Niels Bohr was a central figure in quantum physics, well known for his work on atomic structure and his contributions to the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics. In this book, philosopher of science Slobodan Perović explores the way Bohr practiced and understood physics, and analyzes its implications for our understanding of modern science. Perović develops a novel approach to Bohr’s understanding of physics and his method of inquiry, presenting an exploratory symbiosis of historical and philosophical analysis that uncovers the (...) key aspects of Bohr’s philosophical vision of physics within a given historical context. -/- To better understand the methods that produced Bohr’s breakthrough results in quantum phenomena, Perović clarifies the nature of Bohr’s engagement with the experimental side of physics and lays out the basic distinctions and concepts that characterize his approach. Rich and insightful, Perović’s take on the early history of quantum mechanics and its methodological ramifications sheds vital new light on one of the key figures of modern physics. (shrink)

The success of particle detection in high energy physics colliders critically depends on the criteria for selecting a small number of interactions from an overwhelming number that occur in the detector. It also depends on the selection of the exact data to be analyzed and the techniques of analysis. The introduction of automation into the detection process has traded the direct involvement of the physicist at each stage of selection and analysis for the efficient handling of vast amounts of data. (...) This tradeoff, in combination with the organizational changes in laboratories of increasing size and complexity, has resulted in automated and semi-automated systems of detection. Various aspects of the semi-automated regime were greatly diminished in more generic automated systems, but turned out to be essential to a number of surprising discoveries of anomalous processes that led to theoretical breakthroughs, notably the establishment of the Standard Model of particle physics. The automated systems are much more efficient in confirming specific hypothesis in narrow energy domains than in performing broad exploratory searches. Thus, in the main, detection processes relying excessively on automation are more likely to miss potential anomalies and impede potential theoretical advances. I suggest that putting substantially more effort into the study of electron–positron colliders and increasing its funding could minimize the likelihood of missing potential anomalies, because detection in such an environment can be handled by the semi-automated regime—unlike detection in hadron colliders. Despite virtually unavoidable excessive reliance on automated detection in hadron colliders, their development has been deemed a priority because they can operate at currently highest energy levels. I suggest, however, that a focus on collisions at the highest achievable energy levels diverts funds from searches for potential anomalies overlooked due to tradeoffs at the previous energy thresholds. I also note that even in the same collision environment, different research strategies will opt for different tradeoffs and thus achieve different experimental outcomes. Finally, I briefly discuss current searches for anomalous process in the context of the previous analysis. (shrink)

Advancing the reductionist conviction that biology must be in agreement with the assumptions of reductive physicalism (the upward hierarchy of causal powers, the upward fixing of facts concerning biological levels) A. Rosenberg argues that downward causation is ontologically incoherent and that it comes into play only when we are ignorant of the details of biological phenomena. Moreover, in his view, a careful look at relevant details of biological explanations will reveal the basic molecular level that characterizes biological systems, defined by (...) wholly physical properties, e.g., geometrical structures of molecular aggregates (cells). In response, we argue that contrary to his expectations one cannot infer reductionist assumptions even from detailed biological explanations that invoke the molecular level, as interlevel causal reciprocity is essential to these explanations. Recent very detailed explanations that concern the structure and function of chromatin—the intricacies of supposedly basic molecular level—demonstrate this. They show that what seem to be basic physical parameters extend into a more general biological context, thus rendering elusive the concepts of the basic level and causal hierarchy postulated by the reductionists. In fact, relevant phenomena are defined across levels by entangled, extended parameters. Nor can the biological context be explained away by basic physical parameters defining molecular level shaped by evolution as a physical process. Reductionists claim otherwise only because they overlook the evolutionary significance of initial conditions best defined in terms of extended biological parameters. Perhaps the reductionist assumptions (as well as assumptions that postulate any particular levels as causally fundamental) cannot be inferred from biological explanations because biology aims at manipulating organisms rather than producing explanations that meet the coherence requirements of general ontological models. Or possibly the assumptions of an ontology not based on the concept of causal powers stratified across levels can be inferred from biological explanations. The incoherence of downward causation is inevitable, given reductionist assumptions, but an ontological alternative might avoid this. We outline desiderata for the treatment of levels and properties that realize interlevel causation in such an ontology. (shrink)

