These are my links for December 14th from 10:36 to 10:53: The PhilPapers Surveys – The PhilPapers Survey was a survey of professional philosophers and others on their philosophical views, carried out in November 2009. The Survey was taken by 3226 respondents, including 1803 philosophy faculty members and/or PhDs and 829 philosophy graduate students. The PhilPapers Metasurvey was a concurrent survey of professional philosophers and other concerning their predictions of the results of the Survey. The Metasurvey was taken by 727 respondents including 438 professional philosophers and PhDs and 210 philosophy graduate students. Preliminary results and discussion are included below. […]
Daily Archives: December 14, 2009
These are my links for December 14th from 10:28 to 10:34: [quant-ph/0204088] The Wave Function: It or Bit? – Schroedinger's wave function shows many aspects of a state of incomplete knowledge or information ("bit"): (1) it is usually defined on a space of classical configurations, (2) its generic entanglement is, therefore, analogous to statistical correlations, and (3) it determines probabilities of measurement outcomes. Nonetheless, quantum superpositions (such as represented by a wave function) define individual physical states ("it"). This conceptual dilemma may have its origin in the conventional operational foundation of physical concepts, successful in classical physics, but inappropriate in […]
“The Earth is degenerating today. Bribery and corruption abound. Children no longer obey their parents, every man wants to write a book, and it is evident that the end of the world is fast approaching.” – Assyrian Tablet, c.2800 BC
These are my links for November 16th through December 14th: UC Davis Philosophy 102, Theory of Knowledge: Table of Contents for Lecture Notes – The subject of this course is what has come to be called “theory of knowledge” or “epistemology.” The two names are interchangeable in common use. (A similar pair of terms for philosophical disciplines is ‘theory of value’ (or ‘value theory’) and the little-used ‘axiology.’) Until the nineteenth century, there had been no special term to indicate the study of knowledge as such, even though knowledge had been studied from the very beginning of Western philosophy . […]
“Truly, whoever is able to make you absurd is able to make you unjust.” Alternatively, in paraphrase: “Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” – François-Marie Arouet, Questions sur les miracles (1765)