scholarly journals The Proportionality Argument and the Problem of Widespread Causal Overdetermination

Disputatio ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (59) ◽  
pp. 331-355
Author(s):  
Alexey Aliyev

Abstract The consensus is that repeatable artworks cannot be identified with particular material individuals. A perennial temptation is to identify them with types, broadly construed. Such identification, however, faces the so-called “Creation Problem.” This problem stems from the fact that, on the one hand, it seems reasonable to accept the claims that (1) repeatable artworks are types, (2) types cannot be created, and (3) repeatable artworks are created, but, on the other hand, these claims are mutually inconsistent. A possible solution to the Creation Problem is to argue that claim (2) can be rejected because (a) the only motivation for it is that a type, being abstract, cannot stand in causal relations, but (b) this motivation is ungrounded, since types can, in fact, stand in such relations. Clearly, in order for this solution to be successful, it is necessary to substantiate the possibility of types to be causally efficacious. In this essay, I examine an attempt to do this with the help of Yablo’s principle of proportionality, which has been undertaken by Walters (2013) and, more recently, Juvshik (2018). Although the argument they advance may seem to provide strong support for the causal efficacy of types, I think it actually fails to do this. To explain why this is so, I first show that this argument commits us to the existence of widespread causal overdetermination involving types and then argue that this commitment is both epistemically and ontologically problematic.

Author(s):  
Paul Van Geert ◽  
Henderien Steenbeek

The notion of complexity — as in “education is a complex system” — has two different meanings. On the one hand, there is the epistemic connotation, with “Complex” meaning “difficult to understand, hard to control”. On the other hand, complex has a technical meaning, referring to systems composed of many interacting components, the interactions of which lead to self organization and emergence. For agents, participating in a complex system such as education, it is important that they can reduce the epistemic complexity of the system, in order to allow them to understand the system, to accomplish their goals and to evaluate the results of their activities. We argue that understanding, accomplishing and evaluation requires the creation of simplex systems, which are praxis-based forms of representing complexity. Agents participating in the complex system may have different kinds of simplex systems governing their understanding and praxis. In this article, we focus on three communities of agents in education — educators, researchers and policymakers — and discuss characteristic features of their simplex systems. In particular, we focus on the simplex system of educational researchers, and we discuss interactions — including conflicts or incompatibilities — between their simplex systems and those of educators and policymakers. By making some of the underlying features of the educational researchers’ simplex systems more explicit – including the underlying notion of causality and the use of variability as a source of knowledge — we hope to contribute to clarifying some of the hidden conflicts between simplex systems of the communities participating in the complex system of education.


2017 ◽  
Vol 99 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matias Slavov

Abstract:Given the sharp distinction that follows from Hume’s Fork, the proper epistemic status of propositions of mixed mathematics seems to be a mystery. On the one hand, mathematical propositions concern the relation of ideas. They are intuitive and demonstratively certain. On the other hand, propositions of mixed mathematics, such as in Hume’s own example, the law of conservation of momentum, are also matter of fact propositions. They concern causal relations between species of objects, and, in this sense, they are not intuitive or demonstratively certain, but probable or provable. In this article, I argue that the epistemic status of propositions of mixed mathematics is that of matters of fact. I wish to show that their epistemic status is not a mystery. The reason for this is that the propositions of mixed mathematics are dependent on the Uniformity Principle, unlike the propositions of pure mathematics.


1970 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Segiet

Contemporary researchers of local communities and human societies face a new and difficult task today. It is, on the one hand, related to the great interest in this topic and the difficulty of creating a new concept that would fully exhaust the scope of phenomena observed presently in local communities and human societies. On the other hand, the character of changes that have gained momentum in the first decade of the 21st century, and the description of their sources, become particularly difficult to describe and name. The present article is an attempt at an indication of the need of an evolution of perception on societal reality and the emerging new social issues. Contemporary paedagogy attempts to write about the necessity of awareness/ education related to the needs of establishment of local communities and the creation of bonds as a response to processes related to social life in times of globalisation. It is a fact that we are presently dealing with a change in the forms and character of local communities.


Author(s):  
Boutheina Athamnia

The strange words in the glorious Qur’an, called ‘gharib’ words, are one of the most important examples of linguistic and rhetoric Qur’an inimitability. It materializes the very limits of the Arabs to understand some originally Arabic words in the Qur’an. With the increasing of Qur’anic studies on the one hand, and the spreading of Islam into non-Arabic nations on the other hand, the science of gharib appeared, and gave birth to the creation of gharib glossaries, which started from the time of Sahaba, and which still continues to exist so far. This study tackles the following problematic: “What are the motives of gharib glossaries creation? And what are the main differences in their creation? The study assumes that there are some motives for the creation of gharib glossaries, and some differences in their creation. The study adopts a descriptive and comparative method to describe motives and compare differences. The main results of this theoretical study shows that the motives of creating gharib glossaries lie in rooting gharib science, serving and understanding Qur’an, and serving and enriching Arab language, while the differences lie in the method of ordering gharib words, the method of explaining gharib words, the method of entitling gharib glossaries, and the method of creation between gharib and exegesis scholars. The study aims at highlighting the importance and the specificity of gharib science, and thus, showing the importance of gharib glossaries, so as to facilitate the research process therein, and insist on the necessity of concerting efforts to promote their creation. The study gives roots to gharib science, which in turn gave birth to the gharib glossaries creation. It also sums up the differences in their creation which scholars referred only to some of them and in dispersed references.


