Invitation To Generalized Empirical Method: In Philosophy And Science PDF Download

Author: Quinn Terrance J
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9813208457
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
Bernard Lonergan identified the need and possibility of what he called "generalized empirical method" in science and philosophy. Implementation will be a future community achievement. The book enters into details of a selection of examples in the sciences and philosophy of science. These are provided not to engage in, or blend the present aim with traditional philosophical debate, but as points of entry to help reveal the possibility and need of balanced empirical method. Taking words of Lonergan: "(Q)uestions of method are practical. So my purpose in these (chapters) is not to demonstrate what is necessary. It is not to forecast what is probable. It is ... to invite you to share in the exploration of a proposal" (Bernard Lonergan, A Third Collection (1985), 114). The main examples are drawn from biochemistry and biology, although heuristics envisioned will include all sciences.

Author: Terrance J. Quinn (Professor of mathematics)
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789813208445
Category : SCIENCE
Languages : en
Pages : 195

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Book Description
"Bernard Lonergan identified the need and possibility of what he called "generalized empirical method" in science and philosophy. Implementation will be a future community achievement. The book enters into details of a selection of examples in the sciences and philosophy of science. These are provided not to engage in, or blend the present aim with traditional philosophical debate, but as points of entry to help reveal the possibility and need of balanced empirical method. Taking words of Lonergan: "(Q)uestions of method are practical. So my purpose in these (chapters) is not to demonstrate what is necessary. It is not to forecast what is probable. It is ... to invite you to share in the exploration of a proposal" (Bernard Lonergan, A Third Collection (1985), 114). The main examples are drawn from biochemistry and biology, although heuristics envisioned will include all sciences."--Publisher's website.

Author: John W Fowler
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9811243484
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 536

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Book Description
Randomness is an active element relevant to all scientific activities. The book explores the way in which randomness suffuses the human experience, starting with everyday chance events, followed by developments into modern probability theory, statistical mechanics, scientific data analysis, quantum mechanics, and quantum gravity. An accessible introduction to these theories is provided as a basis for going into deeper topics.Fowler unveils the influence of randomness in the two pillars of science, measurement and theory. Some emphasis is placed on the need and methods for optimal characterization of uncertainty. An example of the cost of neglecting this is the St. Petersburg Paradox, a theoretical game of chance with an infinite expected payoff value. The role of randomness in quantum mechanics reveals another particularly interesting finding: that in order for the physical universe to function as it does and permit conscious beings within it to enjoy sanity, irreducible randomness is necessary at the quantum level.The book employs a certain level of mathematics to describe physical reality in a more precise way that avoids the tendency of nonmathematical descriptions to be occasionally misleading. Thus, it is most readily digested by young students who have taken at least a class in introductory calculus, or professional scientists and engineers curious about the book's topics as a result of hearing about them in popular media. Readers not inclined to savor equations should be able to skip certain technical sections without losing the general flow of ideas. Still, it is hoped that even readers who usually avoid equations will give those within these pages a chance, as they may be surprised at how potentially foreboding concepts fall into line when one makes a legitimate attempt to follow a succession of mathematical implications.

Author: Quinn Terrance J
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9813209119
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
In modern physics, various fundamental problems have become topics of ongoing debate. There was the 20th century climb to a Standard Model, still accurate at the highest energy levels obtainable so far. But, since the 1970's, a different approach to physics advocates for theories such as string theory, known for their mathematical elegance, even though they either cannot be verified in data or contradict presently known experimental results. In philosophy of physics, there is a gradually emerging consensus that philosophy of physics and physics somehow contribute to a common enterprise. But, there is little sign of progress toward consensus about the nature of that unity. All the while, it is generally recognized that physics is interdisciplinary. There are, of course, differences in focus. But, implicitly at least, there are no "sharp dividing lines" between physics and philosophy of physics; pure and applied physics; physical chemistry; biophysics; medical physics; history and philosophy of physics; physics and society; physics education; and so on. What, then, is progress in physics? The question here is not about ideal structures, but asks about what is going on in physics. Beginnings in discerning the presence of eight main tasks help reveal the (pre-) emergence of a normative omni-disciplinary basis for collaboration that, once adverted to, promises to be constitutive of a new and increasingly effective control of meaning. Originally discovered by Bernard Lonergan in 1965, progress in the new collaboration will not seek to eliminate specialized expertise. It will, though, divide tasks within an eightfold functional division of labor. This book invites attention to data for each of the eight main tasks evident and self-evident in existing scholarship in the community. The book also makes preliminary efforts toward envisioning something of what functional collaboration will look like — in physics, the Academy and Society.

