The supraconfessional spirit, very characteristic of the Ottoman world, which tended to regroup many different elements, and was based on the universal conviction, according to which all religions are valued and competed for the same purposes, still resonates in the Balkans. A significant example, that in this article is analyzed from the perspective of the phenomenon of shared holiness and as a mirror of diverse influences, is an icon of Bulgaria, the unusual Islamic-Christian representation of the Virgin and Child, which (...) was recently located in a village where, apart from the «Turks» and Bulgarians, there are still living descendants of the Don Cossacks, who are ethnically Russian. (shrink)

This book probes the extreme variation in discourses on violence and punishment. Its comprehensive examination brings together normative political-theoretical discourses on punishment, historical changes in violence and punishment, and perspectives on punishment from political powers, world religions, literature and film, criminology, and theodicy.

Truth and Compassion offers an integral and inter-disciplinary view on truth and compassion, their mutual connectedness, the meaning of their cultivation, and the devastating consequences of their neglect and destruction. The authors analyze their various forms, their origins, and concrete ways and attempts of their repression. Essays focus on the attention to truth and compassion under communism, but this is only one of its segments. As a whole, topics range from basic theological and philosophical analysis to concrete historiographic treatments of (...) particular cases. The central message is that speaking about grievances, communication, dialogue, empathy, and solidarity are necessary for living in truth and compassion. (Series: Theology East-West / Theologie Ost-West, Vol. 20) [Subject: Philosophy, Ethics Studies]~. (shrink)

Empirical advances have been made in understanding how human language, in its combinatorial complexity and unbounded expressivity, may have evolved from the communication systems present in our evolutionary ancestors. However, a number of cognitive processes and neurobiological mechanisms that support language may not have evolved specifically for communication, but rather from abilities that support perception and cognition more generally. We review recent evidence from comparative behavioural and neurobiological studies on structured sequence learning in human and nonhuman primates. These studies support (...) the notion that certain sequence learning abilities are evolutionarily conserved and engage corresponding inferior frontal brain regions across the species, regions also involved in processing language in humans. Alongside the cross-species similarities is evidence for human specialisations, illuminating the likely evolutionary pathways towards language in modern humans. We argue that cognitive abilities that were in place for animals to learn combinatorial relationships in the sensory world were available and co-opted for language in humans. (shrink)

This paper studies the epistemic failures to reach understanding in relation to scientific explanations. We make a distinction between genuine understanding and its negative phenomena—lack of understanding and misunderstanding. We define explanatory understanding as inclusive as possible, as the epistemic success that depends on abilities, skills, and correct explanations. This success, we add, is often supplemented by specific positive phenomenology which plays a part in forming epistemic inclinations—tendencies to receive an insight from familiar types of explanations. We define lack of (...) understanding as the epistemic failure that results from a lack of an explanation or from an incorrect one. This can occur due to insufficient abilities and skills, or to fallacious explanatory information. Finally, we characterize misunderstanding by cases where one’s epistemic inclinations do not align with an otherwise correct explanation. We suggest that it leads to potential debates about the explanatory power of different explanatory strategies. We further illustrate this idea with a short meta-philosophical study on the current debates about distinctively mathematical explanations. (shrink)

Human language is a salient example of a neurocognitive system that is specialized to process complex dependencies between sensory events distributed in time, yet how this system evolved and specialized remains unclear. Artificial Grammar Learning (AGL) studies have generated a wealth of insights into how human adults and infants process different types of sequencing dependencies of varying complexity. The AGL paradigm has also been adopted to examine the sequence processing abilities of nonhuman animals. We critically evaluate this growing literature in (...) species ranging from mammals (primates and rats) to birds (pigeons, songbirds, and parrots) considering also cross‐species comparisons. The findings are contrasted with seminal studies in human infants that motivated the work in nonhuman animals. This synopsis identifies advances in knowledge and where uncertainty remains regarding the various strategies that nonhuman animals can adopt for processing sequencing dependencies. The paucity of evidence in the few species studied to date and the need for follow‐up experiments indicate that we do not yet understand the limits of animal sequence processing capacities and thereby the evolutionary pattern. This vibrant, yet still budding, field of research carries substantial promise for advancing knowledge on animal abilities, cognitive substrates, and language evolution. (shrink)

This paper pursues two aims. First, to show that the block universe view, regarding the universe as a timelessly existing four-dimensional world, is the only one that is consistent with special relativity. Second, to argue that special relativity alone can resolve the debate on whether the world is three-dimensional or four-dimensional. The argument advanced in the paper is that if the world were three-dimensional the kinematic consequences of special relativity and more importantly the experiments confirming them would be impossible.

