Hájek (Erkenntnis 70(2):211–235, 2009) argues that probabilities cannot be the limits of relative frequencies in counterfactual infinite sequences. I argue for a different understanding of these limits, drawing on Norton’s (Philos Sci 79(2):207–232, 2012) distinction between approximations (inexact descriptions of a target) and idealizations (separate models that bear analogies to the target). Then, I adapt Hájek’s arguments to this new context. These arguments provide excellent reasons not to use hypothetical frequencies as idealizations, but no reason not to use them as (...) approximations. (shrink)

Science is undergoing an identity crisis! A renown psychologist and biologist diagnoses our age of wishful, magical thinking and blasts out a clarion call for a return to reason and the search for objective knowledge and truth. Fans of Matt Ridley and Nicholas Wade will adore this trenchant meditation and call to action. Science is in trouble. Real questions in desperate need of answers—especially those surrounding ethnicity, gender, climate change, and almost anything related to ‘health and safety’—are swiftly buckling to (...) the fiery societal demands of what ought to be rather than what is. These foregone conclusions may be comforting, but each capitulation to modernity’s whims threatens the integrity of scientific inquiry. Can true, fact-based discovery be redeemed? In Science in the Age of Unreason, legendary professor of psychology and biology, John Staddon, unveils the identity crisis afflicting today’s scientific community, and provides an actionable path to recovery. With intellectual depth and literary flair, Staddon answers pressing questions, including: Is science, especially the science of evolution, a religion? Can ethics be derived from science at all? How sound is social science, particularly surrounding today’s most controversial topics? How can passions be separated from facts? Informed by decades of expertise, Science in the Age of Unreason is a clarion call to rebirth academia as a beacon of reason and truth in a society demanding its unconditional submission. (shrink)

Shifts in funding and a worldwide trend towards marketising higher education have led to a new emphasis on the quality of the student experience. In the UK this trend finds its strongest expression in recent policy proposals to simultaneously increase student fees and student choice so that students themselves become the drivers of higher education. We trace the policy developments of this shift over recent years and rehearse some of the criticisms against it. Accepting that there is good reason to (...) support improving the student experience, we then consider ways in which this might be achieved that foreground the relation of university teachers with their subject matter and students' engagement in this. A higher education, we argue, should expose its students to disciplines whose standards are rightly contested and to a form of learning that intensifies or unsettles desires rather than simply aspiring to satisfy them. (shrink)

Basic science -- Experiment -- Null hypothesis statistical testing -- Social science: psychology -- Social science: economics -- Behavioral economics -- "Efficient" markets -- Summing up.

This book offers a unique, critical exploration of concepts and practices of social sustainability through both a critical concept analysis as well as empirical studies of practices that undermine social sustainability. It addresses the questions: What is the main role of social relations and social practice in the transition from fundamentally unsustainable societies and local practices towards a sustainable future? And how does economical sustainability reduce or enhance social sustainability? The chapters in this work define and understand social sustainability in (...) relation to principles such as solidarity, community, welfare, reciprocity, and regenerative co-existence. These principles are analyzed through the lens of emotions, respect, carefulness, sensitivity, and art, to establish counter-principles and narratives to principles like growth, efficiency, capitalism, and mastery of nature. Such counter-narratives to mainstream understandings and histories of economy aid in shedding light on a variety of different aspects of sustainability. The book presents a methodological plurality including conceptual and empirical approaches, praxis-oriented and inductive approaches. The chapters present interdisciplinary approaches concerning welfare, ecology, sociology, organization and economy, social psychology and aesthetics and therefore appeal to a broad audience of scholars and academics. (shrink)

I defend an analog of probabilism that characterizes rationally coherent estimates for chances. Specifically, I demonstrate the following accuracy-dominance result for stochastic theories in the C*-algebraic framework: supposing an assignment of chance values is possible if and only if it is given by a pure state on a given algebra, your estimates for chances avoid accuracy-dominance if and only if they are given by a state on that algebra. When your estimates avoid accuracy-dominance (roughly: when you cannot guarantee that other (...) estimates would be more accurate), I say that they are sufficiently coherent. In formal epistemology and quantum foundations, the notion of rational coherence that gets more attention requires that you never allow for a sure loss (or “Dutch book”) in a given sort of betting game; I call this notion full coherence. I characterize when these two notions of rational coherence align, and I show that there is a quantum state giving estimates that are sufficiently coherent, but not fully coherent. (shrink)

Limits to Action: The Allocation of Individual Behavior presents the ideas and methods in the study of how individual organisms allocate their limited time and energy and the consequences of such allocation. The book is a survey of individual resource allocation, emphasizing the relationships of the concepts of utility, reinforcement, and Darwinian fitness. The chapters are arranged beginning with plants and general evolutionary considerations, through animal behavior in nature and laboratory, and ending with human behavior in suburb and institution. Topics (...) discussed include operant conditioning; the principle of diminishing returns; and issues in relation to mating strategies. Biologists, sociologists, economists, and psychologists will find the book interesting. (shrink)

One of our most sophisticated accounts of objective chance in quantum mechanics involves the Deutsch-Wallace theorem, which uses state-space symmetries to justify agents’ use of the Born rule when the quantum state is known. But Wallace argues that this theorem requires an Everettian approach to measurement. I find that this argument is unsound. I demonstrate a counter-example by applying the Deutsch-Wallace theorem to the de Broglie-Bohm pilot-wave theory.