A recent rethinking of the early history of Quantum Mechanics deemed the late 1920s agreement on the equivalence of Matrix Mechanics and Wave Mechanics, prompted by Schrödinger's 1926 proof, a myth. Schrödinger supposedly failed to prove isomorphism, or even a weaker equivalence (“Schrödinger-equivalence”) of the mathematical structures of the two theories; developments in the early 1930s, especially the work of mathematician von Neumann provided sound proof of mathematical equivalence. The alleged agreement about the Copenhagen Interpretation, predicated to a large extent (...) on this equivalence, was deemed a myth as well. In response, I argue that Schrödinger's proof concerned primarily a domain-specific ontological equivalence, rather than the isomorphism or a weaker mathematical equivalence. It stemmed initially from the agreement of the eigenvalues of Wave Mechanics and energy-states of Bohr's Model that was discovered and published by Schrödinger in his first and second communications of 1926. Schrödinger demonstrated in this proof that the laws of motion arrived at by the method of Matrix Mechanics are satisfied by assigning the auxiliary role to eigenfunctions in the derivation of matrices (while he only outlined the reversed derivation of eigenfunctions from Matrix Mechanics, which was necessary for the proof of both isomorphism and Schrödinger-equivalence of the two theories). This result was intended to demonstrate the domain-specific ontological equivalence of Matrix Mechanics and Wave Mechanics, with respect to the domain of Bohr's atom. And although the mathematical equivalence of the theories did not seem out of the reach of existing theories and methods, Schrödinger never intended to fully explore such a possibility in his proof paper. In a further development of Quantum Mechanics, Bohr's complementarity and Copenhagen Interpretation captured a more substantial convergence of the subsequently revised (in light of the experimental results) Wave and Matrix Mechanics. -/- I argue that both the equivalence and Copenhagen Interpretation can be deemed myths if one predicates the philosophical and historical analysis on a narrow model of physical theory which disregards its historical context, and focuses exclusively on its formal aspects and the exploration of the logical models supposedly implicit in it. -/- . (shrink)

H. Collins has challenged the empiricist understanding of experimentation by identifying what he thinks constitutes the experimenter’s regress: an instrument is deemed good because it produces good results, and vice versa. The calibration of an instrument cannot alone validate the results: the regressive circling is broken by an agreement essentially external to experimental procedures. In response, A. Franklin has argued that calibration is a key reasonable strategy physicists use to validate production of results independently of their interpretation. The physicists’ arguments (...) about the merits of calibration are not coextensive with the interpretation of results, and thus an objective validation of results is possible. I argue, however, that the in-situ calibrating and measurement procedures and parameters at the Large Hadron Collider are closely and systematically interrelated. This requires empiricists to question their insistence on the independence of calibration from the outcomes of the experiment and rethink their position. Yet this does not leave the case of in-situ calibration open to the experimenter’s regress argument; it is predicated on too crude a view of the relationship between calibration and measurement that fails to capture crucial subtleties of the case. (shrink)

I argue that instead of a rather narrow focus on N. Bohr's account of complementarity as a particular and perhaps obscure metaphysical or epistemological concept (or as being motivated by such a concept), we should consider it to result from pursuing a particular method of studying physical phenomena. More precisely, I identify a strong undercurrent of Baconian method of induction in Bohr's work that likely emerged during his experimental training and practice. When its development is analyzed in light of Baconian (...) induction, complementarity emerges as a levelheaded rather than a controversial account, carefully elicited from a comprehensive grasp of the available experimental basis, shunning hasty metaphysically motivated generalizations based on partial experimental evidence. In fact, Bohr's insistence on the “classical” nature of observations in experiments, as well as the counterintuitive synthesis of wave and particle concepts that have puzzled scholars, seem a natural outcome (an updated instance) of the inductive method. Such analysis clarifies the intricacies of early Schrödinger's critique of the account as well as Bohr's response, which have been misinterpreted in the literature. If adequate, the analysis may lend considerable support to the view that Bacon explicated the general terms of an experimentally minded strand of the scientific method, developed and refined by scientists in the following three centuries. (shrink)

We employ data envelopment analysis on a series of experiments performed in Fermilab, one of the major high-energy physics laboratories in the world, in order to test their efficiency (as measured by publication and citation rates) in terms of variations of team size, number of teams per experiment, and completion time. We present the results and analyze them, focusing in particular on inherent connections between quantitative team composition and diversity, and discuss them in relation to other factors contributing to scientific (...) production in a wider sense. Our results concur with the results of other studies across the sciences showing that smaller research teams are more productive, and with the conjecture on curvilinear dependence of team size and efficiency. (shrink)

