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Michael Silberstein [39]Michael D. Silberstein [1]Michael David Silberstein [1]
  1. After the Philosophy of Mind: Replacing Scholasticism with Science.Tony Chemero & Michael Silberstein - 2008 - Philosophy of Science 75 (1):1-27.
    We provide a taxonomy of the two most important debates in the philosophy of the cognitive and neural sciences. The first debate is over methodological individualism: is the object of the cognitive and neural sciences the brain, the whole animal, or the animal--environment system? The second is over explanatory style: should explanation in cognitive and neural science be reductionist-mechanistic, inter-level mechanistic, or dynamical? After setting out the debates, we discuss the ways in which they are interconnected. Finally, we make some (...)
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  2. The Search for Ontological Emergence.Michael Silberstein & John McGeever - 1999 - Philosophical Quarterly 49 (195):201-214.
    We survey and clarify some recent appearances of the term ‘emergence’. We distinguish epistemological emergence, which is merely a limitation of descriptive apparatus, from ontological emergence, which should involve causal features of a whole system not reducible to the properties of its parts, thus implying the failure of part/whole reductionism and of mereological supervenience for that system. Are there actually any plausible cases of the latter among the numerous and various mentions of ‘emergence’ in the recent literature? Quantum mechanics seems (...)
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  3. Constraints on Localization and Decomposition as Explanatory Strategies in the Biological Sciences.Michael Silberstein & Anthony Chemero - 2013 - Philosophy of Science 80 (5):958-970.
    Several articles have recently appeared arguing that there really are no viable alternatives to mechanistic explanation in the biological sciences (Kaplan and Bechtel; Kaplan and Craver). We argue that mechanistic explanation is defined by localization and decomposition. We argue further that systems neuroscience contains explanations that violate both localization and decomposition. We conclude that the mechanistic model of explanation needs to either stretch to now include explanations wherein localization or decomposition fail or acknowledge that there are counterexamples to mechanistic explanation (...)
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  4. Complexity and Extended Phenomenological‐Cognitive Systems.Michael Silberstein & Anthony Chemero - 2012 - Topics in Cognitive Science 4 (1):35-50.
    The complex systems approach to cognitive science invites a new understanding of extended cognitive systems. According to this understanding, extended cognitive systems are heterogenous, composed of brain, body, and niche, non-linearly coupled to one another. This view of cognitive systems, as non-linearly coupled brain–body–niche systems, promises conceptual and methodological advances. In this article we focus on two of these. First, the fundamental interdependence among brain, body, and niche makes it possible to explain extended cognition without invoking representations or computation. Second, (...)
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  5.  84
    Reduction, emergence and explanation.Michael Silberstein - 2002 - In Peter K. Machamer & Michael Silberstein (eds.), The Blackwell guide to the philosophy of science. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell. pp. 80--107.
    This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction: The Problem of Emergence and Reduction The Varieties of Reductionism: Ontological and Epistemological The Reduction and Emergence Debate Today: Specific Cases Seeming to Warrant the Label of Ontological or Epistemological Emergence Questions for Future Research.
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  6.  58
    The Blackwell guide to the philosophy of science.Peter K. Machamer & Michael Silberstein (eds.) - 2002 - Malden, Mass.: Blackwell.
    This volume presentsa definitive introduction to the core areas of philosophy of science.
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  7.  54
    Constraints on Localization and Decomposition as Explanatory Strategies in the Biological Sciences.Michael Silberstein & Tony Chemero - unknown
    Several articles have recently appeared arguing that there really are no viable alternatives to mechanistic explanation in the biological sciences. This claim is meant to hold both in principle and in practice. The basic claim is that any explanation of a particular feature of a biological system, including dynamical explanations, must ultimately be grounded in mechanistic explanation. There are several variations on this theme, some stronger and some weaker. In order to avoid equivocation and miscommunication, in section 1 we will (...)
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  8. (1 other version)In defence of ontological emergence and mental causation.Michael Silberstein - 2006 - In Philip Clayton & Paul Davies (eds.), The re-emergence of emergence: the emergentist hypothesis from science to religion. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 203.
