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Causal reasoning from almost first principles 近乎第一原理的因果推理
IF 1.5 1区 哲学 Q1 HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE Pub Date : 2024-01-04 DOI: 10.1007/s11229-023-04442-6
Alexander Bochman
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引用次数: 0
Propter quid demonstrations: Roger Bacon on geometrical causes in natural philosophy Propter quid demonstrations:罗杰-培根论自然哲学中的几何原因
IF 1.5 1区 哲学 Q1 HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE Pub Date : 2024-01-02 DOI: 10.1007/s11229-023-04433-7
Yael Kedar
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引用次数: 0
Is the fine-tuning evidence for a multiverse? 微调是多元宇宙的证据吗?
IF 1.3 1区 哲学 Q1 HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE Pub Date : 2024-01-01 Epub Date: 2024-06-18 DOI: 10.1007/s11229-024-04621-z
Philip Goff

Our best current science seems to suggest the laws of physics and the initial conditions of our universe are fine-tuned for the possibility of life. A significant number of scientists and philosophers believe that the fine-tuning is evidence for the multiverse hypothesis. This paper will focus on a much-discussed objection to the inference from the fine-tuning to the multiverse: the charge that this line of reasoning commits the inverse gambler's fallacy. Despite the existence of a literature going back decades, this philosophical debate has made little contact with scientific discussion of fine-tuning and the multiverse, which mainly revolves around a specific form of the multiverse hypothesis rooted in eternal inflation combined with string theory. Because of this, potentially important implications from science to philosophy, and vice versa, have been left underexplored. In this paper, I will take a first step at joining up these two discussions, by arguing that attention to the eternal inflation + string theory conception of the multiverse supports the inverse gambler's fallacy charge. It does this by supporting the idea that our universe is contingently fine-tuned, thus addressing the concern that proponents of the inverse gambler's fallacy charge have assumed this without argument.

我们目前最好的科学似乎表明,物理定律和我们宇宙的初始条件对生命存在的可能性进行了微调。相当多的科学家和哲学家认为,微调是多元宇宙假说的证据。本文将重点讨论针对从微调到多元宇宙的推论所提出的一个备受讨论的反对意见:即这一推论犯了反向赌徒谬误。尽管已有数十年的文献记载,但这场哲学争论与科学界关于微调和多元宇宙的讨论几乎没有联系,而科学界的讨论主要围绕着一种特定形式的多元宇宙假说,这种假说植根于永恒膨胀与弦理论的结合。正因为如此,科学对哲学的潜在重要影响,以及哲学对科学的潜在重要影响,都没有得到充分探讨。在本文中,我将迈出第一步,把这两方面的讨论结合起来,论证对永恒膨胀+弦理论的多重宇宙概念的关注支持了反向赌徒谬误的指控。它支持了我们的宇宙是偶然微调的这一观点,从而解决了反向赌徒谬误指控的支持者不加论证地假定了这一点的担忧。
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引用次数: 0
Performative updates and the modeling of speech acts. 表演更新和言语行为建模。
IF 1.3 1区 哲学 Q1 HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE Pub Date : 2024-01-01 Epub Date: 2024-01-12 DOI: 10.1007/s11229-023-04359-0
Manfred Krifka

This paper develops a way to model performative speech acts within a framework of dynamic semantics. It introduces a distinction between performative and informative updates, where informative updates filter out indices of context sets (cf. Stalnaker, Cole (ed), Pragmatics, Academic Press, 1978), whereas performative updates change their indices (cf. Szabolcsi, Kiefer (ed), Hungarian linguistics, John Benjamins, 1982). The notion of index change is investigated in detail, identifying implementations by a function or by a relation. Declarations like the meeting is (hereby) adjourned are purely performative updates that just enforce an index change on a context set. Assertions like the meeting is (already) adjourned are analyzed as combinations of a performative update that introduces a guarantee of the speaker for the truth of the proposition, and an informative update that restricts the context set so that this proposition is true. The first update is the illocutionary act characteristic for assertions; the second is the primary perlocutionary act, and is up for negotiations with the addressee. Several other speech acts will be discussed, in particular commissives, directives, exclamatives, optatives, and definitions, which are all performative, and differ from related assertions. The paper concludes a discussion of locutionary acts, which are modelled as index changers as well, and proposes a novel analysis for the performative marker hereby.