The organization of cutting-edge HEP laboratories has evolved in the intersection of academia, state agencies, and industry. Exponentially ever-larger and more complex knowledge-intensive operations, the laboratories have often faced the challenges of, and required organizational solutions similar to, those identified by a cluster of diverse theories falling under the larger heading of organization theory. The cluster has either shaped or accounted for the organization of industry and state administration. The theories also apply to HEP laboratories, as they have gradually and (...) uniquely hybridized their principles and solutions. Yet scholarship has virtually ignored this linkage and has almost exclusively focused on the laboratories’ presumably unique egalitarian organizational aspects. Guided by the principles developed in the organization theory cluster, we identify the basic organizational features of HEP laboratories in relation to their pursuit of narrow and broad epistemic goals. We also provide a set of criteria and methods for assessing the efficiency of the identified organizational features in achieving such goals. (shrink)

In the first part of this text, the author exposes the main features of the liberal or civic state, because both communitarians and multiculturalists tend to criticize that type of state. Their critique of the liberal state and the liberal self as an unencumbered self is “culturalist” by its character. However, it is an expression of conceptual confusion, i.e. of their incomprehension of an essential difference between two conceptual levels: one that belongs to the purely normative rights-justifying perspective and the (...) other that refers to the ontological perspective. Consequently, both of them reject the central liberal thesis according to which the right is prior to the good.The author agrees with an assessment of Richard Robson that multiculturalism is only a form of communitarianism. Contrary to communitarians and multiculturalists, he additionally argues that collective rights are incompatible with the civic state in its pure form because there are structural differences between civic and specific minority rights.Further, the author attempts to show that communitarianism and multiculturalism are forms of postmodernism. Namely, brought to their ultimate logical consequences, the mentioned orientations can be connected to the postmodern notion of radical, irreducible difference.In the conclusive part of the text, he summarizes the common points of communitarianism and multiculturalism and emphasizes the importance of these contemporary theoretical tendencies. (shrink)

The Gestalt Bubble model describes a subjective phenomenal experience (what is seen) without taking into account the extraphenomenal constraints of perceptual experience (why it is seen as it is). If it intends to be an explanatory model, then it has to include either stimulus or neural constraints, or both.

The Modern Synthesis of Darwinism and genetics regards non-genetic factors as merely constraints on the genetic variations that result in the characteristics of organisms. Even though the environment (including social interactions and culture) is as necessary as genes in terms of selection and inheritance, it does not contain the information that controls the development of the traits. S. Oyama’s account of the Parity Thesis, however, states that one cannot conceivably distinguish in a meaningful way between nature-based (i.e., gene-based) and nurture-based (...) (i.e., environment-based) characteristics in development because the information necessary for the resulting characteristics is contained at both levels. Oyama and others argue that the Parity Thesis has far-reaching implications for developmental psychology, in that both nativist and interactionist developmental accounts of motor, cognitive, affective, social, and linguistic capacities that presuppose a substantial nature/nurture dichotomy are inadequate. After considering these arguments, we conclude that either Oyama’s version of the Parity Thesis does not differ from the version advocated by liberal interactionists, or it renders precarious any analysis involving abilities present at birth (despite her claim to the contrary). More importantly, developmental psychologists need not discard the distinction between innate characteristics present at birth and those acquired by learning, even if they abandon genocentrism. Furthermore, we suggest a way nativists can disentangle the concept of maturation from a genocentric view of biological nature. More specifically, we suggest they can invoke the maturational segment of the developmental process (which involves genetic, epigenetic and environmental causes) that results in the biological “machinery” (e.g. language acquisition device) which is necessary for learning as a subsequent segment of the developmental process. (shrink)

Focusing on the discovery of weak currents, the current debate on the theory-ladenness of observation in modern physics might be too narrow, as it concerns only the last stage of a complex experimental process and statistical methods required to analyze data. The scope of the debate should be extended to include broader experimental conditions that concern the design of the apparatus and different levels of the detection process. These neglected conditions often decisively delimit experiments long before the last stage has (...) been reached, thus predetermining the extent of the dependence of data production on the theory. I explain the nature of these conditions and the theory-ladenness tendencies they produce, noting how they affect the last stage of the data analysis and providing some relevant examples. (shrink)

