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Louis Caruana
Pontificia Universita Gregoriana
  1. A World Without Work: Technology, Automation, and How We Should Respond. By Daniel Susskind. New York: Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt & Company, 2020. Pp. xii, 307. $28.00. [REVIEW]Louis Caruana - 2023 - Heythrop Journal 64 (3):441-442.
    Daniel Susskind examines how machines will generate more prosperity, but he is convinced that their proliferation will have some alarming consequences, like higher income inequality, dangerous greed for power to control others, and a world in which people lose their sense of meaning in life for lack of work.
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  2. To Marvel at the Manifold Connections: Philosophy, Biology, and Laudato Si’.Louis Caruana - 2021 - Gregorianum 102 (3):617-631.
    One of the aims of the encyclical "Laudato Si’" is to help us “marvel at the manifold connections existing among creatures”, to show how we are also involved, and to motivate us thereby to care for our common home. Are there new dimensions of beauty available to us today because of recent advances in biology? In this paper I seek to answer this question by first recalling the basic criteria for beauty, as expressed by Aristotle and Aquinas, and then evaluating (...)
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  3. Different religions, different animal ethics?Louis Caruana - 2020 - Animal Frontiers 10 (1):8-14.
    Many people assume that serious reflection on animal ethics arose because of recent technological progress, the sharp rise in human population, and consequent pressure on global ecology. They consequently believe that this sub-discipline is relatively new and that traditional religions have little or nothing to offer. In spite of this however, we are currently seeing a heightened awareness of religion’s important role in all areas of individual and communal life, for better or for worse. As regards our relations with nature (...)
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  4. No organism is an island: the philosophical context regarding life and environment.Louis Caruana - 2022 - In Jacquineau Azetsop & Paolo Conversi (eds.), Foundations of Integral Ecology. Rome: G&B Press. pp. 197-220.
    Many commentators have analyzed the Papal Encyclical on the care of the environment entitled “Laudato Si’” from various angles but relatively few have written on the philosophical presuppositions that inform the overall stance of the encyclical. It is becoming increasingly evident that, to appreciate the full impact of this work, we need to uncover its ontological and epistemological commitments. This paper makes a contribution in this neglected area by focusing on the nature of life. Two main points are explored: the (...)
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  5. The Clash between Scientific and Religious Worldviews: A Re‐Evaluation.Louis Caruana - 2022 - Heythrop Journal 63 (1):19-26.
    Many assume that science and religion represent two worldviews in mutual conflict. These last decades however, the improved study of the social, psychological and historical dimensions of both science and religion has revealed that the two worldviews may not be as mutually antagonistic as previously assumed. It is important therefore to review carefully the very idea of a clash of worldviews. This paper seeks to make a contribution in this area by exploring the deeper, hidden attitudes and dispositions that are (...)
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  6. Darwinism, Mind and Society.Louis Caruana - 2009 - In Darwin and Catholicism: The Past and Present Dynamics of a Cultural Encounter. London: Continuum. pp. 134-150.
    This paper seeks to clarity the extent to which we can legitimately apply evolutionary explanation to the realm of moral and social behavior. It evaluates two perspectives, one dealing with purely philosophical arguments, and the other with arguments from within the Catholic tradition. The challenges faced by evolutionary ethics discernible from the secular perspective turn out to be practically the same as those discernible from the religious perspective. Whether we discuss the issues in terms of intentional states or in terms (...)
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  7. Science, Religion and Common Sense.Louis Caruana - 2012 - European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 4 (4):161-173.
    Susan Haack has recently attempted to discredit religion by showing that science is an extended and enhanced version of common sense while religion is not. I argue that Haack’s account is misguided not because science is not an extended version of common sense, as she says. It is misguided because she assumes a very restricted, and thus inadequate, account of common sense. After reviewing several more realistic models of common sense, I conclude that common sense is rich enough to allow (...)
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  8. The Limits of Causality.Louis Caruana - 2020 - In A. Balsas & B. Nobre (eds.), The Insides of Nature: Causality and Conceptions of Nature. Braga: Axioma – Publicacoes da Faculdade de Filosofia. pp. 31-54.
    For decades, much literature on causality has focused on causal processes and causal reasoning in the natural sciences. According to a relatively new trend however, such research on causality remains insufficient because of its refusal to accept a certain degree of pluralism within the concept, a pluralism that is evident in how we use ideas of cause and effect in everyday life. I will build on work in this latter trend, following philosophers like G. E. M. Anscombe and N. Cartwright. (...)
