Nature’s Perfection: Aristotle and Descartes on Motion and Purpose

Descartes holds that, insofar as nature is a purposeless, unthinking, extended substance, there could be no final causes in physics. Descartes’ derivation of his three laws of motion from the perfections of God thus underwrites a rejection of Aristotle’s conception of natural self-motion and teleology. Aristotle derived his conception of the purposeful action of sublunar creatures from his notion that superlunar bodies are perfect, eternal, living beings, via the thesis that circular motion is more complete or perfect than rectilinear motion. Descartes’ reduction of circular motion to rectilinear motion, achieved through his theological foundation of the laws of motion, thus marks a crucial break from Aristotle’s philosophy of nature. This paper argues that the shift from the Aristotelian conception of nature as self-moving and teleological to the Cartesian conception of nature as purposeless and inert, is not an empirical discovery but is rooted in differing conceptions of where perfection lies in nature.

From mechanism-based to data-driven approaches in materials science

A time-honored approach in theoretical materials science revolves around the search for basic mechanisms that should incorporate key feature of the phenomenon under investigation. Recent years have witnessed an explosion across areas of science of a data-driven approach fueled by recent advances in machine learning. Here we provide a brief perspective on the strengths and weaknesses of mechanism based and data-driven approaches in the context of the mechanics of materials. We discuss recent literature on dislocation dynamics, atomistic plasticity in glasses focusing on the empirical discovery of governing equations through artificial intelligence. We conclude highlighting the main open issues and suggesting possible improvements and future trajectories in the fields.

Computation and the Function of Consciousness

This chapter discusses the connection between computation and consciousness. Three theses are sometimes conflated. Functionalism is the view that the mind is the functional organization of the brain. The Computational Theory of Mind (CTM) is the view that the whole mind—not only cognition but consciousness as well—has a computational explanation. When combined with the empirical discovery that the brain is the organ of the mind, CTM entails that the functional organization of the brain is computational. Computational functionalism is the conjunction of the two: the mind is the computational organization of the brain. Contrary to a common assumption, functionalism entails neither CTM nor computational functionalism. This finding makes room for an underexplored possibility: that consciousness be (at least partly) due to the functional organization of the brain without being computational in nature. This is a noncomputational version of functionalism about consciousness.

Mysticism and the Fine Structure Constant

The number $\pi/(2\cdot6^3)$, suggested as the value of the fine structure constant $\alpha$ by Werner Heisenberg in 1935, is modified by "quantizing" $\pi$. This obtains, by empirical discovery, a new number which is much closer to the current measured value of the fine structure constant and within the range of variation of the fine structure constant reported by astronomers from their observation of the spectra of distant quasars. The expression of the reciprocal of this number in base 6 arithmetic yields further evidence for the surprising connection between the number 137 and Kabbalah first noted by Gershom Scholem in the 1950s. The results are interpreted in the hermeneutic tradition of the Pauli-Jung collaboration (relating, in particular, tothe World Clock dream) and Pythagorean mysticism. Some connections of the number $137$ to the golden ratio and the Fibonacci sequence are also explored.

Conclusion

The conclusion compares the main features of able-responsible man with representations of the ideal man in different cultural, and transnational, settings. The roles of physical strength and sex are considered. There is a critical review of the status of femininity and gender equality in Nanchong, and the culture of emulating exemplary norms in China. Filial piety and a general sense of duty to the nation provide the environment in which the able-responsible man is expected to carry responsibilities for the family, society and nation. Although the hegemonic model identified in Nanchong is coercive and denigrates marginalized men, the nature of the able-responsible man is shown to be essentially positive. The chapter concludes with a reflection on the extent to which the empirical discovery of the able-responsible man is influenced by the ethnographer herself.

Subjective Probability and the Content/Attitude Distinction

On an attractive, naturalistically respectable theory of intentionality, mental contents are a form of measurement system for representing behavioral and psychological dispositions. This chapter argues that a consequence of this view is that the content/attitude distinction is measurement system relative. As a result, there is substantial arbitrariness in the content/attitude distinction. Whether some measurement of mental states counts as characterizing the content of mental states or the attitude is not a question of empirical discovery but of theoretical utility. If correct, this observation has ramifications in the theory of rationality. Some epistemologists and decision theorists have argued that imprecise credences are rationally impermissible, while others have argued that precise credences are rationally impermissible. If the measure theory of mental content is correct, however, then neither imprecise credences nor precise credences can be rationally impermissible.