本文提出了一种在动态语义学框架内建立表演性言语行为模型的方法。它引入了表演性更新和信息性更新之间的区别,其中信息性更新会过滤掉语境集的索引(参见 Stalnaker, Cole(编),《语用学》,学术出版社,1978 年),而表演性更新则会改变其索引(参见 Szabolcsi, Kiefer(编),《匈牙利语言学》,John Benjamins,1982 年)。对索引变化的概念进行了详细研究,确定了通过函数或关系的实现方式。会议(特此)休会 "之类的声明是纯粹的执行性更新,只是在上下文集合上强制执行索引变化。像 "会议(已经)散会 "这样的断言被分析为两个更新的组合:一个是执行性更新,它引入了说话者对命题真实性的保证;另一个是信息性更新,它限制了上下文集,从而使该命题为真。第一个更新是断言所特有的言语行为;第二个更新是主要的会话行为,需要与收信人协商。本文还将讨论其他几种言语行为,特别是祈使句、指令句、感叹句、选择句和定义句,它们都是执行行为,与相关的断言有所不同。本文最后还将讨论定位行为,这些行为也被模拟为索引改变者,并对表演性标记 "hereby "提出了新的分析方法。
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引用次数: 0
Salient semantics. 突出语义。
IF 1.3 1区 哲学 Q1 HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE Pub Date : 2024-01-01 Epub Date: 2024-07-17 DOI: 10.1007/s11229-024-04669-x
Kevin Reuter

Semantic features are components of concepts. In philosophy, there is a predominant focus on those features that are necessary (and jointly sufficient) for the application of a concept. Consequently, the method of cases has been the paradigm tool among philosophers, including experimental philosophers. However, whether a feature is salient is often far more important for cognitive processes like memory, categorization, recognition and even decision-making than whether it is necessary. The primary objective of this paper is to emphasize the significance of researching salient features of concepts. I thereby advocate the use of semantic feature production tasks, which not only enable researchers to determine whether a feature is salient, but also provide a complementary method for studying ordinary language use. I will discuss empirical data on three concepts, conspiracy theory, female/male professor, and life, to illustrate that semantic feature production tasks can help philosophers (a) identify those salient features that play a central role in our reasoning about and with concepts, (b) examine socially relevant stereotypes, and (c) investigate the structure of concepts.

语义特征是概念的组成部分。在哲学中,人们主要关注那些对概念的应用来说是必要的(以及共同充分的)特征。因此,案例方法一直是哲学家(包括实验哲学家)的范式工具。然而,对于记忆、分类、识别甚至决策等认知过程而言,一个特征是否突出往往要比它是否必要重要得多。本文的主要目的是强调研究概念显著特征的重要性。因此,我主张使用语义特征生成任务,它不仅能让研究人员确定某个特征是否突出,还能为研究普通语言的使用提供一种补充方法。我将讨论有关阴谋论、女性/男性教授和生命这三个概念的经验数据,以说明语义特征生成任务可以帮助哲学家:(a)识别那些在我们推理概念和使用概念时起核心作用的突出特征;(b)研究与社会相关的刻板印象;以及(c)研究概念的结构。
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引用次数: 0
Partners in crime? Radical scepticism and malevolent global conspiracy theories. 犯罪伙伴?激进的怀疑论和恶意的全球阴谋论。
IF 1.3 1区 哲学 Q1 HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE Pub Date : 2024-01-01 Epub Date: 2024-08-30 DOI: 10.1007/s11229-024-04736-3
Genia Schönbaumsfeld

Although academic work on conspiracy theory has taken off in the last two decades, both in other disciplines as well as in epistemology, the similarities between global sceptical scenarios and global conspiracy theories have not been the focus of attention. The main reason for this lacuna probably stems from the fact that most philosophers take radical scepticism very seriously, while, for the most part, regarding 'conspiracy thinking' as epistemically defective. Defenders of conspiracy theory, on the other hand, tend not to be that interested in undermining radical scepticism, since their primary goal is to save conspiracy theories from the charges of irrationality. In this paper, I argue that radical sceptical scenarios and global conspiracy theories exhibit importantly similar features, which raises a serious dilemma for the 'orthodox' view that holds that while we must respond to radical scepticism, global conspiracy theories can just be dismissed. For, if, as I will show, both scenarios can be seen to be epistemically on a par, then either radical sceptical scenarios are as irrational as global conspiracy theories or neither type of scenario is intrinsically irrational. I argue for the first option by introducing a distinction between 'local' and 'global' sceptical scenarios and showing how this distinction maps onto contemporary debates concerning how best to understand the notion of a 'conspiracy theory'. I demonstrate that, just as in the case of scepticism, 'local' conspiracies are, at least in principle, detectable and, hence, epistemically unproblematic, while global conspiracy theories, like radical scepticism, are essentially invulnerable to any potential counterevidence. This renders them theoretically vacuous and idle, as everything and nothing is compatible with what these 'theories' assert. I also show that radical sceptical scenarios and global conspiracy theories face the self-undermining problem: As soon as global unreliability is posited, the ensuing radical doubt swallows its children - the coherence of the sceptic's proposal or the conspiracy theorist's preferred conspiracy. I conclude that radical sceptical scenarios and global conspiracy theories are indeed partners in crime and should, therefore, be regarded as equally dubious.

