Unsimple Truths

Author : Sandra D. Mitchell
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226532658
Total Pages : 161 pages
Book Rating : 4.53/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Unsimple Truths written by Sandra D. Mitchell and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2009-12-15 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world is complex, but acknowledging its complexity requires an appreciation for the many roles context plays in shaping natural phenomena. In Unsimple Truths, Sandra Mitchell argues that the long-standing scientific and philosophical deference to reductive explanations founded on simple universal laws, linear causal models, and predict-and-act strategies fails to accommodate the kinds of knowledge that many contemporary sciences are providing about the world. She advocates, instead, for a new understanding that represents the rich, variegated, interdependent fabric of many levels and kinds of explanation that are integrated with one another to ground effective prediction and action. Mitchell draws from diverse fields including psychiatry, social insect biology, and studies of climate change to defend “integrative pluralism”—a theory of scientific practices that makes sense of how many natural and social sciences represent the multi-level, multi-component, dynamic structures they study. She explains how we must, in light of the now-acknowledged complexity and contingency of biological and social systems, revise how we conceptualize the world, how we investigate the world, and how we act in the world. Ultimately Unsimple Truths argues that the very idea of what should count as legitimate science itself should change.

Author : Saulo de Freitas Araujo
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108957455
Total Pages : 197 pages
Book Rating : 4.58/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Ever Not Quite written by Saulo de Freitas Araujo and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2023-06-30 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: William James made many references to pluralism throughout his career. Interestingly, many contemporary psychologists also discuss pluralism and indeed call for pluralism as a corrective to the discipline's philosophical and methodological foundations. Yet, pluralism and the purposes to which it is applied are understood in a variety of ways, and the relation of contemporary pluralism to the pluralism(s) of William James is uncertain. This book offers conceptual clarification in both contexts, first distinguishing diverse senses of pluralism in psychology and then systematically examining different forms of pluralism across the writings of James. A comparison of meanings and analysis of implications follows, aimed at illuminating what is at stake in ongoing calls for pluralism in psychology.

Author : Mariam Thalos
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199917655
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.55/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Without Hierarchy written by Mariam Thalos and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2013-05-01 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A venerable tradition in the metaphysics of science commends ontological reduction: the practice of analysis of theoretical entities into further and further proper parts, with the understanding that the original entity is nothing but the sum of these. This tradition implicitly subscribes to the principle that all the real action of the universe (also referred to as its "causation") happens at the smallest scales-at the scale of microphysics. A vast majority of metaphysicians and philosophers of science, covering a wide swath of the spectrum from reductionists to emergentists, defend this principle. It provides one pillar of the most prominent theory of science, to the effect that the sciences are organized in a hierarchy, according to the scales of measurement occupied by the phenomena they study. On this view, the fundamentality of a science is reckoned inversely to its position on that scale. This venerable tradition has been justly and vigorously countered-in physics, most notably: it is countered in quantum theory, in theories of radiation and superconduction, and most spectacularly in renormalization theories of the structure of matter. But these counters-and the profound revisions they prompt-lie just below the philosophical radar. This book illuminates these counters to the tradition principle, in order to assemble them in support of a vaster (and at its core Aristotelian) philosophical vision of sciences that are not organized within a hierarchy. In so doing, the book articulates the principle that the universe is active at absolutely all scales of measurement. This vision, as the book shows, is warranted by philosophical treatment of cardinal issues in the philosophy of science: fundamentality, causation, scientific innovation, dependence and independence, and the proprieties of explanation.

Author : Kenneth Mossman
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199330360
Total Pages : 289 pages
Book Rating : 4.62/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Complexity Paradox written by Kenneth Mossman and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014-08-26 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Living systems exhibit a fundamental contradiction: they are highly stable and reliable, yet they have the capacity to adapt to changing environmental conditions. This paradoxical behavior arises from the complexity of life--a high degree of order and cooperation that emerges from relatively simple interactions among cellular components. The Complexity Paradox proposes inventive, interdisciplinary approaches to maintaining health and managing and preventing disease by considering the totality of human biology, from the cellular level on up to entire populations of individuals. From the perspective of complexity, which acknowledges that there are limits to what we can know, Kenneth L. Mossman opens the door to understanding essential life processes in new and extraordinary ways. By tying together evolution, functional dynamics, and investigations into how the body processes energy and uses genetic information, Mossman's analysis expresses a unified theory of biology that fills a critical niche for future research in biology, medicine, and public health.

Author : Faye S. Taxman
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317402820
Total Pages : 650 pages
Book Rating : 4.24/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Handbook on Risk and Need Assessment written by Faye S. Taxman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-11-10 with total page 650 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Handbook on Risk and Need Assessment: Theory and Practice covers risk assessments for individuals being considered for parole or probation. Evidence-based approaches to such decisions help take the emotion and politics out of community corrections. As the United States begins to back away from ineffective, expensive policies of mass incarceration, this handbook will provide the resources needed to help ensure both public safety and the effective rehabilitation of offenders. The ASC Division on Corrections & Sentencing Handbook Series will publish volumes on topics ranging from violence risk assessment to specialty courts for drug users, veterans, or the mentally ill. Each thematic volume focuses on a single topical issue that intersects with corrections and sentencing research.