A recent rethinking of the early history of Quantum Mechanics deemed the late 1920s agreement on the equivalence of Matrix Mechanics and Wave Mechanics, prompted by Schrödinger’s 1926 proof, a myth. Schrödinger supposedly failed to achieve the goal of proving isomorphism of the mathematical structures of the two theories, while only later developments in the early 1930s, especially the work of mathematician John von Neumman (1932) provided sound proof of equivalence. The alleged agreement about the Copenhagen Interpretation, predicated to a (...) large extent on this equivalence, was deemed a myth as well. If such analysis is correct, it provides considerable evidence that, in its critical moments, the foundations of scientific practice might not live up to the minimal standards of rigor, as such standards are established in the practice of logic, mathematics, and mathematical physics, thereby prompting one to question the rationality of the practice of physics. In response, I argue that Schrödinger’s proof concerned primarily a domain-specific ontological equivalence, rather than the isomorphism. It stemmed initially from the agreement of the eigenvalues of Wave Mechanics and energy-states of Bohr’s Model that was discovered and published by Schrödinger in his First and Second Communications of 1926. Schrödinger demonstrated in this proof that the laws of motion arrived at by the method of Matrix Mechanics could be derived successfully from eigenfunctions as well (while he only outlined the reversed derivation of eigenfunctions from Matrix Mechanics, which was necessary for the proof of isomorphism of the two theories). This result was intended to demonstrate the domain-specific ontological equivalence of Matrix Mechanics and Wave Mechanics, with respect to the domain of Bohr’s atom. And although the full-fledged mathematico-logical equivalence of the theories did not seem out of the reach of existing theories and methods, Schrödinger never intended to fully explore such a possibility in his proof paper. In a further development of Quantum Mechanics, Bohr’s complementarity and Copenhagen Interpretation captured a more substantial convergence of the subsequently revised (in light of the experimental results) Wave and Matrix Mechanics. I argue that both the equivalence and Copenhagen Interpretation can be deemed myths if one predicates the philosophical and historical analysis on a narrow model of physical theory which disregards its historical context, and focuses exclusively on its formal aspects and the exploration of the logical models supposedly implicit in it. (shrink)

Autor u radu, pod vidom egzistencijalnog razvoja subjekta, tematizira značaj slobode u filozofiji Cornelia Fabra. Egzistencijalno djelovanje se radikalizira na način usmjeravanja ljudskog interesa prema stanovitom identitetu bitka i slobode, da bi se u konačnici došlo do dobra, vlastitog objekta volje. Putem integrativnog pristupa, propituje se mogućnost govora slobode kao ljudskog govora u kojemu dolazi do dijalektičkog prevladavanja unutarnjih tenzija i istovremenog pozitivnog odnosa između slobode, volje i razuma. Na koncu se pokazuje kako bitak pridonosi aktualizaciji ljudskog bića, dok sloboda (...) čovjeka stavlja pred izazov samoaktualizacije.Diese wissenschaftliche Arbeit diskutiert die Bedeutung der Freiheit unter dem Deckmantel der Existenzphilosophie in der Entwicklung des Subjekts von C. Fabro. Existentielle Wirkung wird in der Art und Weise des menschlichen Interesses durch gezielte eine bestimmte Identität vom Wesen und der Freiheit radikalisiert, um letzendlich das Gute zu finden und eigenen Willen durchzusetzen. Durch integrative Ansätze, stellt man die Möglichkeit der Redefreiheit, wie die menschliche Sprache, bei der es zur dialektischen Überwindung der internen Spannungen kommt und gleichzeitig positive Beziehung zwischen der Freiheit, dem Willen und der Vernunft in Frage. Schließlich wird gezeigt, wie das Wesen zur Verwirklichung des Menschen beiträgt und die Freiheit des Menschen stellt die Herausforderung für die Selbstverwirklichung. (shrink)