We argue against claims that the classical ℏ → 0 limit is “singular” in a way that frustrates an eliminative reduction of classical to quantum physics. We show one precise sense in which quantum mechanics and scaling behavior can be used to recover classical mechanics exactly, without making prior reference to the classical theory. To do so, we use the tools of strict deformation quantization, which provides a rigorous way to capture the ℏ → 0 limit. We then use the (...) tools of category theory to demonstrate one way that this reduction is explanatory: it illustrates a sense in which the structure of quantum mechanics determines that of classical mechanics. (shrink)

Bundles of C*-algebras can be used to represent limits of physical theories whose algebraic structure depends on the value of a parameter. The primary example is the ℏ→0 limit of the C*-algebras of physical quantities in quantum theories, represented in the framework of strict deformation quantization. In this paper, we understand such limiting procedures in terms of the extension of a bundle of C*-algebras to some limiting value of a parameter. We prove existence and uniqueness results for such extensions. Moreover, (...) we show that such extensions are functorial for the C*-product, dynamical automorphisms, and the Lie bracket (in the ℏ→0 case) on the fiber C*-algebras. (shrink)

Recently, there has been some discussion of how Dutch Book arguments might be used to demonstrate the rational incoherence of certain hidden variable models of quantum theory. In this paper, we argue that the 'form of inconsistency' underlying this alleged irrationality is deeply and comprehensively related to the more familiar 'inconsistency' phenomenon of contextuality. Our main result is that the hierarchy of contextuality due to Abramsky and Brandenburger corresponds to a hierarchy of additivity/convexity-violations which yields formal Dutch Books of different (...) strengths. We then use this result to provide a partial assessment of whether these formal Dutch Books can be interpreted normatively. (shrink)

: En la analítica existencial de Ser y tiempo no aparece la angustia (Angst)como numero modo de encontrarse en un estado (Befindlichkeit), ni tampoco como numero fenómeno psicológico, si no mucho más que eso: la angustia es presentada como un existenciario fundamental, es decir, un encontrarse básicamente en un estado(Grundbefindlichkeit). Al sentirla, lo que se le revela al Dasein es su propio ser, mas esta experiencia puede desestabilizarlo. Es entonces cuando el Dasein busca y se afana en hallar una seguridad (...) óntica que lo lleva a una huída de sí. A partir de dicha búsqueda,sondearemos cómo la angustia, si bien tiene por un lado la esencial capacidad derevelar el ser del Dasein, tiene sin embargo, por otro lado, el poder de conducirlo a lamás absoluta enajenación de sí mismo, aun cuando se afane en hallar el camino haciasu autenticidad. In the existential analytic of Being and time, anxiety does not appear simply asa state-of-mind (Befindlichkeit), nor simply as a psychological phenomenon, but assomething much greater. Indeed, anguish appears as a fundamental existentiale, that is,a basic state-of-mind (Grundbefindlichkeit). By experiencing it, what is revealed toDasein is its very being, yet this same experience may also destabilize Dasein. It isthen that Dasein looks for and strives to find an ontical security which leads it to fleefrom itself. Taking this search as a starting point, we will probe how, whilst on theone hand, anxiety has the essential capacity to reveal Dasein´s being, it neverthelesshas, on the other hand, the power to drive Dasein in turn to the most absolutealienation from itself, even when it is striving to find the path which leads towardsauthenticity. (shrink)

Joining the dialogue on the role of management scholars, we propose to cultivate all-round scholars to fulfill the needs of our stakeholders; only by becoming responsible scholars can we achieve responsible scholarship.