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  9. The Jesuits and the quiet side of the Scientific Revolution.Louis Caruana - 2008 - In Thomas Worcester (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Jesuits. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 243-260.
    Working from within the Lakatosian framework of scientific change, this paper seeks to gain a deeper understanding of the Jesuits’ role in the scientific revolution during the years of Galileo’s trials and the subsequent century. Their received research program was Aristotelian cosmology. Their efforts to construct protective belts to shield the core principles were fueled not only by the basic instinct to conserve but also by the impact of official prohibitions from the side of Church authorities. The paper illustrates how (...)
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  10. Electronic Persons?Louis Caruana - 2020 - Gregorianum 101 (3):593-614.
    To describe computers and sophisticated robots, many people today have no problem using personal attributes. Alan Turing published his famous intelligence test in 1950. From that time onwards, computers have gained increasingly higher status in this regard. Computers and robots nowadays are not only intelligent. They perceive, they remember, they understand, they decide, they play and so on. Recently, another such step has occurred but, this time, many researchers are seriously concerned. In February 2017, the European Parliament passed a Resolution (...)
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  11. From water to the stars: a reinterpretation of Galileo’s style.Louis Caruana - 2014 - In P. Lo Nostro & B. Ninham (eds.), Aqua Incognita: why ice floats on water and Galileo 400 years on. Ballart-Australia: Connor Court. pp. 1-17.
    The clash between Galileo and the Catholic Inquisition has been discussed, studied, and written about for many decades. The scientific, theological, political, and social implications have all been carefully analysed and appreciated in all their interpretative fruitfulness. The relatively recent trend in this kind of scholarship however seems to have underestimated the fact that Galileo in this debate, as in his earlier debates, showed a particular style marked by overconfidence. If we keep in mind the Lakatosian account of scientific development, (...)
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  12. The Legacies of Suppression: Jesuit Culture and Science. What was lost? What was gained?Louis Caruana - 2016 - In J. D. Burson & J. Wright (eds.), The Jesuit Suppression in Global Context: causes, events, and consequences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 262-278.
    It is often assumed that the suppression of the Jesuits in 1773 meant an abrupt dissipation of Jesuit intellectual culture and science. Recent interest in this period, however, indicates that Jesuit theologians, philosophers, and scientists constituted a heterogenous group and that the suppression affected them in various ways. This paper builds on this research and deals with the following question. What can a micro-historical approach, focusing on individuals rather than on general cultural trends, reveal about the effects of the suppression? (...)
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  13. Faith, reason, and science: towards a renewed Christian humanism?Louis Caruana - 2017 - In A. Abram, P. Gallagher & M. Kirwan (eds.), Philosophy, Theology, and the Jesuit Tradition: The Eye of Love. London: T&T Clark/Bloomsbury. pp. 53-64.
    Theology, philosophy, and science have been in mutual conversation for centuries, but the major debates have nearly always dealt with explanations rather than ways of living. Over and above explanatory or theoretical issues, there are other boundary issues that can be called practical. These are often neglected because they do not deal with what scientists or theologians say. They deal rather with what scientists and theologians do. As recent work in the history of the natural sciences shows, it is a (...)
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  14. Mechanistic trends in chemistry.Louis Caruana - 2018 - Substantia 2 (1):29-40.
    During the twentieth century, the mechanistic worldview came under attack mainly because of the rise of quantum mechanics but some of its basic characteristics survived and are still evident within current science in some form or other. Many scholars have produced interesting studies of such significant mechanistic trends within current physics and biology but very few have bothered to explore the effects of this worldview on current chemistry. This paper makes a contribution to fill this gap. It presents first a (...)
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  15. The Philosophy of Expertise: The Case of Vatican Astronomers.Louis Caruana - 2018 - In S. J. Gionti & S. J. Kikwaya Eluo (eds.), The Vatican Observatory, Castel Gandolfo: 80th Anniversary Celebration. Springer Verlag. pp. 245-252.
    These last decades, the many contributions to the literary output on science and religion have dealt with topics that are on the cutting edge of scientific discovery, topics mainly in the area of theoretical physics, cognitive science, and evolutionary biology. Philosophers of religion, responding to this trend, have therefore struggled with intricate arguments, and have often made use of the highly technical language of these sciences. The overall result was that truly original philosophical contributions, ones that present new perspectives regarding (...)
