Metaphysics

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
John Heil
Keyword(s):  
Wilfrid Sellars ◽  
Scientific Images ◽  
Scientific Image ◽  
Holistic Conception ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Manifest Image

A discussion of the inevitability of metaphysics centered on the question, how are the appearances related to reality? The universe as we encounter it in our everyday and scientific pursuits, what Wilfrid Sellars called the ‘manifest image’, presents itself as strikingly at odds with the ‘scientific image’, the universe as revealed by physics. Every reflective agent must eventually confront the problem of how the manifest and scientific images are related, how the appearances stand to reality. Three responses to the problem are discussed, and a fourth is introduced. A holistic conception of metaphysics—a ‘package deal’—is endorsed, two competing worldviews, ‘Aristotelianism’ and ‘Humeanism’ are set out, followed by brief chapter-by-chapter summaries of the book’s contents.

Roots of Things

2021 ◽  
pp. 189-202
Author(s):  
John Heil
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Images ◽  
Scientific Image ◽  
Efficient Causation ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Manifest Image

This chapter returns to idea that the manifest image concerns a higher-level reality, dependent on, but distinct from a more fundamental reality, the characterization of which falls to physics, noting that a more appealing option is available. Although the universe depicted by physics is apparently at odds with the Aristotelian character of the manifest image, the two images are not images of distinct realities, but different ways of depicting a single reality. The possibility that the scientific image is Humean in the manner of Lewis and Williams is explored and its implications for change and efficient causation discussed, setting the stage for Chapter 13, which concerns the reconciliation of the manifest and scientific images.

scholarly journals The Early Modern Origins of Pragmatism

Disputatio ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (59) ◽  
pp. 433-456
Author(s):  
Piotr K. Szalek
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Scientific Images ◽  
Scientific Image ◽  
The World ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Manifest Image

Abstract This paper considers the alleged pragmatism of Berkeley’s philosophy using the two Sellarsian categories of ‘manifest’ and ‘scientific’ images of the world and human beings. The ‘manifest’ image is regarded as a refinement of the ordinary way of conceiving things, and the scientific image is seen as a theoretical picture of the world provided by science. The paper argues that the so-called Berkeleian pragmatism was an effect of Berkeley’s work towards a synthesis of ‘manifest’ and ‘scientific’ images through the creation of one unified synoptic vision of the world and was a part of a new conceptual framework within which these two images could be combined.

Philosophy, Science, and Common Sense

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hilary Kornblith
Keyword(s):  
Common Sense ◽  
Wilfrid Sellars ◽  
Personal View ◽  
Scientific Image ◽  
The World ◽  
Deliberative Processes ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Manifest Image ◽  
Apparent Conflict

Wilfrid Sellars recognized a conflict between what he called “the scientific image” of our place in the world, and “the manifest image.” Sellars sought, somehow, to join these views together in spite of their apparent conflict. This chapter argues that we should endorse features of the manifest image only to the extent that they are part of the scientific image. It presents a case study in epistemology, showing how these issues play out in discussion of doxastic deliberation. The manifest image of such deliberation is flatly in conflict with the best current scientific theorizing about the nature of deliberative processes. The only reasonable response to such conflict, the chapter argues, is to embrace the scientific account and reject our first-personal view of deliberation as illusory. This case study is suggestive of a broader conclusion about the relationship between the scientific and the manifest image.

Agency

2021 ◽  
pp. 217-235
Author(s):  
John Heil
Keyword(s):  
Free Will ◽  
Moving Objects ◽  
Free Action ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Scientific Image ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Manifest Image ◽  
The Way ◽  
At Home

Earlier chapters advanced the idea that the appearances (the manifest image) and reality (as revealed in the scientific image) are not in competition: the scientific image constitutes our best guess as to the nature of truthmakers for truths at home in the manifest image. Along the way, necessitarianism (everything is as it is of necessity) and monism repeatedly inserted themselves into the discussion. The thought that truths of the manifest image could survive intact, even when they appear deeply at odds with the scientific image could prove correct, however, even were the accompanying cosmology misguided. The problem of reconciling free will with the scientific image provides an illustrative test case. Just as truthmakers for truths about moving objects could turn out to include nothing that moves, truths about agents acting freely could be made true by wholly deterministic features of the universe. This is not ‘compatibilism’: a free action is not compatible with the action’s being determined. As in the case of motion, agents and their actions are respectable citizens of the manifest image, their standing not compromised by physics.

