—and argues that libertarians should embrace a basic action-centered account that locates indeterminism at the moment of basic action (e.g., choice). Central to this chapter is showing that the source of the major problems with Kane’s event-causal libertarian theory can be traced to his problematic conception of the role and location of indeterminism and that we can avoid these problems by embracing the alternative conception developed in minimal event-causal libertarianism.

Direct Realism and Illusion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Christopher Maloney
Keyword(s):  
Perceptual Experience ◽  
Direct Realism ◽  
Perceptual Representation ◽  
Perceptual Error ◽  
Standard Response ◽  
Perceptual Representations ◽  
Ambiguous Stimuli ◽  
Physical Objects ◽  
Apparent Problem

The supposed problem of perceptual error, including illusion and hallucination, has led most theories of perception to deny formulations of direct realism. The standard response to this apparent problem adopts the mistaken presupposition that perception is indeed liable to error. However, the prevailing conditions of observation are themselves elements of perceptual representation, functioning in the manner of predicate modifiers. They ensure that the predicates applied in perceptual representations do indeed correctly attribute properties that perceived physical objects actually instantiate. Thus, perceptual representations are immune to misrepresentation of the sort misguidedly supposed by the spurious problem of perceptual misrepresentation. Granted the possibility that perceptual attribution admits of predicate modification, it is quite possible that perceptual experience permits both rudimentary and sophisticated conceptualization. Moreover, such treatment of perceptual predication rewards by providing an account of aspect alteration exemplified by perception of ambiguous stimuli.

On Identifying the Problem of Evil and the Possibility of Its Theist Solution

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Bishop
Keyword(s):  
Problem Of Evil ◽  
Rational Belief ◽  
Alternative Conception ◽  
Viable Alternative ◽  
Cognitive Level ◽  
The Problem Of Evil ◽  
The Face ◽  
Argument From Evil ◽  
Existential Problem ◽  
Foundational Problem

The argument of this chapter is that the foundational problem of evil is the existential problem of maintaining hopeful commitment to virtuous living in the face of all that may undermine human fulfilment. Dealing with this problem at the cognitive level involves commitment to a view of reality as favourable to practical commitment to ethical ideals. An intellectual problem of evil then arises to the extent that it seems that the fact of evil is evidence against the truth of the salvific worldview we are inclined to adopt for dealing with it. In relation to theism’s ‘revelatory’ worldview, this intellectual problem is expressible as an Argument from Evil. A ‘normatively relativized’ version of the Argument from Evil is proposed that seeks to exclude rational belief in the ‘personal omniGod’. As a viable alternative conception of God is possible, however, the Argument fails to justify outright atheism.

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