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  16. A neglected difficulty with Social Darwinism.Louis Caruana - 2008 - Heythrop Journal-a Quarterly Review of Philosophy and Theology 49 (4):652-658.
    When evolutionary explanation is transferred from its normal habitat of biology to the realm of human social, cultural, and moral concerns, a problem is often neglected. After examining arguments for and against Social Darwinism, this paper identifies this problem and proceeds by exploring the possibility of a middle-ground position according to which Social Darwinism would be enough for explaining some aspects of moral and social behaviour but not enough for explaining all aspects. The investigation indicates that this middle-ground position is (...)
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  17. From Chance to Choice: Genetics and Justice, by Allen Buchanan, Dan W. Brock, Norman Daniels, & Daniel Wikler. [REVIEW]Louis Caruana - 2005 - Heythrop Journal 46 (4):584-587.
    Scientific knowledge of how genes work is giving human beings unprecedented power to shape future human lives, for better or for worse. People involved in government, business and science are facing new questions related to the application of genetic technologies to human beings. Our technical knowledge is growing fast, but does our moral wisdom grow at the same rate?
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  18. Disagreement and Authority: comparing ecclesial and scientific practices.Louis Caruana - 2015 - In A. J. Carroll, M. Kerkwijk, M. Kirwan & J. Sweeney (eds.), Towards a Kenotic Vision of Authority in the Catholic Church. Washington: The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy. pp. 91-102.
    In recent years, disagreement as a philosophical topic has started to attract considerable attention, giving rise to rich debates not only on the logical nature of disagreement but also on specifically political and religious forms of it. Moreover, in some recent documents of the Catholic Church, we see corresponding attempts at understanding religious pluralism, dialogue among religions, and doctrinal tensions that sometimes arise within various parts of the Church itself. In such debates, many assume that the realm of the humanities (...)
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  19. Is Science Eliminating Ordinary Talk?Louis Caruana - 1999 - Forum Philosophicum: International Journal for Philosophy 4:25-39.
    After elucidating the nature of ordinary linguistic behaviour and its ontological implications, the paper critically examines some trends in the philosophy of mind that use the expression folk-psychology. The main argument shows that, when eliminativists hold that everyday discourse dealing with describing and predicting each other’s behaviour is an empirical theory, they are forcing their object of study into an exclusively mechanistic mould, and thus seriously distorting it. The meaning of everyday utter¬ances is not to be sought towards the physical (...)
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  20.  77
    Science, technology, and religious ideas_, by M. H. Shale, G. W. Shields (eds), and _Varieties of Scientific Experience, by L. S. Feuer. [REVIEW]Louis Caruana - 1999 - Heythrop Journal 40 (2):225-228.
    Are science and religion completely independent of each other? Can scientists work exclusively in the scientific domain without being influenced in any way by their own religious or other commitments? These questions have been treated in a number of ways in the course of history. In recent decades, advances in physics and biology have raised new possibilities for a deeper understanding of the issue and for a clearer picture of the right kind of interaction between science, religion, and moral values.
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  21. God’s Eternity and Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity.Louis Caruana - 2005 - Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 61:89-112.
    Max Jammer has recently proposed a model of God’s eternity based on the special theory of relativity, offering it as an example of how theologians should take into account what physicists say about the world. I start evaluating this proposal by a quick look at the classic Boethius-Aquinas model of divine eternity. The major objec-tion I advance against Jammer refers to Einstein’s subtle kind of realism. I offer var-ious reasons to show that Einstein’s realism was minimal. Moreover, even this min-imal (...)
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  22. Somatic Semantics: anorexia and the nature of meaning.Louis Caruana - 2010 - In Antonio Mancini, Silvia Daini & Louis Caruana (eds.), Anorexia Nervosa, a multi-disciplinary approach: from biology to philosophy. New York: Nova Science Publishers. pp. 173-186.
    This paper explores some ways how perceptual-cognitive accounts of anorexia can benefit from philosophy. The first section focuses on the three dimensions of anorexia most open to a contribution from philosophy: the dimensions of language, perception and cognition. In the second section, I offer a brief overview of what philosophy has to say regarding these dimensions, especially as they relate to two crucial issues: introspection and meaning. I draw from current philosophy of language, especially from the arguments against using internal (...)
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  23. Is Religion Undermined By Evolutionary Arguments?Louis Caruana - 2010 - European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 2 (1):85 - 106.
