Metaphors that compare the computer to a human brain are common in computer science and can be traced back to a fertile period of research that unfolded after the Second World War. To conceptualize the emerging ‘intelligent’ properties of computing machines, researchers of the era created a series of virtual objects that served as interpretive devices for representing the immaterial functions of the computer. This paper analyses the use of the terms artificial and virtual in scientific papers, textbooks, and popular articles of the time, and examines how, together, they shaped models in computer science used to conceptualize computer processes.
{"title":"The Ghost in the Machine: Metaphors of the ‘Virtual’ and the ‘Artificial’ in Post-WW2 Computer Science","authors":"Joseph Wilson","doi":"10.1162/posc_a_00611","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/posc_a_00611","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Metaphors that compare the computer to a human brain are common in computer science and can be traced back to a fertile period of research that unfolded after the Second World War. To conceptualize the emerging ‘intelligent’ properties of computing machines, researchers of the era created a series of virtual objects that served as interpretive devices for representing the immaterial functions of the computer. This paper analyses the use of the terms artificial and virtual in scientific papers, textbooks, and popular articles of the time, and examines how, together, they shaped models in computer science used to conceptualize computer processes.","PeriodicalId":19867,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Science","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77356611","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The term “virtual entities” has a long tradition and a variety of meanings. My short article focuses on one particular meaning, as clearly defined by Charles Sanders Peirce in 1902. I will discuss the definition he provided and touch on the wide resonance it had and still has in science.
{"title":"How to Conceive Virtual Entities: Peirce’s Proposal","authors":"F. Steinle","doi":"10.1162/posc_a_00606","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/posc_a_00606","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The term “virtual entities” has a long tradition and a variety of meanings. My short article focuses on one particular meaning, as clearly defined by Charles Sanders Peirce in 1902. I will discuss the definition he provided and touch on the wide resonance it had and still has in science.","PeriodicalId":19867,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Science","volume":"183 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83027291","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
What should citizens understand about science to participate in democratic life? Against the prevailing approach, we argue that “what” a public understanding of science is about strongly depends on the specific epistemological nature of the science-related issues considered in the different contexts and circumstances. We identify three specific categories of such issues and show how, equally, specific models of public understanding are required to address them. Only by endorsing such an alternative approach will citizens arguably be able to form sound opinions about those very issues, as well as to discuss and deliberate rationally about them.
{"title":"Understanding What in Public Understanding of Science","authors":"E. Montuschi, B. Bedessem","doi":"10.1162/posc_a_00603","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/posc_a_00603","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 What should citizens understand about science to participate in democratic life? Against the prevailing approach, we argue that “what” a public understanding of science is about strongly depends on the specific epistemological nature of the science-related issues considered in the different contexts and circumstances. We identify three specific categories of such issues and show how, equally, specific models of public understanding are required to address them. Only by endorsing such an alternative approach will citizens arguably be able to form sound opinions about those very issues, as well as to discuss and deliberate rationally about them.","PeriodicalId":19867,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Science","volume":"10 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88720345","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper studies the notion of virtuality in the Bohr-Kramers-Slater theory of 1924. We situate the virtual entities of BKS within the tradition of the correspondence principle and the radiation theory of the Bohr model. We show how, in this context, virtual oscillators emerged as classical substitute radiators and were used to describe the otherwise elusive quantum transitions. They played an effective role in the quantum theory of radiation while remaining categorically distinct and ontologically separated from the quantum world of the Bohr model. The notion of virtuality thus differs markedly from its counterpart in quantum mechanics or QFT.
{"title":"Real Virtuality and Actual Transitions: Historical Reflections on Virtual Entities before Quantum Field Theory","authors":"A. Blum, Martin Jähnert","doi":"10.1162/posc_a_00609","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/posc_a_00609","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This paper studies the notion of virtuality in the Bohr-Kramers-Slater theory of 1924. We situate the virtual entities of BKS within the tradition of the correspondence principle and the radiation theory of the Bohr model. We show how, in this context, virtual oscillators emerged as classical substitute radiators and were used to describe the otherwise elusive quantum transitions. They played an effective role in the quantum theory of radiation while remaining categorically distinct and ontologically separated from the quantum world of the Bohr model. The notion of virtuality thus differs markedly from its counterpart in quantum mechanics or QFT.","PeriodicalId":19867,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Science","volume":"23 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88577950","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article discusses the meaning of the notion of virtuality in modern physics. To this end, it develops considerations on the introduction and establishment in nuclear physics of two independent concepts at the turn of the 1920s and 1930s: that of the virtual state, used in the context of neutron scattering studies, and that of the virtual transition, useful for the theoretical understanding of strong nuclear forces, which forms the basis of what are now called virtual particles. Their comparative analysis highlights the theoretical nature of virtual entities and processes in modern physics. It also shows how the virtual has been associated with various purely physical attributes, leading to a form of polysemy of the term, from the beginning of the application of these concepts.