尽管在过去二十年里,其他学科和认识论领域关于阴谋论的学术研究都在蓬勃发展,但全球怀疑论情景与全球阴谋论之间的相似性并没有成为关注的焦点。造成这种空白的主要原因可能是,大多数哲学家都非常认真地对待激进怀疑论,而在大多数情况下,却认为 "阴谋论思维 "在认识论上是有缺陷的。另一方面,阴谋论的辩护者往往对破坏激进怀疑论不感兴趣,因为他们的主要目标是使阴谋论免于非理性的指控。在本文中,我认为激进怀疑论和全球阴谋论表现出了重要的相似特征,这给 "正统 "观点提出了一个严重的难题,这种观点认为我们必须对激进怀疑论做出回应,而全球阴谋论则可以不予理会。因为,如果正如我将要展示的那样,这两种情况在认识论上可以被视为同等的,那么要么激进怀疑论与全球阴谋论一样都是非理性的,要么这两种情况本质上都不是非理性的。我通过引入 "地方性 "和 "全球性 "怀疑论情景之间的区别,论证了第一种选择,并展示了这种区别是如何映射到当代关于如何最好地理解 "阴谋论 "概念的争论中的。我证明,就像怀疑论一样,'地方性'阴谋至少在原则上是可以被发现的,因此在认识论上是没有问题的,而全球性阴谋论,就像激进怀疑论一样,基本上对任何潜在的反证都是无懈可击的。这使得它们在理论上空洞无物,因为一切都与这些 "理论 "所断言的不谋而合。我还指出,激进怀疑论和全球阴谋论都面临着自我毁灭的问题:只要提出全球不可靠,随之而来的激进怀疑就会吞噬它的孩子--怀疑论者的提议或阴谋论者所偏爱的阴谋的一致性。我的结论是,激进的怀疑论和全球阴谋论确实是犯罪同伙,因此应被视为同样可疑。
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引用次数: 0
Ethno-racial categorisations for biomedical studies: the fair selection of research participants and population stratification. 生物医学研究的民族-种族分类:公平选择研究参与者和人口分层。
IF 1.3 1区 哲学 Q1 HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE Pub Date : 2024-01-01 Epub Date: 2024-10-02 DOI: 10.1007/s11229-024-04769-8
Tomasz Żuradzki, Joanna Karolina Malinowska

We argue that there are neither scientific nor social reasons to require gathering ethno-racial data, as defined in the US legal regulations if researchers have no prior hypotheses as to how to connect this type of categorisation of human participants of clinical trials with any mechanisms that could explain alleged interracial health differences and guide treatment choice. Although we agree with the normative perspective embedded in the calls for the fair selection of participants for biomedical research, we demonstrate that current attempts to provide and elucidate the criteria for the fair selection of participants, in particular, taking into account ethno-racial categories, overlook important epistemic and normative challenges to implement the results of such race-sorting requirements. We discuss existing arguments for and against gathering ethno-racial statistics for biomedical research and present a new one that refers to the assumption that prediction is epistemically superior to accommodation. We also underline the importance of closer interaction between research ethics and the methodology of biomedicine in the case of population stratifications for medical research, which requires weighing non-epistemic values with methodological constraints.

