【Philosophy】African philosophy cannot be a thing
This essay unpacks several arguments about the metaphilosophic nature of African philosophy and charts a way through the problems these arguments enco... [more]
【Philosophy】Fusion Philosophy and Epistemic Injustice
I use the concept of epistemic injustice to think through the practice and methodology of comparative, or fusion, philosophy. I make two related claim... [more]
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Maxwell's demon and the thermodynamics of computation
it is generally accepted, following Landauer and Bennett, that the process of measurement involves no minimum entropy cost, but the erasure of information in resetting the memory register of a computer to zero requires dissipating heat into the environmen
Direction and description
This paper deals with the dependence of directionality in the course of events-or our claims concerning such directionality - on the modes of description we use in speaking of the events in question. I argue that criteria of similarity and individuation p
Prerequisites for a consistent framework of quantum gravity
An ontological approach to the analysis of conceptual frameworks of physical theories is introduced and then applied to the case of quantum gravity. The tension between the theoretical constraints posed, respectively, by general relativity and quantum fie
Can we explain thermodynamics by quantum decoherence?
Can we explain the laws of thermodynamics, in particular the irreversible increase of entropy, from the underlying quantum mechanical dynamics? Attempts based on classical dynamics have all failed. Albert (1994a,b; 2000) proposed a way to recover thermody
Building economic machines: The FCC auctions
The auctions of the Federal Communication Commission, designed in 1994 to sell spectrum licences, are one of the few widely acclaimed and copied cases of economic engineering to date. This paper includes a detailed narrative of the process of designing, t
What do we measure when we measure aggression?
Biological research on aggression is increasingly consulted for possible answers to the social problems of crime and violence. This paper reviews some contrasting approaches to the biological understanding of behavior-behavioral genetic, social-environmen
The importance of mathematical conceptualisation
Mathematicians typically invoke a wide range of reasons as to why their research is valuable. These reveal considerable differences between their personal images of mathematics. One of the most interesting of these concerns the relative importance accorde
The shame of being a man (Gender studies)
'The shame of being a man--is there any better reason to write?' wonders Gilles Deleuze, and so do I. Here, I say that to write is not to free oneself from the shame of being a man. Writing might also be a way of meeting with shame, a coming into male s
Genes 'for' phenotypes: A modern history view
We attempt to improve the understanding of the notion of a gene being 'for' a phenotypic trait or traits. Considering the implicit functional ascription of one thing being 'for' another, we submit a more restrictive version of 'gene for' talk. Accor
Complexity and verisimilitude: Realism for ecology
When data are limited, simple models of complex ecological systems tend to wind up closer to the truth than more complex models of the same systems. This greater proximity to the truth, or verisimilitude, leads to greater predictive success. When more dat
Cooperating with Grice: A cross-disciplinary metaperspective on uses of Grice's cooperative pri
This essay proposes a tripartite metaperspective of discourse study: discourse may be studied as utterance, social interaction, or social context. Once established, the metaperspective is used to survey uses and critiques of Grice's Cooperative Principle
The evolution of sex: Domains and explanatory pluralism
The evolution of sexual reproduction is a striking case of explanatory pluralism, meaning that one needs to refer to more than one explanation in order to adequately account for it. I develop the concept a domain of phenomena in order to analysis this plu
A Kantian stance on the intentional stance
I examine the way in which Daniel Dennett (1987, 1995) uses his 'intentional' and 'design' stances to make the claim that intentionality is derived from design. I suggest that Dennett is best understood as attempting to supply an objective, nonintenti
A two-tiered cognitive architecture for moral reasoning
The view that moral cognition is subserved by a two-tiered architecture is defended: Moral reasoning is the result both of specialized, informationally encapsulated modules which automatically and effortlessly generate intuitions; and of general-purpose,
Semantic and structural problems in evolutionary ethics
In A Defense of Evolutionary Ethics'' (1986), Robert J. Richards endeavors to explain how moral 'oughts' can be derived from the science of evolutionary biology without committing the dreaded naturalistic fallacy. First, Richards assumes that 'ought