En este artículo sondearemos los modos de conciencia de un sujeto que intenta desencadenarse de la voluptuosidad y del dolor, dado que la conciencia que posibilita el descubrimiento de la voluntad en cuanto cosa en sí es fruto del éxtasis de su negación. Testimonios personales del filósofo aunados con referentes platónicos y kantianos entre la conciencia empírica y la mejor, ayudarán a esclarecer el desencadenamiento de la metafísica de la voluntad. In this article we shall delve into the conscience moods (...) in a subject who intends to unchain from voluptuosness and pain, inasmuch as the conscience that makes it possible the discovery of will as the thing in itself is the fruit of its negation ecstasy. Personal testimonies of the philosopher together with Platonic and Kantian referents between the empirical conscience and the better conscience will help to elucidate the unleashing of will metaphysics. (shrink)

RESUMEN Si bien se han sondeado diversas fuentes a través de las cuales la tradición judeo-cristiana ha legitimado el especismo, seria injustamente parcial sostener que Occidente debe únicamente a su religión más popular e influyente el trato lesivo y discriminatorio hacia las demás especies. En diversas variantes, a partir de todo tipo de argumentos y supuestos, las jerarquías discriminatorias de especies no han constituido la excepción, sino más bien la regla. Esta tendencia, que está presente en diferentes cosmovisiones occidentales -y (...) aun entre teorías como las de Darwin, que dejan sin sustento teórico los fundamentos religiosos y metafísicos que suelen avalar tales prácticas especistas-, pone de manifiesto su relación sustancial con el problema de la destrucción en cuanto el ser humano ha explotado y hecho sistemáticamente desaparecer un sinfín de especies sobre la faz de la Tierra. ABSTRACT A wide range of sources is available to support the notion that the Judeo-Christian tradition has been instrumental in legitimizing speciesism. Nonetheless, it would be unfair to claim that the West's harmful and discriminatory attitude to other species proceeds solely from its historically dominant religious tradition. The construction of discriminatory species hierarchies has been the rule rather than the exception, proceeding from a variety of arguments and suppositions. This discriminatory tendency can be found in diverse Western cosmovisions; even in Darwinian theories which reject the theological and metaphysical underpinnings previously used to shore up speciesist practices. This pervasiveness suggests that the speciesist tendency is intimately bound up with the problem of destruction, understood here as the process by which human beings have exploited innumerable species, to the point of systematically rendering them extinct. (shrink)

Dutch book arguments have been applied to beliefs about the outcomes of measurements of quantum systems, but not to beliefs about quantum objects prior to measurement. In this paper, we prove a quantum version of the probabilists' Dutch book theorem that applies to both sorts of beliefs: roughly, if ideal beliefs are given by vector states, all and only Born-rule probabilities avoid Dutch books. This theorem and associated results have implications for operational and realist interpretations of the logic of a (...) Hilbert lattice. In the latter case, we show that the defenders of the eigenstate-value orthodoxy face a trilemma. Those who favor vague properties avoid the trilemma, admitting all and only those beliefs about quantum objects that avoid Dutch books. (shrink)

E n e s t e a r t í c u l o s o n d e a r é , t a n t ol a c a n a l i z a c i ó n d e l d o l o r c o mo e lest ancami ent o del suf ri mi ent o en l ospensami ent os de Schopenhauer y DeQuincey, respectivamente. En el caso delliterato inglés veremos que es (...) opuestoen términos éticos al desenlace vivencialtanto de la conciencia mej or, como lanegación de la voluntad de vivir, puestoque, mientras los placeres del opio fluyentras sueños que se transforman en terriblessufrimientos, el dolor en Schopenhaueres sublimado hasta ser convertido en elδεύτερος πλοῦς de su ética.In this paper, I shall explore the channelingof pain and the blockage of suffering inthe thoughts of Schopenhauer and DeQuincey respectively. In the case of theEnglish writer, I shall show that his view isopposite in ethical terms to the existentialoutcome both of the better conscienceand of the denial of the will to live, sincewhile the pleasures of the opium flow afterdreams that are transformed into terriblesufferings, the pain, in Schopenhauer, issublimated until it is transformed in theδεύτερος πλοῦς of his ethics. (shrink)

Este artículo sobre la despersonalización como metafísica vivencial de la voluntad de vivir deja de manifiesto que a través de fenómenos asociados a la despersonalización es posible vivenciar que no solo somos sujetos cognoscentes, sino que también en nuestra interioridad somos cosa en sí. A partir de esta vivencia sondearemos la posibilidad de hacernos autoconscientes de aquel noúmeno volente para captar la esencia íntima de las cosas, encarando a la voluntad, es decir, enfrentándose a uno mismo. He aquí cuando la (...) voluntad de vivir sale de su anonimato, encuentra su identidad y comienza el curso de su negación. This article is about depersonalization as existential metaphysics of the will to live, stating that through phenomena associated with depersonalization it is possible to experience that not only are we knowing beings, but we are also things-in-itself in our interiors. From this experience, we will explore the possibility of becoming independently conscious from that noumenon of will, to capture the intimate essence of things, facing the will, which means, facing oneself. This is when the will to live stops being anonymous, finds its identity and begins the path of its denial. (shrink)