Itinerario ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 25 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 143-153
Author(s):  
Robert Ross

What is, and was, South Africa? This is clearly not a question which has a single answer, nor has it ever had one. On the one hand, there is a constitutional answer. In these terms, South Africa did not exist before the creation of the Union in 1910 and since then has been the state created then, transformed into the Republic of South Africa in 1961 and transformed once again with the ending of white minority rule in 1994. On the other hand, there are innumerable answers, effectively those to be found in the minds of all South Africans, and indeed all those foreigners who have an opinion about the country. Nevertheless, these opinions are not random. Clearly, there are regularities to be found within them, such that it is possible, in principle, to describe at the very least the range of answers to this question which were held within particular groups of the population, either within the country or outside it, and also to use specific sources, emanating from a single person, or group of individuals, as exemplary of the visions held by a far wider group.


2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis Alfonso de la Fuente Suárez

Planning and predicting the experiences that buildings will produce is an essential part of architectural design. The importance of representation lies in its ability to communicate experiences before a building is materialized. This article will treat the topic of representation of architecture works without putting aside our direct experience with edifices. By understanding the perceptual, associative and interactive phenomena that arise from the human encounter with buildings, it becomes possible to comprehend the representation of these phenomena through pictorial means. The first objective of this theoretical article is to define the inherent and unavoidable factors that are present in the creation and interpretation of all architectural representations, regardless of the technical means used. Any representation conveys two processes: the representation of experience (a creative process), and the experience of representation (an interpretive process). Furthermore, there exist two layers in any representation: the what (the architectural object) and the how (the representational medium). The second objective is to suggest alternatives to visual realism, in order to create representations that embody the particular phenomena that an architectural work will be able to produce. On the one hand, representations that pretend to copy reality produce in the observers detailed visual experiences; on the other hand, certain representations reflect the experiences themselves after they have been produced; they represent buildings as they are transformed by experience. This article focuses on those representations that are not only the reflection of an object, but also the reflection of our way of experiencing it.


Author(s):  
David Kosař ◽  
Ladislav Vyhnánek

This chapter focuses on the Czech Constitutional Court (CCC). It shows, on the one hand, how the CCC has so far skilfully navigated through political ups and downs and has risen to prominence in Czech politics. On the other hand, this chapter also suggests that the CCC, despite its current wide powers, is a rather fragile institution. It argues that the creation of the CCC must be understood in the broader historical and political context. To that end, the chapter sketches the institutional design of the CCC and discusses the CCC’s powers. Subsequently, the chapter analyses the internal judicial practices of the CCC and the key procedural rules, then provides the taxonomy of the CCC’s rulings as well as their style, effects, and publication. Finally, it identifies and discusses political determinants of the CCC’s functioning and focuses on the interaction of the CCC with other domestic as well as supranational actors.


2020 ◽  
Vol 132 (4) ◽  
pp. 439-466
Author(s):  
Martin Becker

This paper examines the crucial role of verbal tenses for the text constitution and, especially, for the creation of narrative perspectives in the tale about St. Augustin's life, Sur les pas de Saint Augustin, written by the contemporary ’Maghrebian‘ author Kebir Ammi. On the one hand, it will be explored how the different tenses contribute in a substantial way to the creation of narrative perspectives, respectively, to narrative focalizations. On the other hand, the importance of the tenses in the structuring and organization of the individual episodes will be highlighted and, last but not least, their contribution to the semiotic dimension of the text. Finally, in an overarching perspective, the article casts light on the narrative potential inherent in tense categories and on the relevance of a modern tense theory for narrative research.


Author(s):  
Lavinia Cerioni

Abstract This article analyses and discusses the Origenian terminology concerning the creation, existence and resurrection of the body. Starting from a close analysis of the textual evidence, it proposes the working definitions of those terms – such as εἶδος, σῶμα πνευματικὸν, χιτῶνες δερμάτινοι, ὑλικὸν ὑποκείμενον – which constitute the intricate vocabulary of Origen’s doctrine of the body. In particular, it stresses the difference between the εἶδος (corporeal form) and the ὑλικὸν ὑποκείμενον (material substratum). On the one hand, the εἶδος is the corporeal form of the body, which is strictly intertwined with the λογικός and represents the individuality of each intelligence. On the other hand, the ὑλικὸν ὑποκείμενον represents the materiality of the body, which changes according to different qualities and is destined to be eschatologically destroyed. In summary, this article suggests that Origen distinguishes corporeality from materiality, thus envisioning both the destruction of the flesh and the resurrection of the body.


2019 ◽  
Vol 67 (5) ◽  
pp. 874-880
Author(s):  
Petra Gehring

Abstract This essay attempts to characterize the “strict” methodology of Michel Serres (1930–2019), a structuralist philosopher of knowledge, science and culture. On the one hand his works seem to be playful, even literary. On the other hand – and above all, so the author’s thesis – in its consequence they are quite uncompromising: Serres follows a structuralist, if not mathematical, paradigm. Methodically important leitmotifs of Serres’ thinking – for the epistemic context, these are, e. g. the detour, the wandering, the journey, the creation of connections – appear as micrological scenes or (recurring) narrations. They offer small phenomenologies and at the same time explore and expose structures: the interplay between disorder(s) and order(s). In recent years, Serres has become known for his writings on Internet and digitization. But there is also something like Serres’ legal, social, and ecological philosophy – which is well worth looking into.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document