Die Investiturstreit-Episode in der Alexias Anna Komnenes ist bemerkenswert detailliert. Neben der Kontroverse um die Simonie, wird auch die Frage der Rechtbzw. Unrechtmäßigkeit des Pontifikats Gregors VII. thematisiert, ebenso die Gegenkönigserhebung Rudolfs von Rheinfelden, die Schlacht an der Weißen Elster, der Tod des Gegenkönigs sowie das Bündnis zwischen Gregor VII. und Robert Guiscard. Der Normannenherzog ist der Anknüpfungspunkt der Autorin für die Ereignisse des Investiturstreits, der Grund dafür, dass dieser westliche Konflikt für sie von Bedeutung ist. Anna Komnenes Bericht erhält (...) jedoch auch Sondergut, Ereignisse, die sich nicht mit den westlichen Quellen in Einklang bringen lassen. Ein bedeutender Teil dieses Sonderguts ist insbesondere gegen Gregor VII. gerichtet, so etwa dessen Misshandlung der Gesandten Heinrichs IV., aber auch die suggerierte Teilnahme des Papstes an der Schlacht an der Weißen Elster. Diese antipäpstliche Tendenz dominiert die gesamte Episode. Sie wird nicht zuletzt an der Art und Weise deutlich, wie Anna Komnene das Aufeinandertreffen zwischen Gregor VII. und Robert Guiscard darstellt. Sie gestaltet die Begegnung als Herrschertreffen und übt somit massive Kritik an Papst Gregor VII., der sich demnach als weltlicher Herrscher geriert. Die Autorin gebraucht die stilistischen Mittel der Ironie und des Spotts, um Gregor in ein negatives Licht zu rücken. Sie präsentiert Gregor als Erfinder unmenschlicher Strafen, als überheblichen Barbaren, als Herrscher und Feldherrn, nie jedoch als einen sich seines Amtes würdig erweisenden Geistlichen. Der Umstand, dass Gregor VII. niemals beim Namen genannt, sondern anonym lediglich als 'Papst' bezeichnet wird, ist mehr als eine 'damnatio memoriae'. Durch Gregors Anonymisierung beschränkt sich die Kritik in der Alexias nicht auf das Individuum 'Gregor VII.', sondern sie wird im Gegenteil ausgeweitet auf die institutionelle Ebene des Papsttums. Die Schlechtigkeit und Boshaftigkeit Gregors VII., also des Papsttums überhaupt, in der Alexias verstärkt sich noch, wenn man diesem Verhalten dasjenige des konstantinopolitanischen Patriarchen gegenüberstellt. Ein Vergleich des in der Alexias geschilderten Verhaltensmusters des 'römischen Patriarchen' mit dem täglich erlebten Verhaltensmuster des 'konstantinopolitanischen' drängte sich dem Rezipienten der Alexias geradezu auf, so dass das päpstliche Verhalten als ὕβρις erscheinen musste. (shrink)

Čovjek je biće dijaloga, biće komunikacije, te se upravo na ovome području najuočljivije manifestiraju znakovi moguće krize. Cornelio Fabro, analizirajući komunikacijsku situaciju današnjeg čovjeka, uočava kako je tišina zamijenila govor. Razgovor sa samim sobom, bez kojega nema niti dijaloga sa drugima, supstituiran je čovjekovim pokušajem da putem umjetnosti, kulture ili filozofije uspostavi izvanjski dijalog sa svijetom koji ga okružuje. Kultura nastala u ovakvom okružju »duhovne pustinje«, kako kaže Fabro, također sama postaje kulturom egzistencijalno-duhovnog kolapsa.U radu se kritički propituje teza po (...) kojoj je čovjek osamljen, predan duhovno-kulturnoj pustinji isključivo zbog toga što se udaljio od svoga temelja, što prvenstveni interes njegova cjelokupnog istraživanja ne leži u području bitka i realnosti, nego u području mogućeg i virtualnog.Man is a being of dialogue, being of communication, and this is the area where signs of possible crisis most visibly manifest themselves. C. Fabro, analysing communicational situation of contemporary man, notices how silence have replaced speaking. Dialogue with him/herself, which is the condition for dialogue with others, is substituted by man’s endeavour in establishing external dialogue with the world around him/her, by means of art, culture and philosophy. Culture, made in circumstances of so called »spiritual desert«, itself becomes a culture of existential-spiritual collapse.This article critically examines thesis on man’s solitude, or his/hers devotion on spiritual-cultural desert, exclusively because he/she has distanced him/heself from his/her foundations, i. e. because primary interest of his/hers does not lay in the area of Being and reality, but in the area of possible and virtual. (shrink)