El problema de la destrucción antropogénica de la naturaleza vincula en lo fundamental las nociones de “Antropoceno” y “ecocidio”. Este no solo implica un crimen contra la biodiversidad, sino también una forma de autodestrucción ambiental que involucra al ser humano. Una humanidad que en su desarrollo ha construido la historia y legado simbólicos avances sobre la base de la degradación del entorno es agente de esa naturaleza a la cual se enfrenta, así como (por extensión) el microcosmos incide en el (...) macrocosmos en que está inserto sin encontrarse fuera ni ser independiente de él. El objetivo de este artículo es explicar cómo, gracias a la comprensión de la naturaleza y a la naturaleza misma en cuanto razón, es posible sondear a profundidad, desde el complejo global autodestructivo, la necesidad de una ecosuicidología. Para ello, presento el sentido y el significado filosófico del término. (shrink)

Los desafíos de la Ética Ambiental en un mundo superpoblado, no buscan abogar forzosamente por un mayor control restrictivo de la natalidad, sino más bien por un autocontrol consciente del actual daño holístico. Se torna sustancial sondear la precaución que se ha de tener relativa al equilibrio en la adecuación entre el aumento de individuos que se podría conservar indefinidamente en el medio ambiente, de aquel que generaría un daño mayor. El que esta última tendencia autodestructiva haya llevado a la (...) humanidad a seguir un camino muy similar al recorrido por otras especies antes de su correspondiente colapso, lleva a pensar que como especie no hemos sido capaz de dimensionar la incidencia del especieísmo en el desarrollo interno de la creciente demográfica humana, ni menos aún de comprender la lección que nos dejaron otros seres vivos que se reprodujeron más allá de lo que el ecosistema pudo asimilar, generando las secuelas devastadoras que hoy se pueden conocer y lamentar. (shrink)

The anthropocentric destruction of nature can be viewed as a form of self-destruction, which affects individuals and also the human species. It entails active destruction of the natural surroundings that are vital for the preservation of the planet’s biodiversity. But should ecocide, or environmental self-destruction of the life of certain species, be considered an “interruption” to the life of such species, or it is part of their natural life course? Are ecocide and environmental destruction identical, or substantively different, phenomena? Prevention (...) of the death of biotic species, and of the massive destruction of abiotic species, constitutes the ultimate challenge for both environmental and animal ethics. Modern mass extinction of species can be understood as a form of speciesism, and the prevention of such extinction is the most urgent challenge for any ethics centered on the recognition of the value, or rights, of nonhuman species. (shrink)

Cuando la explicación del suicidio se aborda desde la psiquiatría, la psicología o sociología, suele prevalecer una visión crítica que persigue su prevención. En filosofía, es posible poner énfasis en tratar de entender primero, a partir de los casos concretos que atesora la historia del pensamiento, por qué muchas personas pueden llegar a percibir que sus vidas pierden valor por determinadas creencias o puntos de vista hasta el extremo de tornarse filosóficamente inviable. El caso de Mainländer enfrentará al lector a (...) una cosmovisión según la cual el trasfondo de la realidad se vuelve una experiencia tan destructiva, que resulta imposible vivirla sin terminar dañado, optándose simplemente por no perseverar más en ella. Esa ley del sufrimiento es presentada, no obstante, como necesaria para el fin último, el descanso en la paz eterna, la muerte absoluta, la nada. Este artículo sondea cómo el autor de La filosofía de la redención materializa y aduce a razones ontológicas para acabar con su vida, horas después de recibir la impresión fresca de su obra recién publicada. (shrink)

Por ser Schopenhauer un pensador que aboga expresar sensu stricto la misma conclusión racional que se hallaría sensu allegorico en algunas sabidurías de oriente que acaban en la mística, nos valdremos de su cosmovisión para luego de reflexionar sobre el camino de la negación de la voluntad de vivir, no abandonarlo, sino señalar desde éste una vía aplicada a la problemática socioambiental global mediante un vuelco crítico, impulsado por una conciencia que reintegra pacífica y activamente al renunciante de la voluntad (...) en el acontecer mundial, buscando tender hacia un horizonte socioambiental que afirme el no daño holístico sin terminar en la nada concebida como nihil privativum. (shrink)

Shifts in funding and a worldwide trend towards marketising higher education have led to a new emphasis on the quality of the student experience. In the UK this trend finds its strongest expression in recent policy proposals to simultaneously increase student fees and student choice so that students themselves become the drivers of higher education. We trace the policy developments of this shift over recent years and rehearse some of the criticisms against it. Accepting that there is good reason to (...) support improving the student experience, we then consider ways in which this might be achieved that foreground the relation of university teachers with their subject matter and students’ engagement in this. A higher education, we argue, should expose its students to disciplines whose standards are rightly contested and to a form of learning that intensifies or unsettles desires rather than simply aspiring to satisfy them. (shrink)