    I examine three major antireligious arguments that are often proposed in various forms by cognitive and evolutionary scientists, and indicate possible responses to them. A fundamental problem with the entire debate arises because the term "religion" is too vague. So I reformulate the debate in terms of a less vague central concept: faith. Referring mainly to Aquinas on faith, I proceed by evaluating how the previously mentioned cognitive and evolutionary arguments fare when dealing with faith. The results show that some (...)
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  24.  69
    Kneeling at the Altar of Science, by Robert Bolger. [REVIEW]Louis Caruana - 2014 - Gregorianum 95 (3):635-636.
    These last decades have seen many publications dealing with science and religion. The overall debate seems to have settled on the idea that dialogue between these disciplines is of utmost importance. Bolger’s book, therefore, comes as a surprise because he seems to take issue with this consensus. Is it the case that a subtle form of scientism is infecting large areas of theological discourse, with the result that the dialogue between these two disciplines is often seriously misguided?
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  25.  66
    The Roman Inquisition: Trying Galileo, by Thomas F. Mayer. [REVIEW]Louis Caruana - 2016 - Theological Studies 77 (4):966-968.
    Was Galileo’s clash with the Church about science or about legal procedures that he had apparently neglected? Was he ultimately condemned for heresy or for violating a legal precept by publishing the "Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems"?
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  26.  84
    Macroscopic Metaphysics: middle-sized objects and longish processes, by Paul Needham. [REVIEW]Louis Caruana - 2019 - Gregorianum 100 (2):436-437.
    Many assume that any complex thing or situation is reducible to its elemental building blocks and the relations between them. Needham’s book goes against this trend by seeking to rehabilitate macroscopic considerations and insisting that resorting to smaller and smaller subunits does not always help.
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  27.  91
    Human evolution and religion: some new developments.Louis Caruana - 2019 - Gregorianum 100 (1):115-131.
    This paper critically examines three positions in the area of the evolutionary psychology of religion: the one according to which religion is completely beyond the reach of any evolutionary explanation, the one according to which religion is adaptive in the evolutionary sense, and the one according to which religion is mal-adaptive, in the sense that it confers no survival advantages but rather disadvantages. The result of the critical evaluation of these positions indicates that the embodied rationality of Homo sapiens renders (...)
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  28.  80
    Philosophy, Experience, and the Spiritual Life.Louis Caruana - 2007 - Review of Ignatian Spirituality 38 (2):40-56.
    This paper argues that philosophers can live a deep spiritual life of a certain kind, spirituality being understood here in line with the Christian tradition. The first step in the argument distinguishes between two kinds of philosophy: the representational kind and the sapiential kind. Representation is often associated with scientifically inclined philosophers while wisdom is associated with philosophers whose inclination is to show others how to live a good life. The paper then proceeds by showing that this distinction reflects a (...)
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  29.  75
    Life, science, and meaning: some logical considerations.Louis Caruana - 2013 - Pensamiento. Revista de Investigación E Información Filosófica 69 (6):659-670.
    Both science and theology involve philosophy. They both involve reasoned argument, evaluation of possible explanations, clarification of concepts, ways of interpreting experience, understanding the present significance of what has gone before us, and other such eminently philosophical tasks. They both involve philosophy, especially when they enter into dialogue with each other. In fact, they involve philosophical thinking even when they may not be aware of it. In this paper I will explore a specific area of philosophy that is particularly important (...)
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  30.  74
    In the Name of God: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Ethics and Violence, by John Teehan. [REVIEW]Louis Caruana - 2010 - Ars Disputandi 10:192-193.
  31. Science Interacting With Philosophy: The Case of Ludwig Wittgenstein.Louis Caruana - 2003 - Gregorianum 84 (3):584-616.
    Rom Harré has recently proposed that there is a difference between the driving force behind the early and the later Wittgenstein. According to Harré, in the early work, the major inspiration came from science, while, in the later, it came from religion. I show that only Harré’s first proposal is fully justified. In section one of my paper, I examine the picture theory, the theory of truth-functions, the meaning of propositions, and Tractatus §6.3. In section two, about the Philosophical Investigations, (...)
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  32.  72
    Jesuit Science and the Republic of Letters by Mordechai Feingold (ed.). [REVIEW]Louis Caruana - 2005 - Gregorianum 86 (3):703-704.
    For many years, the involvement of Jesuits in the development of science has stimulated curiosity and wonder. Is it true that the Society of Jesus was a serious impediment to the natural development of the scientific revolution during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?
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  33.  68
    Is Mivart still relevant?Louis Caruana - 2009 - Thinking Faith: The Online Journal of the British Jesuits.