Prijateljstvo prati čovjeka od njegovih samih početaka, a očituje se u trajnoj dvostrukoj raspoloženosti: biti s drugim i biti netko drugome. U izlaganju se analizira Aristotelova filozofska refleksija o prijateljstvu. Osobita važnost posvećuje se trima različitim motivacijama koje ljude potiču na stupanje u različite oblike druženja ili prijateljevanja, a to su: zbog koristi, užitka ili, pak, zbog kreposti. Pokazuje se kako prijateljstvo vođeno kriterijem koristi nije istinsko prijateljstvo, jer se njime ne ostvaruje dobro osobe, nego neko korisno dobro koje osoba (...) ima, a koje drugoj osobi treba. Takvo je prijateljstvo, prijateljstvo reciprociteta u kojem se nešto dobiva, umjesto da se netko susretne radi njega samoga. Ovom tipu prijateljstva slično je prijateljstvo iz užitka, budući da ni jedan ni drugi tip prijateljstva ne počiva na bitnom principu zasnovanom na vrijednosti i dostojanstvu ljudske osobe, nego na principu ugode ili koristi kojim se ostvaruje isključivo simbiotsko-egoistični odnos.Posebno se apostrofira kako je pravo, istinsko prijateljstvo ono koje svoje utemeljenje pronalazi u sličnosti prema kreposti, te se stoga ostvaruje u blagotvornoj sličnosti prema dobroti. Naime, samo dobri mogu dobro željeti onom drugom prijatelju koji je također dobar. Prijateljstvo koje počiva na temeljima dobrote biva više prijateljstvo ukoliko se širi horizont dobrote, prave, istinske, nesebične dobrote, u kojoj se prijatelju želi dobro radi njega samoga, a ne zbog možebitne koristi koju očekujemo od njega. Kritički se propituje Aristotelovo mišljenje da nije potrebno doći samo do kreposti na osobnom planu, nego je potrebno postići i krepost na području zajednice, te je stoga za prijateljstvo od presudne važnosti, kao svojevrstan poligon kreposnog djelovanja, kakvi će odnosi vladati u društvu.Freundschaft begleitet den Menschen von Anfang an, und diese offenbart sich in einer dauerhaften zweifachen Verfügbarkeit: mit jemandem sein und für jemanden da sein. In dem Aufsatz wird Aristoteles’ philosophische Reflektierung der Freundschaft analysiert. Besondere Aufmerksamkeit gilt dabei dreierlei Motivationen, die die Menschen zu verschiedenen Freundschaftsbeziehungen anregen. Die Gründe dieser Beziehungen können Eigennutz, Vergnügen oder auch Tugend sein. Es wird gezeigt, dass die auf Eigennutz basierende Freundschaft keine wahre Freundschaft ist, weil dadurch nicht das Gute der Person verwirklicht, sondern das Gute, das eine Person hat, von einer anderen Person ausgenutzt wird. Eine solche Freundschaft nennt man Reziprozitätsfreundschaft, da man von dem anderen etwas erwartet, statt mit ihm seiner selbst wegen Umgang zu pflegen. Diesem Freundschaftstyp ähnelt die zum Vergnügen geschlossenen Freundschaft. Weder der erste noch der zweite Freundschaftstyp lehnen sich an das wesentliche, auf dem Wert und der Würde des Menschen basierende Prinzip an, sondern an das Prinzip des Eigennutzes bzw. des Vergnügens, womit ausschließlich eine symbiotisch-egoistische Beziehung verwirklicht wird.Besonders betont wird die einzig wahre Freundschaft, die sich auf der Tugend gründet und daher ihren Höhepunkt im Guten erreicht. Nur derjenige, der gut ist, kann gut zu dem anderen sein, der auch gut ist. Die auf dem Guten basierende Freundschaft ist ein erhabener Freundschaftstyp, da sich dabei der Horizont des wahrhaftigen Guten und der Selbstlosigkeit weitet und man dem Freund seiner selbst wegen das Gute gönnt und nicht, weil man von ihm etwaserwartet. Auf kritische Weise wird der Standpunkt Aristoteles’ ausgelegt, dem zufolge Tugend auf dem persönlichen Plan allein nicht ausreicht, sondern auch auf dem Plan des Gemeinwesens angestrebt werden muss. Deshalb hängt von der Freundschaft als einem Ausübungsplatz tugendhaften Handelns ab, wie sich die zwischenmenschlichen Beziehungen in der Gesellschaft gestalten. (shrink)

Molly Farneth, Hegel’s Social Ethics: Religion, Conflict, and Rituals of Reconciliation, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 2017 Slobodan Golubović.

