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Science and religion.--The new infinite and the old theology.--The significance of death.--Thinking about thinking.-The role of infinity in the cosmology of Epicurus.--The role of mathematics in the tragedy of our modern culture.--Mole philosophy and other essays.

In this discussion I show that philosophy of science concepts, especially where examples and thought experiments are limiting, can be enriched with artistic examples. I argue that artistic examples show abstract components and relations that can then be used to engage with philosophical concepts. First, I discuss a useful representational model for thinking about the process of science as analogous to the process of art. I set up philosophy of science as not only open, but also closely connected to art (...) by using Giere’s and van Fraassen’s discussions of the connection between scientific and artistic perspectives. Second, I show how artistic examples can be engaging and informative for teaching philosophy of science concepts. I apply two artistic examples to the concept of quantum measurement ‘indeterminacy’: Jackson Pollock’s artistic process and Mark Dior’s fallen hemlock. Finally, I use anecdotal experience of creating art with a philosophy of science class in order to apply indeterminacy to social properties. (shrink)

In this article we provide a unifying neural hypothesis on how individuals understand the actions and emotions of others. Our main claim is that the fundamental mechanism at the basis of the experiential understanding of others' actions is the activation of the mirror neuron system. A similar mechanism, but involving the activation of viscero-motor centers, underlies the experiential understanding of the emotions of others.

In conversation with Emmett Harsin Drager and Andrea Long Chu's “After Trans Studies,” this collaborative essay also turns to questions of field formation and the ethos of trans studies. Situating the growth of the field in the material conditions of precarity under which trans knowledge-workers work, the authors argue that trans studies can't be “over” because, in fact, it isn't yet here. Rather than viewing this as only a dismal proposition, however, they insist that the tenuousness of trans studies provides (...) us with the opportunity to envision and enact more sustaining ways of being “in the field.”. (shrink)

This book is devoted to applied ethics. We focus on six popular and controversial topics: abortion, the environment, animals, poverty, punishment, and disability. We cover three chapters per topic, and each chapter is devoted to a famous or influential argument on the topic. After we present an influential argument, we then consider objections to the argument, and replies to the objections. The book is impartial, and set up in order to equip the reader to make up her own mind about (...) the controversial topics covered. (shrink)

In this paper, prediction markets that encourage traders to bet on matters of life and death are used to explore the varieties and dynamics of moral repugnance. We define moral repugnance as morally charged feelings of revulsion that correspond (correctly, incorrectly, and indeterminately) to moral reasons and contexts. Rich variations of moral repugnance and their dynamic qualities are presented by investigating the contextual frames in which they arise. These contextual frames constitute interacting conditions composed of information about states of affairs, (...) moral reasons, and feelings of revulsion. Through careful study of two medical prediction markets that encourage betting on death, we can observe the interaction between these causal conditions to see how the varieties of moral repugnance emerge. We also present three interesting results that arise from analyzing the dynamics of moral repugnance in response to prediction markets. First, a prediction market can elicit several conflicting types of moral repugnance at the same time. Second, moral indeterminacy can arise in two different ways when judging prediction markets. Finally, some prediction markets can generate a moral endogeneity problem, a disruptive feedback loop between a given prediction market and the morally relevant outcome it predicts. (shrink)

A defense of material implication as implication.

Recent work by Keyser in applied epistemology of experiment has focused on the iterative ‘production’ of knowledge: knowledge stabilizes within a given physical context and it is iteratively tested within that context to meet standards of reliability. This implies that in a given physical context (e.g., laboratory), the inferences, methods/techniques, and physical products form coherence relations with one another. We apply this epistemological stabilization account to the martial arts in order to argue that the context of stabilization dictates the training (...) methods, techniques, and even the philosophical concepts of a given martial arts system. We describe key elements of stabilization pertaining to rules, training methodology, warrior philosophy, and spectator/media tropes. The account of stabilization requires a case study that shows how a dynamic system is stabilized. We describe the stabilization of modern mixed martial arts by tracking it on a time scale, but also in different contexts (e.g., Pancrase, Pride, UFC). (shrink)

We argue that an epistemology of martial arts is at least as complex as advanced epistemological positions available to the philosophy of science. Part of the complexity is a product of the epistemic relation between the knower and known, or the scientist and the object of inquiry. In science, we measure things without changing them and, sometimes, complex systems can change as we measure them; but, in the epistemology of sport that we are interested in, each measurer is also an (...) object of inquiry. As such, each martial arts practitioner has to use various epistemic tools to measure a responsive system. We proceed in three steps. First, we discuss three epistemological frameworks in the philosophy of science—perspectivism, productivism, and distributed cognition. Second, we develop an epistemology of martial arts that features components from each of those epistemic frameworks. Third, we close the paper with a brief discussion about the unique complexity available to the martial artist, focusing on the responsive measurements that occur between two systems. (shrink)