{"title":"Virtuality in modern physics in the 1920s and 1930s: Meaning(s) of an emerging notion","authors":"Jean-Philippe Martinez","doi":"10.1162/posc_a_00610","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/posc_a_00610","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article discusses the meaning of the notion of virtuality in modern physics. To this end, it develops considerations on the introduction and establishment in nuclear physics of two independent concepts at the turn of the 1920s and 1930s: that of the virtual state, used in the context of neutron scattering studies, and that of the virtual transition, useful for the theoretical understanding of strong nuclear forces, which forms the basis of what are now called virtual particles. Their comparative analysis highlights the theoretical nature of virtual entities and processes in modern physics. It also shows how the virtual has been associated with various purely physical attributes, leading to a form of polysemy of the term, from the beginning of the application of these concepts.","PeriodicalId":19867,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Science","volume":"2677 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90314810","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper will not present a case study of the historical development of a virtual entity. Rather, I will develop an outlook on virtual entities in the sciences and propose a corresponding method for studying them (historically). In essence, my presentation can be considered a synthesis of different observations from the history and philosophy of science and has its roots in my dissertational research on the development of the virtual particle. Starting with a reflection on the role of presentism for the study of concept formation and development processes, I will show, through the example of the virtual particle, how current debates and interpretations can inform our access to a historical reconstruction. Following these reflections, I will argue for a pragmatist account of concepts as tools for the scientific practitioners. According to the approach presented in my article, concepts perform their functions through representations, and I will lay special focus on verbal representations and their different functions within scientific reasoning. In conclusion, I will frame the outcome of my discussion in terms of a proposal that might, through further research, enrich our understanding of virtual entities in the sciences.
{"title":"How to study virtual entities historically? A proposal","authors":"Markus Ehberger","doi":"10.1162/posc_a_00607","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/posc_a_00607","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This paper will not present a case study of the historical development of a virtual entity. Rather, I will develop an outlook on virtual entities in the sciences and propose a corresponding method for studying them (historically). In essence, my presentation can be considered a synthesis of different observations from the history and philosophy of science and has its roots in my dissertational research on the development of the virtual particle. Starting with a reflection on the role of presentism for the study of concept formation and development processes, I will show, through the example of the virtual particle, how current debates and interpretations can inform our access to a historical reconstruction. Following these reflections, I will argue for a pragmatist account of concepts as tools for the scientific practitioners. According to the approach presented in my article, concepts perform their functions through representations, and I will lay special focus on verbal representations and their different functions within scientific reasoning. In conclusion, I will frame the outcome of my discussion in terms of a proposal that might, through further research, enrich our understanding of virtual entities in the sciences.","PeriodicalId":19867,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Science","volume":"76 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75491024","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Introduction: Maine de Biran and the Afterlives of Biranism","authors":"Alessandra Aloisi, Delphine Antoine-Mahut","doi":"10.1162/posc_e_00595","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/posc_e_00595","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":19867,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Science","volume":"5 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77331076","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Focusing on the reception of Maine de Biran by Alexis Bertrandin his thesis, L’aperception du corps humain par la conscience (1880), in order to demonstrate four issues. First, how the “corps propre” (one’s own body) becomes the pivot of a reorientation of spiritualism. Then, how neo-Biranism brings about a wide range of profoundly phenomenological issues, in particular relating to the image of the body, the primitive space or the engagement with the world and its epistemological and moral consequences. Then, how Biran’s philosophy leads to a critique of mechanistic epistemology, especially of the concept of reflex, which in turn enables a connection to be made between genesis of the concept of one’s own body and the history of physiology and vitalism. Lastly, how, in this context, Bertrand proposes an animistic metaphysics, aiming to reconcile his Biranism with the advances of science.