There are several important criticisms against the unificationist model of scientific explanation: Unification is a broad and heterogeneous notion and it is hard to see how a model of explanation based exclusively on unification can make a distinction between genuine explanatory unification from cases of ordering or classification. Unification alone cannot solve the asymmetry and irrelevance problems. Unification and explanation pull in different directions and should be decoupled, because for good scientific explanation extra ad explanandum information is often required. I (...) am presenting a possible solution to those problems, by focusing on an often overlooked but important element of how theoretic unification is achieved—the conceptual frameworks of theories. The core conceptual assumptions behind theories are decisive for discriminating between explanatory and non-explanatory unification. The conceptual framework is also flexible enough to balance the tension between informativeness and maximum systematization in constructing explanatory inferences. A short case study of orthogenetic and Darwinian explanations in paleontology is presented as an illustration of how my addition to the unificationist model is applicable to a historical debate between rival explanations. (shrink)

An important epistemological lesson can be learned from the impossibility to determine the one-way velocity of light and the immediate implication that simultaneity is conventional. The vicious circle -- to determine whether two distant events are simultaneous we need to know the one-way velocity of light between them, but to determine the one-way velocity of light we need to know that the two events are simultaneous -- is an indication of the need for a profound change of our view on (...) reality. (shrink)

This volume is dedicated to the centennial anniversary of Minkowski's discovery of spacetime.

The present paper pursues two aims. First to show that the experiment proposed by Stolakis [1986] does not lead to absolute synchronization in a single frame of reference and therefore also to the measurement of one-way velocity of light. Second, by consecutively considering the problems of the conventionality of simultaneity and of existence to show that the simultaneity of distant events can be a matter of convention only in a four-dimensional world. * I am grateful to the anonymous referees for (...) their useful suggestions on an earlier version of this paper. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is to show that the Lorentz contraction of a rod is possible only if the rod’s world path is a real four-dimensional object. This result demonstrates that special relativity does require reality at the microscopic level to be a four-dimensional world represented by Minkowski spacetime.

As there have still been attempts to regard gravity, a 100 years after Einstein's general relativity, not as a manifestation of the non-Euclidean geometry of spacetime, but as a physical field, it is high time to face the ultimate judge -- the experimental evidence -- to settle this issue once and for all. Two rulings of the ultimate judge are reminded -- the experimental fact that falling particles do not resist their fall rules out the option that gravity may be (...) a force, and the experiments that confirmed the relativistic effects are impossible in a three-dimensional world, which also implies that gravity is indeed manifestation of the geometry of the real spacetime. It is also stressed that not only are attempts to impose a kind of scientific democracy in physics doomed to failure, but such attempts might, in the end, hamper the advancement of fundamental physics. (shrink)

Should physicists deal with the question of the reality of Minkowski space (or any relativistic spacetime)? It is argued that they should since this is a question about the dimensionality of the world at the macroscopic level and it is physics that should answer it.

The main purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the analysis of the kinematical effects of special relativity holds the key to answering the question of the dimensionality of the world. It is shown that these effects and the experiments which confirmed them would be impossible if the world were three-dimensional. Section 2 shows that relativity of simultaneity, conventionality of simultaneity, and the existence of accelerated observers in special relativity would be impossible if the world were three-dimensional. Section 3 (...) deals with the dimensionality of physical objects and demonstrates that the relativistic length contraction and the twin paradox would be impossible if the physical bodies involved in these relativistic effects were three-dimensional objects. (shrink)

Dans cet article, je présente une approche sémantique de l’analyse de la fonction de la métaphore du paysage dans la biologie de l’évolution. Le concept de paysage adaptatif a suscité une attention considérable dans la philosophie de la biologie récente. La plupart des auteurs ont considéré ce concept de l’une des deux manières suivantes: en tant qu’outil heuristique, comme partie intrinsèque de modèles mathématiques robustes, ou comme un ensemble définissable d’analogies sur lesquelles les modèles sont basés et testés. Chacune de (...) ces visions conduit à la conclusion que la valeur de la métaphore du paysage dépend seulement du succès des modèles que sous-tend la métaphore, en vue de représenter adéquatement la dynamique de l’évolution. J’essaie de montrer que cette conclusion, ainsi que les visions qui y conduisent, ne tiennent pas compte d’épisodes importants dans l’histoire de la métaphore du langage. Ces visions proviennent plutôt de thèses générales, en philosophie des sciences, quant au rôle des métaphores dans les théories scientifiques. L’analyse sémantique que je propose met en lumière le fait que la fonction première du concept de relief adaptatif, au cours de la synthèse évolutionniste, a été de servir de cadre général d’unification conceptuelle, qui a rendu possible la conciliation de phénomènes empiriques hétérogènes. De ce point de vue, la métaphore du paysage est un outil linguistique-théorique qui ne doit pas être abandonné (et qui ne l’est de fait pas) suite à la falsification des modèles construits et interprétés au moyen de la métaphore. (shrink)

That abortion is the unjust killing of an innocent human person is the contention of the authors of this book. It does not intend to be a comprehensive defence of a pro-life position; rather, it ad...