  9. Panentheism, neutral monism, and advaita vedanta.Michael Silberstein - 2017 - Zygon 52 (4):1123-1145.
    It is argued that when it comes to the hard problem of consciousness neutral monism beats out the competition. It is further argued that neutral monism provides a unique route to a novel type of panentheism via Advaita Vedanta Hinduism.
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  10. Converging on emergence: Consciousness, causation and explanation.Michael Silberstein - 2001 - Journal of Consciousness Studies 8 (9-10):61-98.
    I will argue that emergence is an empirically plausible and unique philosophical/ scientific framework for bridging the ontological gap and the explanatory gap with respect to phenomenal consciousness. On my view the ontological gap is the gap between fundamental ingredients/parts of reality that are not conscious and beings/wholes that are conscious. The explanatory gap is the current lack of a philosophical/scientific theory that explains how non-conscious parts can become conscious wholes. Both gaps are of course conceptual as well as empirical (...)
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  11.  41
    Strong emergence no, contextual emergence yes.Michael Silberstein - 2017 - Philosophica 91 (1).
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  12.  63
    Emergence and the mind-body problem.Michael Silberstein - 1998 - Journal of Consciousness Studies 5 (4):464-82.
    In the first part of the paper I argue that neither physicalism nor standard forms of dualism can provide an explanatory framework for consciousness or cognition - neither account can existence of conscious experience nor its relationship to cognition and the brain. Physicalism and fundamentalism fail to provide an explanatory framework for consciousness because they both share, at least with respect to the physical universe, the same misguided commitment to part/whole reductionism and microreductive accounts of explanation. In addition to their (...)
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  13.  58
    Why quantum mechanics favors adynamical and acausal interpretations such as relational blockworld over backwardly causal and time-symmetric rivals.Michael Silberstein, Michael Cifone & William Mark Stuckey - 2008 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 39 (4):736-751.
    We articulate the problems posed by the quantum liar experiment (QLE) for backwards causation interpretations of quantum mechanics, time-symmetric accounts and other dynamically oriented local hidden variable theories. We show that such accounts cannot save locality in the case of QLE merely by giving up “lambda-independence.” In contrast, we show that QLE poses no problems for our acausal Relational Blockworld interpretation of quantum mechanics, which invokes instead adynamical global constraints to explain Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen (EPR) correlations and QLE. We make the case (...)
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  14. Relativity of simultaneity and eternalism: In defense of blockworld.Daniel Peterson & Michael Silberstein - 2010 - In Vesselin Petkov (ed.), Space, Time, and Spacetime: Physical and Philosophical Implications of Minkowski's Unification of Space and Time. Springer.
    Ever since the now infamous comments made by Hermann Minkowski in 1908 concerning the proper way to view space-time, the debate has raged as to whether or not the universe should be viewed as a four-dimensional, unified whole wherein the past, present, and future are equally real or whether the views espoused by the possibilists, historicists, and presentists regarding the unreality of the future (and, for presentists, the past) are best. Now, a century after Minkowski’s proposed blockworld first sparked debate, (...)
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  15. For whom the bell arguments toll.James Hawthorne & Michael Silberstein - 1995 - Synthese 102 (1):99-138.
    We will formulate two Bell arguments. Together they show that if the probabilities given by quantum mechanics are approximately correct, then the properties exhibited by certain physical systems must be nontrivially dependent on thetypes of measurements performedand eithernonlocally connected orholistically related to distant events. Although a number of related arguments have appeared since John Bell's original paper (1964), they tend to be either highly technical or to lack full generality. The following arguments depend on the weakest of premises, and the (...)
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  16. Defending extended cognition.Tony Chemero & Michael Silberstein - unknown
    In this talk, we defend extended cognition against several criticisms. We argue that extended cognition does not derive from armchair theorizing and that it neither ignores the results of the neural sciences, nor minimizes the importance of the brain in the production of intelligent behavior. We also argue that explanatory success in the cognitive sciences does not depend on localist or reductionist methodologies; part of our argument for this is a defense of what might be called ‘holistic science’.
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  17. Dynamics, agency and intentional action.Michael Silberstein - 2011 - Humana Mente 4 (15):1-19.