E. Schrödinger's ideas on interpreting quantum mechanics have been recently re-examined by historians and revived by philosophers of quantum mechanics. Such recent re-evaluations have focused on Schrödinger's retention of space–time continuity and his relinquishment of the corpuscularian understanding of microphysical systems. Several of these historical re-examinations claim that Schrödinger refrained from pursuing his 1926 wave-mechanical interpretation of quantum mechanics under pressure from the Copenhagen and Göttingen physicists, who misinterpreted his ideas in their dogmatic pursuit of the complementarity doctrine and the (...) principle of uncertainty. My analysis points to very different reasons for Schrödinger's decision and, accordingly, to a rather different understanding of the dialogue between Schrödinger and N. Bohr, who refuted Schrödinger's arguments. Bohr's critique of Schrödinger's arguments predominantly focused on the results of experiments on the scattering of electrons performed by Bothe and Geiger, and by Compton and Simon. Although he shared Schrödinger's rejection of full-blown classical entities, Bohr argued that these results demonstrated the corpuscular nature of atomic interactions. I argue that it was Schrödinger's agreement with Bohr's critique, not the dogmatic pressure, which led him to give up pursuing his interpretation for 7 yr. Bohr's critique reflected his deep understanding of Schrödinger's ideas and motivated, at least in part, his own pursuit of his complementarity principle. However, in 1935 Schrödinger revived and reformulated the wave-mechanical interpretation. The revival reflected N. F. Mott's novel wave-mechanical treatment of particle-like properties. R. Shankland's experiment, which demonstrated an apparent conflict with the results of Bothe–Geiger and Compton–Simon, may have been additional motivation for the revival. Subsequent measurements have proven the original experimental results accurate, and I argue that Schrödinger may have perceived even the reformulated wave-mechanical approach as too tenuous in light of Bohr's critique. (shrink)

We argue that inductive analysis and operational assessment of the scientific process can be justifiably and fruitfully brought together, whereby the citation metrics used in the operational analysis can effectively track the inductive dynamics and measure the research efficiency. We specify the conditions for the use of such inductive streamlining, demonstrate it in the cases of high energy physics experimentation and phylogenetic research, and propose a test of the method’s applicability.

Ian Hacking has argued that the notions of experiment and observation are distinct, not even the opposite ends of a continuum. More recently, other authors have emphasised their continuity, saying...

This paper describes the main features and goals of the speculative work in modern sciences that has greatly accelerated since World War II due to the exponential increase in computing power and newly available theoretical and conceptual tools. It points to the long historical strand of speculative philosophical work in symbiosis with the sciences, suggests the reasons for its unexpected neglect in contemporary professional philosophy of science, why it should be a major approach, and why such pursuit is not inevitable. (...) Finally, the paper outlines potential topics, fields, and tools for such collaborative work and argues it is likelier to be more fruitful today than at any point in the past hundred years. (shrink)

In Bk. 3 of the Institutio oratoria, Quintilian gives a list of the Greek artium scriptores of the classical epoch (1.8ff.). It contains a controversial entry: ‘…et, quem Palameden Plato appellat, Alcidamas Elaites’ (1.10). The historicity of the rhetorician and sophist from Elaea named Alcidamas, Gorgias' pupil, is of course beyond doubt; scholars disagree only as to the ‘quem Palameden Plato appellat’.

This paper is analysing the relationship between totalitarianism and art. The following questions are being thematised: whether totalitarianism and art can actually coexist and whether their conflict is truly inevitable, whether and what kind of art can exist within the totalitarian framework, and, in line with the basic concept of this paper, whether any significant artwork was produced during the Nazism era. This paper also considers the attitude of Nazi ideology towards certain forms of art, such as sculpture, film, literature (...) and painting, as well as the segments of Nazi repression in terms of artistic expression. (shrink)

In this paper, we consider the notion of a moral model, trying to point out the important definitions of this status, as well as certain dilemmas that exist in terms of value determination in relation to this phenomenon. In the introductory part, the complexity of the sphere of moral action is considered, as well as the criteria that are relevant for determining the status of a moral role model. We tried to conduct our analysis of this notion in the context (...) of considering several areas of sociability (politics, religion, patriotism) within which the notion of moral model has its significant place. (shrink)