Reconciliation

2021 ◽  
pp. 203-216
Author(s):  
John Heil
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Scientific Images ◽  
Scientific Image ◽  
Manifest Image

The chapter explores the idea, implicit in earlier chapters, that the manifest and scientific images are ultimately unified. An Aristotelian cosmology of interacting objects facilitates our negotiation of the manifest image, but the scientific image could turn out to be better served by Humeanism. Efforts to reconcile the manifest and scientific image that regard one or the other as provisional or illusory, and those that depict the scientific image as accommodating the ‘fundamental’ things and the manifest image as applicable to less-than-fundamental, ‘higher-level’ things, are examined and found wanting. A fourth option is proposed: the scientific image gives us an account of what the manifest image is an image of. The nature of the truthmakers for truths embedded in our Aristotelian manifest image could turn out to be Humean. More dramatically, Hume and Spinoza might be seen to converge.

Appearance in Reality

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Heil
Keyword(s):  
Free Will ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Wilfrid Sellars ◽  
Scientific Images ◽  
The Universe

Appearance in Reality addresses topics in fundamental metaphysics, extending positions developed in From and Ontological Point of View (2003) and The Universe as We Find It (2012). This is not simply ‘Part III’ of a three-part project, however. The book takes what readers familiar with those earlier volumes would likely regard as a surprising turn, finding common ground between divergent ‘Aristotelian’ and ‘Humean’ cosmologies in Spinoza. The book includes considerable new and newly framed material on essences, universals, relations, emergence, hylomorphism, modality, conscious experiences, free will, and related topics. A substance–property ontology is proposed, one in which properties are not universals, but modes, particular modifications of particular substances. The ontology is meant to be consistent with both atomistic and non-atomistic cosmologies, or with whatever cosmology physics eventually settles on. One of the book’s unifying themes concerns the problem of reconciling what Wilfrid Sellars called the manifest and scientific images. The aim is to understand how the appearances comport with our best guess as to the nature of reality. The question of the relation of appearance to reality has always been central to metaphysics, but it is one faced by any reflective agent. Its unavoidability drives metaphysics. Far from being an idle pastime, metaphysics is not optional.

Playful Interfaces for Scientific Image Data

2014 ◽  
pp. 471-489
Author(s):  
Amalia Kallergi ◽  
Fons J. Verbeek
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Practice ◽  
Image Data ◽  
Application Domain ◽  
Scientific Images ◽  
Scientific Image ◽  
Recent Developments

Recent developments in the field of HCI draw our attention to the potential of playful interfaces, play, and games. This chapter identifies a new but relevant application domain for playful interfaces (i.e. scientific practice involving image data). Given the thesis that play and playfulness are relevant for a researcher's interaction with scientific images, the question remains: How do we design playful interfaces that support meaningful ways to playfully engage with scientific images? This chapter introduces, investigates, and implements storytelling with scientific images as a worthwhile instance of playful interaction with scientific images. To better understand and further exemplify the potential of storytelling with scientific images, the chapter contributes both a review of utilitarian usages of storytelling with images and findings from a case study storytelling game.

Playful Interfaces for Scientific Image Data

Gamification ◽  
2015 ◽  
pp. 330-348
Author(s):  
Amalia Kallergi ◽  
Fons J. Verbeek
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Practice ◽  
Image Data ◽  
Application Domain ◽  
Scientific Images ◽  
Scientific Image ◽  
Recent Developments

Recent developments in the field of HCI draw our attention to the potential of playful interfaces, play, and games. This chapter identifies a new but relevant application domain for playful interfaces (i.e. scientific practice involving image data). Given the thesis that play and playfulness are relevant for a researcher's interaction with scientific images, the question remains: How do we design playful interfaces that support meaningful ways to playfully engage with scientific images? This chapter introduces, investigates, and implements storytelling with scientific images as a worthwhile instance of playful interaction with scientific images. To better understand and further exemplify the potential of storytelling with scientific images, the chapter contributes both a review of utilitarian usages of storytelling with images and findings from a case study storytelling game.

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