{"title":"The Biranian spiritualism of Alexis Bertrand: a philosophy of one’s own body?","authors":"Romain Hacques","doi":"10.1162/posc_a_00599","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/posc_a_00599","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Focusing on the reception of Maine de Biran by Alexis Bertrandin his thesis, L’aperception du corps humain par la conscience (1880), in order to demonstrate four issues. First, how the “corps propre” (one’s own body) becomes the pivot of a reorientation of spiritualism. Then, how neo-Biranism brings about a wide range of profoundly phenomenological issues, in particular relating to the image of the body, the primitive space or the engagement with the world and its epistemological and moral consequences. Then, how Biran’s philosophy leads to a critique of mechanistic epistemology, especially of the concept of reflex, which in turn enables a connection to be made between genesis of the concept of one’s own body and the history of physiology and vitalism. Lastly, how, in this context, Bertrand proposes an animistic metaphysics, aiming to reconcile his Biranism with the advances of science.","PeriodicalId":19867,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Science","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75340255","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Leibniz is one of the philosophers who is most present in the philosophy of Maine de Biran, particularly from 1813 onwards. His influence is decisive in the reform of metaphysics (or First Philosophy) that he carries out from that moment on, reviving the notion of substance. Leibniz allows him to reconcile it with the idea of force, and thus to link it to the primitive fact of consciousness. This move has often been emphasized by commentators, but what has been less studied is the way in which this reform takes place in Biran’s intellectual trajectory from the time when he claimed to be an Ideologist inspired by Condillac’s philosophy, to the last texts written in 1824, when he eventually adopted a spiritualist monism that owed much to Leibniz, abandoning the Cartesian-inspired metaphysical dualism to which he had been committed until then.
{"title":"On the Reform of the First Philosophy: After Leibniz, Maine de Biran","authors":"B. Baertschi","doi":"10.1162/posc_a_00596","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/posc_a_00596","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Leibniz is one of the philosophers who is most present in the philosophy of Maine de Biran, particularly from 1813 onwards. His influence is decisive in the reform of metaphysics (or First Philosophy) that he carries out from that moment on, reviving the notion of substance. Leibniz allows him to reconcile it with the idea of force, and thus to link it to the primitive fact of consciousness. This move has often been emphasized by commentators, but what has been less studied is the way in which this reform takes place in Biran’s intellectual trajectory from the time when he claimed to be an Ideologist inspired by Condillac’s philosophy, to the last texts written in 1824, when he eventually adopted a spiritualist monism that owed much to Leibniz, abandoning the Cartesian-inspired metaphysical dualism to which he had been committed until then.","PeriodicalId":19867,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Science","volume":"26 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84689026","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The foundation of morality, and mainly, the possibility of moral sentiments that are universal and inalienable, is a central problem in Maine de Biran’s philosophy. Many studies focus on the part played by the self in Maine de Biran’s late philosophy, but relatively few consider with precision the importance of the concept of sympathy in this context. In this paper, I would like to show that this concept, which Biran mobilizes from his first to his last writings, is an important conceptual resource in his enterprise of founding morality. I will draw on three main texts that cover almost the entire period in which he wrote, namely, his Mémoire sur l’influence de l’habitude sur la faculté de penser, his Mémoire sur les perceptions obscures ou sur les impressions générales affectives et les sympathies en particulier, and his Fragments relatifs aux fondements de la morale et de la religion. The main finding is that sympathy occupies a central place in this enterprise of moral foundation but undergoes profound and almost contradictory conceptual re-elaborations throughout Biran’s intellectual journey. Although in his first philosophical texts Biran concentrates on the fundamental dimension of organic sympathy, he rejects it almost entirely in his last texts in favor of an analysis of the sympathy between the selves.
{"title":"Sympathy and moral sentiments in Maine de Biran’s philosophy","authors":"Sanchez Grégoire","doi":"10.1162/posc_a_00597","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/posc_a_00597","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The foundation of morality, and mainly, the possibility of moral sentiments that are universal and inalienable, is a central problem in Maine de Biran’s philosophy. Many studies focus on the part played by the self in Maine de Biran’s late philosophy, but relatively few consider with precision the importance of the concept of sympathy in this context. In this paper, I would like to show that this concept, which Biran mobilizes from his first to his last writings, is an important conceptual resource in his enterprise of founding morality. I will draw on three main texts that cover almost the entire period in which he wrote, namely, his Mémoire sur l’influence de l’habitude sur la faculté de penser, his Mémoire sur les perceptions obscures ou sur les impressions générales affectives et les sympathies en particulier, and his Fragments relatifs aux fondements de la morale et de la religion. The main finding is that sympathy occupies a central place in this enterprise of moral foundation but undergoes profound and almost contradictory conceptual re-elaborations throughout Biran’s intellectual journey. Although in his first philosophical texts Biran concentrates on the fundamental dimension of organic sympathy, he rejects it almost entirely in his last texts in favor of an analysis of the sympathy between the selves.","PeriodicalId":19867,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Science","volume":"95 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85514941","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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