我们认为,如果研究人员事先没有假设如何将临床试验参与者的这种分类与任何可以解释所谓的种族间健康差异和指导治疗选择的机制联系起来,那么要求收集美国法律规定的人种数据既没有科学理由,也没有社会理由。尽管我们同意公平选择生物医学研究参与者的呼吁中所包含的规范性观点,但我们证明,目前试图提供和阐明公平选择参与者的标准,特别是考虑到民族-种族类别的标准,忽视了在实施这种种族分类要求的结果时所面临的认识论和规范性方面的重要挑战。我们讨论了支持和反对在生物医学研究中收集民族-种族统计数据的现有论点,并提出了一个新的论点,即假设预测在认识论上优于通融。我们还强调了在医学研究中进行人口分层时,研究伦理与生物医学方法之间更紧密互动的重要性,这需要权衡非认识论价值与方法论限制。
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引用次数: 0
Natural language syntax complies with the free-energy principle. 自然语言语法符合自由能原理。
IF 1.3 1区 哲学 Q1 HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE Pub Date : 2024-01-01 Epub Date: 2024-05-03 DOI: 10.1007/s11229-024-04566-3
Elliot Murphy, Emma Holmes, Karl Friston

Natural language syntax yields an unbounded array of hierarchically structured expressions. We claim that these are used in the service of active inference in accord with the free-energy principle (FEP). While conceptual advances alongside modelling and simulation work have attempted to connect speech segmentation and linguistic communication with the FEP, we extend this program to the underlying computations responsible for generating syntactic objects. We argue that recently proposed principles of economy in language design-such as "minimal search" criteria from theoretical syntax-adhere to the FEP. This affords a greater degree of explanatory power to the FEP-with respect to higher language functions-and offers linguistics a grounding in first principles with respect to computability. While we mostly focus on building new principled conceptual relations between syntax and the FEP, we also show through a sample of preliminary examples how both tree-geometric depth and a Kolmogorov complexity estimate (recruiting a Lempel-Ziv compression algorithm) can be used to accurately predict legal operations on syntactic workspaces, directly in line with formulations of variational free energy minimization. This is used to motivate a general principle of language design that we term Turing-Chomsky Compression (TCC). We use TCC to align concerns of linguists with the normative account of self-organization furnished by the FEP, by marshalling evidence from theoretical linguistics and psycholinguistics to ground core principles of efficient syntactic computation within active inference.

自然语言语法产生了一系列无限制的分层结构表达式。我们认为,这些表达式是根据自由能原理(FEP)为主动推理服务的。虽然概念上的进步以及建模和模拟工作都试图将语音分割和语言交流与自由能原理联系起来,但我们将这一计划扩展到了负责生成句法对象的底层计算。我们认为,最近提出的语言设计经济性原则--如理论语法中的 "最小搜索 "标准--符合 FEP。这使 FEP 对高级语言功能有了更大程度的解释力,并为语言学提供了可计算性第一原则的基础。虽然我们主要关注的是在句法和 FEP 之间建立新的原则性概念关系,但我们也通过一些初步示例展示了树几何深度和柯尔莫哥洛夫复杂性估计(招募 Lempel-Ziv 压缩算法)如何直接与变异自由能最小化的公式一致,用于准确预测句法工作空间上的合法操作。这也是我们称之为图灵-乔姆斯基压缩(Turing-Chomsky Compression,TCC)的语言设计一般原则的动机。我们利用 TCC 将语言学家的关注点与 FEP 所提供的自组织规范性论述结合起来,从理论语言学和心理语言学中收集证据,将高效句法计算的核心原则建立在主动推理的基础上。
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引用次数: 0
Mandevillian vices. 曼德拉的恶习
IF 1.3 1区 哲学 Q1 HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE Pub Date : 2024-01-01 Epub Date: 2024-07-08 DOI: 10.1007/s11229-024-04676-y
Mandi Astola, Steven Bland, Mark Alfano

Bernard Mandeville argued that traits that have traditionally been seen as detrimental or reprehensible, such as greed, ambition, vanity, and the willingness to deceive, can produce significant social goods. He went so far as to suggest that a society composed of individuals who embody these vices would, under certain constraints, be better off than one composed only of those who embody the virtues of self-restraint. In the twentieth century, Mandeville's insights were taken up in economics by John Maynard Keynes, among others. More recently, philosophers have drawn analogies to Mandeville's ideas in the domains of epistemology and morality, arguing that traits that are typically understood as epistemic or moral vices (e.g. closed-mindedness, vindictiveness) can lead to beneficial outcomes for the groups in which individuals cooperate, deliberate, and decide, for instance by propitiously dividing the cognitive labor involved in critical inquiry and introducing transient diversity. We argue that mandevillian virtues have a negative counterpart, mandevillian vices, which are traits that are beneficial to or admirable in their individual possessor, but are or can be systematically detrimental to the group to which that individual belongs. Whilst virtue ethics and epistemology prescribe character traits that are good for every moral and epistemic agent, and ideally across all situations, mandevillian virtues show that group dynamics can complicate this picture. In this paper, we provide a unifying explanation of the main mechanism responsible for mandevillian traits in general and motivate the case for the opposite of mandevillian virtues, namely mandevillian vices.

