Roots of Things

2021 ◽  
pp. 189-202
Author(s):  
John Heil

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.

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
John Heil

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.


Disputatio ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (59) ◽  
pp. 433-456
Author(s):  
Piotr K. Szalek

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.


2021 ◽  
pp. 217-235
Author(s):  
John Heil

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.


2021 ◽  
pp. 203-216
Author(s):  
John Heil

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.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (S359) ◽  
pp. 413-414
Author(s):  
María P. Agüero ◽  
Rubén Díaz ◽  
Mischa Schirmer

AbstractThis work is focused on the characterization of the Seyfert-2 galaxies hosting very large, ultra-luminous narrow-line regions (NLRs) at redshifts z = 0.2−0.34. With a space density of 4.4 Gcp−3 at z ∼ 0.3, these “Low Redshift Lyman-α Blob” (LAB) host galaxies are amongst the rarest objects in the universe, and represent an exceptional and short-lived phenomenon in the life cycle of active galactic nuclei (AGNs). We present the study of GMOS spectra for 13 LAB galaxies covering the rest frame spectral range 3700–6700 Å. Predominantly, the [OIII]λ5007 emission line radial distribution is as widespread as that of the continuum one. The emission line profiles exhibit FWHM between 300–700 Km s−1. In 7 of 13 cases a broad kinematical component is detected with FWHM within the range 600–1100 Km s−1. The exceptionally high [OIII]λ5007 luminosity is responsible for very high equivalent width reaching 1500 Å at the nucleus.


Author(s):  
Amalia Kallergi ◽  
Fons J. Verbeek

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.


Gamification ◽  
2015 ◽  
pp. 330-348
Author(s):  
Amalia Kallergi ◽  
Fons J. Verbeek

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.


2020 ◽  
Vol 228 ◽  
pp. 00016
Author(s):  
J.F. Macías-Pérez ◽  
R. Adam ◽  
P. Ade ◽  
P. André ◽  
A. Andrianasolo ◽  
...  

Clusters of galaxies, the largest bound objects in the Universe, constitute a cosmological probe of choice, which is sensitive to both dark matter and dark energy. Within this framework, the Sunyaev-Zel’dovich (SZ) effect has opened a new window for the detection of clusters of galaxies and for the characterization of their physical properties such as mass, pressure and temperature. NIKA, a KID-based dual band camera installed at the IRAM 30-m telescope, was particularly well adapted in terms of frequency, angular resolution, field-of-view and sensitivity, for the mapping of the thermal and kinetic SZ effect in high-redshift clusters. In this paper, we present the NIKA cluster sample and a review of the main results obtained via the measurement of the SZ effect on those clusters: reconstruction of the cluster radial pressure profile, mass, temperature and velocity.


2020 ◽  
Vol 498 (3) ◽  
pp. 4533-4549
Author(s):  
Philipp Busch ◽  
Marius B Eide ◽  
Benedetta Ciardi ◽  
Koki Kakiichi

ABSTRACT We introduce a versatile and spatially resolved morphological characterization of binary fields, rooted in the opening transform of mathematical morphology. We subsequently apply it to the thresholded ionization field in simulations of cosmic reionization and study the morphology of ionized regions. We find that an ionized volume element typically resides in an ionized region with radius ∼8 h−1 cMpc at the midpoint of reionization (z ≈ 7.5) and follow the bubble size distribution even beyond the overlap phase. We find that percolation of the fully ionized component sets in when 25 per cent of the universe is ionized and that the resulting infinite cluster incorporates all ionized regions above ∼8 h−1 cMpc. We also quantify the clustering of ionized regions of varying radius with respect to matter and on small scales detect the formation of superbubbles in the overlap phase. On large scales, we quantify the bias values of the centres of ionized and neutral regions of different sizes and not only show that the largest ones at the high-point of reionization can reach b ≈ 30, but also that early small ionized regions are positively correlated with matter and large neutral regions and late small ionized regions are heavily antibiased with respect to matter, down to b ≲ −20.


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