Author: Philip McShane
Publisher: Axial Publishing
ISBN: 1988457084
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
In Randomness, Statistics, and Emergence, McShane illustrates how classical and statistical procedures complement one another. One of the conclusions he draws in Randomness is that emergence and evolution are explained in terms of probabilities of emergence and probabilities of survival of recurrence-schemes. To arrive at a principle of emergence, McShane focuses on actual procedures of empirical investigators and the type of explanation they seek. Those doing the relevant sciences—biophysics and biochemistry are his focus in the last four chapters—can verify objective randomness and emergence by attending to their performance. McShane also makes beginnings in heuristics of biological and scientific growth and development. The first edition of this book was first published in 1970. The second edition includes a second preface, “The Riverrun to God,” written by McShane in the fall of 2012. It also includes an editor’s introduction written by Terrance Quinn, author of Invitation to Generalized Empirical Method in Philosophy and Science and The (Pre-) Dawning of Functional Specialization in Physics.

Author: Philip McShane
Publisher: Axial Publishing
ISBN: 1988457106
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 191

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Book Description
There is a growing interest in the character and the challenge of the Anthropocene. Although efforts to pin down beginning dates of this epoch have been debated, there is a broad consensus that humanity is facing an unprecedented challenge to surviving on Earth, a challenge which humans have created ourselves. Undeniably, we have had and continue to have impacts on the planet as a whole. These include ravaging bushfires and unprecedented flooding caused by climate change, spiking levels of carbon dioxide levels, and widespread loss of biodiversity. The challenge has been expressed in various ways: the larger challenges of climate change or ocean garbage toxicity, the subtler challenges that would support such large efforts by cultivating a new aesthetic. The present book asks of us to reach for the deeper grounding of all such efforts. Perhaps that asking is best hinted at by pluralizing the word character in a paradoxical non-question: “What is to be the 'character' of the characters transforming the Anthropocene from its present negativity to a positive period of human flourishing.” What is missing, what we are in the dark about, is the apparently simple turn that would have us asking, “What’s what?” The focus must be concrete: so we are to think of miners and farmers and reformers and economists and educators, but primarily of ourselves as whats. Might we begin the positive Anthropocene’s success by beginning to sow what comprehendingly?

Author: Susann Wagenknecht
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319186000
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 171

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Book Description
The book examines the emerging approach of using qualitative methods, such as interviews and field observations, in the philosophy of science. Qualitative methods are gaining popularity among philosophers of science as more and more scholars are resorting to empirical work in their study of scientific practices. At the same time, the results produced through empirical work are quite different from those gained through the kind of introspective conceptual analysis more typical of philosophy. This volume explores the benefits and challenges of an empirical philosophy of science and addresses questions such as: What do philosophers gain from empirical work? How can empirical research help to develop philosophical concepts? How do we integrate philosophical frameworks and empirical research? What constraints do we accept when choosing an empirical approach? What constraints does a pronounced theoretical focus impose on empirical work? Nine experts discuss their thoughts and empirical results in the chapters of this book with the aim of providing readers with an answer to these questions.

Author: Terrance J Quinn
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9811222584
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
Basic Insights in Vector Calculus provides an introduction to three famous theorems of vector calculus, Green's theorem, Stokes' theorem and the divergence theorem (also known as Gauss's theorem). Material is presented so that results emerge in a natural way. As in classical physics, we begin with descriptions of flows.The book will be helpful for undergraduates in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, in programs that require vector calculus. At the same time, it also provides some of the mathematical background essential for more advanced contexts which include, for instance, the physics and engineering of continuous media and fields, axiomatically rigorous vector analysis, and the mathematical theory of differential forms.There is a Supplement on mathematical understanding. The approach invites one to advert to one's own experience in mathematics and, that way, identify elements of understanding that emerge in all levels of learning and teaching.Prerequisites are competence in single-variable calculus. Some familiarity with partial derivatives and the multi-variable chain rule would be helpful. But for the convenience of the reader we review essentials of single- and multi-variable calculus needed for the three main theorems of vector calculus.Carefully developed Problems and Exercises are included, for many of which guidance or hints are provided.

Author: Brendan Lovett
Publisher: Peter Lang
ISBN: 9783039110568
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
Modern developments in both science and history challenge us to a far greater degree of empiricism than has been traditionally considered necessary in the study of theology. Any attempt to move in this direction can be significantly helped by Bernard Lonergan's breakthrough discovery of the notion of functional specialties in 1965. The strategy of this book is to make use of this discovery and provide a theological reflection on mission appropriate to the present age. The author begins with an insight available from biblical research but absent from current theologies of mission. This is the general recognition that the texts concerning a universal mission are in fact an instance of retrojection. Building on this through an interpretation of Lonergan's functional specialties of interpretation and history, he unfolds the startling implications for grasping the central creative significance of the 'word of God'. As the argument transfers from one specialty to the next, it moves towards ever-richer empiricism, culminating in the specialty of communications. Here the creativity which will be needed to address faithfully the message of Jesus to our contemporary world in all its complexity becomes apparent.

Author: Bernard J. F. Lonergan
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 9780802089632
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 476

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Book Description
This anthology contains Lonergan's lectures on philosophy and theology given during the later period of his life, 1965-1980, and document his development in the discipline during the years leading up to the publication of Method in Theology, and beyond to 1980.