Author : Paul Humphreys
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199368813
Total Pages : 945 pages
Book Rating : 4.15/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Science written by Paul Humphreys and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 945 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Metaphysics in science / Richard Healey -- Models and theories / Margaret Morrison -- Natural kinds / Muhammad Ali Khalidi -- Probability / Antony Eagle -- Representation in science / Mauricio Suarez -- Reduction / Andreas Huttemann and Alan C. Love -- Science and non-science / Sven Ove Hansson -- Scientific concepts / Hyundeuk Cheon and Edouard Machery -- Scientific explanation / Bradford Skow -- Scientific progress / Alexander Bird -- Scientific realism / Timothy D. Lyons -- Scientific theories / Hans Halvorson -- Values in science / Heather Douglas -- Part III. New directions. After Kuhn / Philip Kitcher -- Astronomy and astrophysics / Sibylle Anderl -- Challenges to evolutionary theory / Denis Walsh -- Complexity theory / Michael Strevens -- Computer simulation / Johannes Lenhard -- Data / Aidan Lyon -- Emergence / Paul Humphreys -- Empiricism and after / Jim Bogen -- Mechanisms and mechanical philosophy / Stuart Glennan -- Philosophy and cosmology / Claus Beisbart --

Author : Carl Death
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1134684134
Total Pages : 486 pages
Book Rating : 4.37/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Critical Environmental Politics written by Carl Death and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-12-04 with total page 486 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The aim of this book is to review central concepts in the study of environmental politics and to open up new questions, problems, and research agendas in the field. The volume does so by drawing on a wide range of approaches from critical theory to poststructuralism, and spanning disciplines including international relations, geography, sociology, history, philosophy, anthropology, and political science. The 28 chapters cover a range of global and local studies, illustrations and cases. These range from the Cochabamba conference in Bolivia to climate camps in the UK; UN summits in Rio de Janeiro and Johannesburg to climate migrants from Pacific islands; forests in Indonesia to Dutch energy governance reform; indigenous communities in Namibia to oil extraction in the Niger Delta; survivalist militias in the USA to Maasai tribesmen in Kenya. Rather than following a regional or issue-based (e.g. water, forests, pollution, etc) structure, the volume is organised in terms of key concepts in the field, including those which have been central to the social sciences for a long time (such as citizenship, commodification, consumption, feminism, justice, movements, science, security, the state, summits, and technology); those which have been at the heart of environmental politics for many years (including biodiversity, climate change, conservation, eco-centrism, limits, localism, resources, sacrifice, and sustainability); and many which have been introduced to these literatures and debates more recently (biopolitics, governance, governmentality, hybridity, posthumanism, risk, and vulnerability). Features and benefits of the book: Explains the most important concepts and theories in environmental politics. Reviews the core ideas behind crucial debates in environmental politics. Highlights the key thinkers – both classic and contemporary – for studying environmental politics. Provides original perspectives on the critical potential of the concepts for future research agendas as well as for the practice of environmental politics. Each chapter is written by leading international authors in their field. This exciting new volume will be essential textbook reading for all students of environmental politics, as well as provocatively presenting the field in a different light for more established researchers.

Author : Brad J. Kallenberg
Publisher : Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1725246708
Total Pages : 328 pages
Book Rating : 4.06/5 ( download)

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Download or read book By Design written by Brad J. Kallenberg and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2013-01-28 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Both engineering and human living take place in a messy world, one chock full of unknowns and contingencies. "Design reasoning" is the way engineers cope with real-world contingency. Because of the messiness, books about engineering design cannot have "ideal solutions" printed in the back in the same way that mathematics textbooks can. Design reasoning does not produce a single, ideally correct answer to a given problem but rather generates a wide variety of rival solutions that vie against each other for their relative level of "satisfactoriness." A reasoning process analogous to design is needed in ethics. Since the realm of interpersonal relations is itself a fluid and highly contingent real-world affair, design reasoning offers the promise of a useful paradigm for ethical reasoning. This volume undertakes two tasks. First, it employs design reasoning to illustrate how technological artifacts can be assessed for their inherent moral properties. Second, it uses the design paradigm as a means for bringing engineering ethics into conversation with Christian theology in order to show how each can be for the other a catalyst for the revolutionary task of living by design.

Author : Hans-Jörg Rheinberger
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022647478X
Total Pages : 156 pages
Book Rating : 4.86/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Gene written by Hans-Jörg Rheinberger and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2018-01-26 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few concepts played a more important role in twentieth-century life sciences than that of the gene. Yet at this moment, the field of genetics is undergoing radical conceptual transformation, and some scientists are questioning the very usefulness of the concept of the gene, arguing instead for more systemic perspectives. The time could not be better, therefore, for Hans-Jörg Rheinberger and Staffan Müller-Wille's magisterial history of the concept of the gene. Though the gene has long been the central organizing theme of biology, both conceptually and as an object of study, Rheinberger and Müller-Wille conclude that we have never even had a universally accepted, stable definition of it. Rather, the concept has been in continual flux—a state that, they contend, is typical of historically important and productive scientific concepts. It is that very openness to change and manipulation, the authors argue, that made it so useful: its very mutability enabled it to be useful while the technologies and approaches used to study and theorize about it changed dramatically.

Author : Stuart Glennan
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1003854052
Total Pages : 172 pages
Book Rating : 4.50/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Causation: The Basics written by Stuart Glennan and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-04-22 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Causation: The Basics explores questions about what causes are, and how we come to know them, describe them, and put them to use. The book begins with an introduction to the history of philosophical thinking about causation, followed by a series of chapters introducing important contemporary accounts of causation. It concludes with chapters on causation and agency, causal discovery, and causal explanation. Key questions explored in the book include: What distinguishes correlation from causation? How are the causes of singular events related to more general patterns of cause and effect? How are commonsense, scientific, and legal conceptions of causation related? Can certain occurrences be singled out as the main or principle causes of some effect? Is there a place in the world’s causal structure for human agency and free will? While introducing the major philosophical debates about the nature of causation, Causation: The Basics emphasizes the uses and challenges of causal reasoning as it occurs in the sciences, engineering, medicine, and other areas of human life. With a glossary of key terms and suggestions for further reading, the book provides readers with a clear and concise introduction to both theoretical and practical questions about causation.