    St. George Mivart (1827-1900) was a prolific writer on biological evolution and on its relevance to the Christian faith. His initial support for the evolutionary ideas put forward by Charles Darwin and Thomas Huxley would eventually turn into heavy criticism of these same ideas, evident in his 1871 book "On the Genesis of Species". This short paper critically evaluates the origins and development of his thinking that led to this book. It examines his paper "Difficulties of the Theory of Natural (...)
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  34.  58
    Evolutionary Naturalism, by Michael Ruse. [REVIEW]Louis Caruana - 1997 - Heythrop Journal 38 (4):473-475.
    Many agree that philosophers of knowledge and of moral behavior should take into thoughtful consideration the findings of contemporary evolutionary biology but how to do this is not always clear. Ruse makes useful suggestions on how such scientific results should be incorporated.
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  35. Catholic physics: Jesuit natural philosophy in early modern Germany by Marcus Hellyer. [REVIEW]Louis Caruana - 2008 - Heythrop Journal 49 (4):683-685.
    Was the Society of Jesus the main obstacle for the acceptance of the new physics in modern Europe? Was their educational system, all over Europe, completely under the strict control of regulations imposed by the Jesuit hierarchy in Rome? How did the various Jesuit colleges confront, reject, or absorb the crucial novelties of the mathematical and experimental method? Marcus Hellyer addresses such crucial questions in this book.
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  36.  55
    Religion, Science and Naturalism, by Willem B. Drees. [REVIEW]Louis Caruana - 1998 - Heythrop Journal 39 (4):465-466.
    The human intellect has a tendency towards unity and harmony. Some intellectual disciplines are close to each other. Others are far apart. Where should one place theology and science within this spectrum of disciplines?
    No categories
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  37.  50
    Is Science Value Free? Values and Scientific Understanding, by Hugh Lacey. [REVIEW]Louis Caruana - 2005 - Heythrop Journal 46 (4):587-588.
    Can we sustain the idea, once expressed by Henri Poincaré, that science and values only touch but do not interpenetrate? Isn’t such an idea nothing more than an idealization? Is there no link between science and genuine human flourishing?
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  38.  74
    Truth, reality, and religion: new perspectives in metaphysics -- Introduction.Louis Caruana - 2011 - Forum Philosophicum: International Journal for Philosophy 16 (1):1-5.
    An introduction to the special issue of the Journal “Forum Philosophicum” that contains nine studies dealing with a cluster of metaphysical questions of cross-cultural importance: H. Watzka, “A new realistic spirit: the analytical and the existential approaches to ontology”; P. Gilbert, “Voilà pourquoi je ne suis pas ‘ontologue’; P. Favraux, “La pertinence de l’ontologie pour la théologie”; E. Charmetant, "Naturalisme contemporain et ontologie humaine : vers un essentialisme différent"; J. Bremer, "Aristotle on touch”; T. Walsh, "Bonum est causa mali: a (...)
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  39. Extrapolation and Scientific Truth.Louis Caruana - manuscript
    Conference paper presented at the 10th International Congress of Logic, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science, Florence, Italy (19-25 August 1995). Extrapolation here refers to the act of inferring more widely from a limited range of known facts. This notion of extrapolation, especially when applied to past events, has recently been used to formulate a pragmatic definition of truth. This paper shows that this definition has serious problems. The pragmatic definition of truth has been formulated in discussions on internal realism. In (...)
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  40. John von Neumann's 'Impossibility Proof' in a Historical Perspective.Louis Caruana - 1995 - Physis 32:109-124.
    John von Neumann's proof that quantum mechanics is logically incompatible with hidden varibales has been the object of extensive study both by physicists and by historians. The latter have concentrated mainly on the way the proof was interpreted, accepted and rejected between 1932, when it was published, and 1966, when J.S. Bell published the first explicit identification of the mistake it involved. What is proposed in this paper is an investigation into the origins of the proof rather than the aftermath. (...)
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  41.  5
    Holism and the Understanding of Science: Integrating the Analytical, Historical and Sociological.Louis Caruana - 2000 - Routledge.
    "This book addresses issues which are central in the philosophy of science, exploring a large and relevant literature. It should be of broad interest in the philosophy of science community." Professor Peter Lipton, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge, UK. How can the complexities of understanding science be dealt with as a whole? Is philosophical realism still a defensible philosophical position? Exploring such fundamental questions, this book claims that science ought to be understood in terms of (...)