  18.  20
    The implications of neural reuse for the future of both cognitive neuroscience and folk psychology.Michael Silberstein - 2016 - Behavioral and Brain Sciences 39.
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  19. Metaphysics or science: The battle for the soul of philosophy of mind.Michael Silberstein - 2011 - Philosophical Psychology 24 (4):561-573.
    Philosophical Psychology, Volume 24, Issue 4, Page 561-573, August 2011.
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  20. Being, Becoming and the Undivided Universe: A Dialogue Between Relational Blockworld and the Implicate Order Concerning the Unification of Relativity and Quantum Theory.Michael Silberstein, W. M. Stuckey & Timothy McDevitt - 2013 - Foundations of Physics 43 (4):502-532.
    In this paper two different approaches to unification will be compared, Relational Blockworld (RBW) and Hiley’s implicate order. Both approaches are monistic in that they attempt to derive matter and spacetime geometry ‘at once’ in an interdependent and background independent fashion from something underneath both quantum theory and relativity. Hiley’s monism resides in the implicate order via Clifford algebras and is based on process as fundamental while RBW’s monism resides in spacetimematter via path integrals over graphs whereby space, time and (...)
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  21. Quantum Mechanics.Michael Silberstein - forthcoming - In Editors Seibt and Burkhard (ed.), Philosophia Verlag Handbook of Mereology.
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  22. Quantum Physics and Consciousness: The Quest for a Common Conceptual Foundation.Michael Silberstein - unknown
    Similar problems keep reappearing in both the discussion about the “hard” problem of consciousness and in fundamental issues in quantum theory. We argue that the similarities are due to common problems within the conceptual foundations of both fields. In quantum physics, the state reduction marks the “coming into being” of a new aspect of reality for which no causal explanation is available. Likewise, the self-referential nature of consciousness constitutes a “coming into being” of a new quality which goes beyond a (...)
     
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  23. Explaining consciousness: Convergence on emergence.Michael Silberstein - manuscript
  24.  3
    Philosophy of science: classic debates, standard problems, future prospects.Peter Machamer & Michael Silberstein - 2002 - In Peter K. Machamer & Michael Silberstein (eds.), The Blackwell guide to the philosophy of science. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell. pp. 18-36.
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  25. Reductive physicalism and the explanatory gap: A dilemma.Michael Silberstein - 2002 - In Peter K. Machamer & Michael Silberstein (eds.), Guide to the Philosophy of Science. Blackwell.
  26. An argument for 4d blockworld from a geometric interpretation of non-relativistic quantum mechanics.Michael Silberstein, W. M. Stuckey & Michael Cifone - unknown
    We use a new, distinctly “geometrical” interpretation of non-relativistic quantum mechanics (NRQM) to argue for the fundamentality of the 4D blockworld ontology. We argue for a geometrical interpretation whose fundamental ontology is one of spacetime relations as opposed to constructive entities whose time-dependent behavior is governed by dynamical laws. Our view rests on two formal results: Kaiser (1981 & 1990), Bohr & Ulfbeck (1995) and Anandan, (2003) showed independently that the Heisenberg commutation relations of NRQM follow from the relativity of (...)
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  27. Guide to the Philosophy of Science.Peter K. Machamer & Michael Silberstein (eds.) - 2002 - Blackwell.
     
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  28.  6
    (1 other version)Philosophy of space-time physics.Peter Machamer & Michael Silberstein - 2002 - In Peter K. Machamer & Michael Silberstein (eds.), The Blackwell guide to the philosophy of science. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell. pp. 173-198.
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  29.  35
    An Adynamical, Graphical Approach to Quantum Gravity and its Foundational Implications.Michael Silberstein & William Mark Stuckey - unknown
    We propose a path integral over graphs approach to quantum gravity and unification that requires a modification and reinterpretation of both general relativity and quantum field theory via their graphical instantiations, Regge calculus and lattice gauge theory, respectively. As we outline below, the spacetime metric and the matter and gauge field gradients on the graph are co-determining, so there is no “background spacetime” connoting existence independent of matter-energy-momentum, and the graphical action can be characterized geometrically via graphical boundary operators.
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  30.  72
    Emergence, Theology, and the Manifest Image.Michael Silberstein - 2006 - In Philip Clayton & Zachory Simpson (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Science. Oxford University Press. pp. 784-800.