伯纳德-曼德维尔(Bernard Mandeville)认为,贪婪、野心、虚荣和善于欺骗等传统上被视为有害或应受谴责的特质,可以产生重要的社会效益。他甚至认为,在某些限制条件下,一个由体现这些恶习的人组成的社会,会比一个只由体现自我克制美德的人组成的社会更好。20 世纪,约翰-梅纳德-凯恩斯等人在经济学中采纳了曼德维尔的见解。最近,哲学家们在认识论和道德领域对曼德维尔的观点进行了类比,认为那些通常被理解为认识论或道德上的恶习(如封闭性、报复性)的特质,可以为个人合作、商议和决策的群体带来有益的结果,例如,有利于分担批判性探究所涉及的认知劳动,并引入短暂的多样性。我们认为,曼德维尔美德有一个消极的对应物--曼德维尔恶行,即对其拥有者个人有益或令人钦佩的特质,但对该个人所属的群体有系统地有害或可能有害。虽然美德伦理学和认识论规定了对每个道德和认识主体都有益的性格特征,而且在所有情况下都是理想的,但 "泯灭美德 "表明,群体动态会使这一情况复杂化。在本文中,我们对造成一般 "曼德维利 "特质的主要机制做出了统一的解释,并提出了与 "曼德维利 "美德相反的情况,即 "曼德维利 "恶行。
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引用次数: 0
Bad social norms rather than bad believers: examining the role of social norms in bad beliefs. 不良社会规范而非不良信仰者:研究社会规范在不良信仰中的作用。
IF 1.5 1区 哲学 Q1 HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE Pub Date : 2024-01-01 Epub Date: 2024-02-12 DOI: 10.1007/s11229-024-04483-5
Basil Müller

People with bad beliefs - roughly beliefs that conflict with those of the relevant experts and are maintained regardless of counter-evidence - are often cast as bad believers. Such beliefs are seen to be the result of, e.g., motivated or biased cognition and believers are judged to be epistemically irrational and blameworthy in holding them. Here I develop a novel framework to explain why people form bad beliefs. People with bad beliefs follow the social epistemic norms guiding how agents are supposed to form and share beliefs within their respective communities. Beliefs go bad because these norms aren't reliably knowledge-conducive. In other words, bad beliefs aren't due to bad believers but due bad social epistemic norms. The framework also unifies different explanations of bad beliefs, is testable and provides distinct interventions to combat such beliefs. The framework also helps to capture the complex and often contextual normative landscape surrounding bad beliefs more adequately. On this picture, it's primarily groups that are to be blamed for bad beliefs. I also suggest that some individuals will be blameless for forming their beliefs in line with their group's norms, whereas others won't be. And I draw attention to the factors that influence blameworthiness-judgements in these contexts.

有不良信念的人--大致是指与相关专家的信念相冲突的信念,而且无论反证如何,这些人都坚持自己的信念--往往被视为不良信徒。这种信念被认为是动机或偏差认知等的结果,持有这种信念的人在认识论上被认为是非理性的,应受到指责。在此,我建立了一个新颖的框架来解释人们形成不良信念的原因。持有错误信念的人遵循社会认识论规范,这些规范指导着人们如何在各自的社区中形成和分享信念。信念之所以会变坏,是因为这些规范并不可靠,并不具有知识诱导性。换句话说,糟糕的信念不是因为糟糕的信徒,而是因为糟糕的社会认识论规范。该框架还统一了对不良信念的不同解释,是可检验的,并提供了消除此类信念的独特干预措施。该框架还有助于更充分地捕捉围绕着不良信念的复杂且往往与背景相关的规范性景观。在这幅图中,不良信念主要归咎于群体。我还认为,有些人在形成符合其群体规范的信念时是无可指责的,而有些人则不然。我还提请大家注意在这些情况下影响值得责备性判断的因素。
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引用次数: 0
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