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  42.  47
    Questions concerning Science, Theology, and the Environment.Louis Caruana - 1998 - Gregorianum 79 (1):149-161.
    The interaction between science and theology is often seen as an interaction concerning their claims. This article examines how this interaction may also concern their questions. The focus will be on environmental issues because the relevance of these issues has increased tremendously during these last decades. Recent studies have focused on the way a question can become real for any community of inquirers, both in science and in theology. Reality here refers to the way a question emerges as one that (...)
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  43. The Many Faces of Science: An Introduction to Scientists, Values and Society, by Leslie Stevenson and Henry Byerly. [REVIEW]Louis Caruana - 1996 - International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 10 (2):173-174.
    There is more to science than Aristotle’s natural desire to know. The major achievement of this book lies in presenting this idea through the study of the lives of various scientists.
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  44.  69
    Habits and Explanation.Louis Caruana - 1998 - The Paidea Project.
    Habits form a crucial part of the everyday conceptual scheme used to explain normal human activity. However, they have been neglected in debates concerning folk-psychology which have concentrated on propositional attitudes such as beliefs. But propositional attitudes are just one of the many mental states. In this paper, I seek to expand the debate by considering mental states other than propositional attitudes. I conclude that the case for the autonomy and plausibility of the folk-psychological explanation is strengthened when one considers (...)
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  45.  54
    Realism and Rule-Following.Louis Caruana - 2003 - In R. Egidi, M. Dell'Utri & M. De Caro (eds.), Normatività Fatti, Valori. Macerata: Analisi Filosofiche Quodlibet. pp. 143-152.
    This paper explores how realism is crucial in understanding rule-following. The strategy involves starting from what has been achieved by Wittgenstein and others as regards semantic normativity and then applying it to other areas, including moral deliberation. The result shows that realism in rule-following involves not only the weak claim that rules are independent of the individual rule-follower, as conventions are. It involves also the stronger claim that conventional rules are constrained by non-conventional constraints. These constraints depend neither on the (...)
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  46. The intelligibility of nature: How science makes sense of the world, by Peter Dear. [REVIEW]Louis Caruana - 2008 - Heythrop Journal 49 (4):702-703.
    History indicates that science is primarily not a theoretical but a practical enterprise. It represents the symbiosis of two human activities, namely, on the one hand, natural philosophy, which seeks to make sense of the world, and, on the other hand, instrumental thinking, which seeks to control the world.
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  47. Beyond the internal realist's conceptual scheme.Louis Caruana - 1996 - Metaphilosophy 27 (3):296-301.
    This paper examines Hilary Putnam’s arguments against what he calls metaphysical realism and in favour of internal realism. A key notion is the one of conceptual scheme, whose role is to explain how we inevitably find ourselves adopting one viewpoint among possible others. To ensure the possibility of agreement between all inquirers for some basic issues, is Putnam committed to having just one conceptual scheme for all human inquirers? The paper argues that the answer is no, on condition that all (...)
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  48.  87
    Nature and Divinity: the impact of science on the concept of God.Louis Caruana - manuscript
    Public lecture delivered 14 October 2002: This lecture explores two areas of today’s dominant mentality that is associated with the natural sciences and that is fast becoming global. Two worldviews stand out: the mechanistic worldview and the evolutionary worldview. The lecture explains the main features of each and highlights some of their implications as regards the idea of God.
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  49.  88
    Euthanasia: Considerations Regarding Depression and Ethics.Louis Caruana & Y. Cho - 1995 - Cambridge Medicine 11 (3):35-36.
    Presenting the case against legalizing euthanasia, this paper refers mainly to two clinical facts. First that, in the majority of cases, a wish to die is a symptom of depression; and second, that depression affects rational decision making. Since a depressive individual is not fully competent, it is a mistake to resort to that individual's autonomy. One should recall that a subclinical depressive state is an object of treatment, and safeguards are necessary lest this state should be an object of (...)
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  50.  76
    Science and Progress: Some Recent Views.Louis Caruana - 2002 - Gregorianum 83 (1):145-163.
    Philosophical reflection on the idea of progress is undergoing a recent revival, especially because of renewed interest in the broad implications of the theory of biological evolution and in its applicability to epistemology. In this paper, the main interest lies with the following two questions: What kind of word is ‘progress’? Does it refer to a process that can be detected empirically? In the first section, three ways of understanding biological progress are evaluated. It is shown that ambiguity arises in (...)
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