    Accession Number: ATLA0001712279; Hosting Book Page Citation: p 784-800.; Language(s): English; General Note: Bibliography: p 799-800.; Issued by ATLA: 20130825; Publication Type: Essay.
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  31. Space, Time, and Magic.Michael Silberstein - 2004 - In David Baggett, Shawn E. Klein & William Irwin (eds.), Harry Potter and Philosophy: If Aristotle Ran Hogwarts. Chicago: Open Court. pp. 186--99.
     
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  32.  63
    An adynamical, graphical approach to quantum gravity and unification.William Mark Stuckey & Michael Silberstein - 2016 - In Ignazio Licata (ed.), Beyond peaceful coexistence: the emergence of space, time and quantum. London: Imperial College Press.
    We propose an adynamical, background independent approach to quantum gravity and unification whereby the fundamental elements of Nature are graphical units of space, time and sources. The transition amplitude for these elements of “spacetimesource” is computed using a path integral with discrete Gaussian graphical action. The unit of action for a spacetimesource element is constructed from a difference matrix K and source vector J on the graph, as in lattice gauge theory. K is constructed from graphical relations so that it (...)
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  33.  94
    Reversing the arrow of explanation in the relational blockworld: Why temporal becoming, the dynamical brain and the external world are all "in the mind".W. M. Stuckey, Michael Silberstein & Michael Cifone - 2007 - In Avshalom C. Elitzur, Metod Saniga & Rosolino Buccheri (eds.), Endophysics, Time, Quantum and the Subjective. World Scientific Publishing.
    We introduce the Relational Blockworld (RBW) as a paradigm for deflating the mysteries associated with quantum non-separability/non-locality and the measurement problem. We begin by describing how the relativity of simultaneity implies the blockworld, which has an explanatory potential subsuming both dynamical and relational explanations. It is then shown how the canonical commutation relations fundamental to non-relativistic quantum mechanics follow from the relativity of simultaneity. Therefore, quantum mechanics has at its disposal the full explanatory power of the blockworld. Quantum mechanics exploits (...)
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  34. The relational blockworld interpretation of non-relativistic quantum mechanics.W. M. Stuckey, Michael Silberstein & Michael Cifone - unknown
    We introduce a new interpretation of non-relativistic quantum mechanics (QM) called Relational Blockworld (RBW). We motivate the interpretation by outlining two results due to Kaiser, Bohr, Ulfeck, Mottelson, and Anandan, independently. First, the canonical commutation relations for position and momentum can be obtained from boost and translation operators,respectively, in a spacetime where the relativity of simultaneity holds. Second, the QM density operator can be obtained from the spacetime symmetry group of the experimental configuration exclusively. We show how QM, obtained from (...)
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  35. Essay Review: Why Neutral Monism is Superior to Panpsychism. [REVIEW]Michael Silberstein - 2009 - Mind and Matter 7 (2):239-248.
     
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  36. Rescher, Nicholas (2001), Minding Matter, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publish-ers, USD 60 (cloth), USD 21.95 (pb). Fuller, Steve (2002), Thomas Kuhn: A Philosophical History for Our Times, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, USD 22.50 (pb). [REVIEW]Ramón Moreno Cuevas, Peter Machamer, Michael Silberstein, Yuri Balashov, Alex Rosenberg & Lynette Hunter - 2002 - Synthese 133:455-456.
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  37.  31
    Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking (third edition). [REVIEW]Michael D. Silberstein - 1995 - Teaching Philosophy 18 (4):377-379.
  38.  55
    Monism versus emergence? The one and the many: Mariam Thalos: Without hierarchy: The scale freedom of the universe. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013, 278pp, $69.00 HB. [REVIEW]Michael Silberstein - 2014 - Metascience 24 (1):43-48.
    This will be an admittedly opinionated review that gives with one hand and takes with the other. Let me be clear though from the outset that there is much to admire and agree with here. Perhaps, the biggest complaint is the failure of the author to engage with other highly relevant literature in philosophy of science and metaphysics that would yield her natural allies or would provide natural foils that ought to be named and engaged. On the allies side, there (...)
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