Over a hundred years ago in his paper "Space and Time" Hermann Minkowski demonstrated the profound meaning of the relativity postulate - the experimental fact that physical phenomena are the same in all inertial reference frames implies that the Universe is an absolute four-dimensional world in which all moments of time have equal existence due to their belonging to the fourth dimension. Since then there has been no consensus on the reality of this absolute world, which we now call Minkowski (...) spacetime or simply spacetime. I will argue that facing the ultimate judge - the experimental evidence - allows us to settle this issue once and for all. (shrink)

The paper is based on the experiences of a fieldwork researcher. Two studies of everyday life are compared. In spite of the differences in theoretical frameworks and methodologies, important similarities are identified, leading to identical basic results. These similarities are to be found in the dependence of the everyday survival on political survival, of everyday life on political life, of coping on political developments. The similarity is proved by pointing to the shared broader socio-historical framework in which both studies have (...) been located, and to the uniqueness of the environment/area in which both have taken place. This leads to the final conclusion on the relation between the character of everyday life and the collective character/mentality, where the key mediator is political life and the character shaped within its domain. In a culture basically structured as a warrior culture, in the circumstances of huge civilizational changes at the global world scene, the local political mentality assumes specific features, somewhat modified in comparison with the traditional ethos. These features in turn directly shape the everyday, particularly of ordinary people, beyond the centers of power and global decision-making. U tekstu se iznosi iskustvo jednog terenskog istrazivaca/intervjuera. Uporedjuju se dva istrazivanja svakodnevnog zivota. Uprkos razlikama u teorijskim polazistima i metodskim resenjima, podvlace se slicnosti koje su dovele do istovetnosti osnovnog rezultata. Njih treba traziti u zavisnosti svakodnevice opstanka od politickog opstanka, svakodnevnog zivota od politickog zivota, prezivljavanja od politickih desavanja. Da bi se dokazala ova slicnost ukazuje se na zajednickost sireg drustveno-istorijskog okvira u koji su oba istrazivanja smestena, a preko njega, i na jedinstvenost podneblja/prostora na kome se oba odvijaju. To vodi krajnjem zakljucku o vezi karaktera svakodnevnog zivota od kolektivnog karaktera/mentaliteta, pri cemu je kljucni posrednik politicki zivot i karakter oblikovan u njegovoj sferi. U jednoj, u osnovi, ratnicki strukturisanoj kulturi, a u uslovima krupnih civilizacijskih potresa na globalnoj svetskoj sceni, politicki mentalitet u lokalnim uslovima zadobija osobene crte, donekle modifikovane u odnosu na tradicionalni etos, koje potom, neposredno oblikuju i svakodnevicu, pre svega, obicnih ljudi, izvan centara moci i globalnog odlucivanja. (shrink)

Weltbekannte Wissenschaftshistoriker loben Petrićs Abhandlung über Ebbe und Flut, die Keppler bei seinem Formulierungsansatz des universalen Charakters der Gravitation als Grundlage diente. Die Unterschiede zwischen Ebbe und Flut in verschiedenen Meeren suchte Petrić im Rahmen seines Modells des Universums zu erklären . Er folgerte schlüssig, dass der Mond und die Sonne zwei allgemeine Ursachen von Ebbe und Flut sind , ohne dabei die Rolle der Gravitation zu erkennen. Vielmehr erklärte Petrić Ebbe und Flut in seinem eigenen philosophischen System als eine (...) Folge von Sonnen- und Wärmeeinwirkungen . Die Wissenschaft hat nach Petrić Ebbe und Flut als eine Auswirkung der Gravitation erklärt, bzw. als Folge der Raumzeitkrümmung . In dem Artikel soll die mathematische Beschreibung von Ebbe und Flut im Rahmen von Newtons Gravitationstheorie erklärt werden, aber auch die perfektere Ausrechnung derselben Erscheinung innerhalb der Raumzeitkrümmung gemäß der allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie im schwachen Gravitationsfeld . Die relativistische Korrektion für Ebbe und Flut fällt im Hinblick auf den klassischen Newton’schen Ausdruck geringfügig aus, wie es auch für schwache Gravitationsfelder zu erwarten ist. Weder Newtons noch Einsteins Theorie – so perfekt sie in der mathematischen Beschreibung von Ebbe und Flut auch sein mögen – beschreiben Ebbe und Flut so eingehend, wie es Petrić in seiner phänomenologischen Theorie getan hat, indem er den lokalen Charakter des Phänomens hervorhob. Auf vielen Symposien anlässlich des 100. Jubiläums des wundervollen Jahres 1905 wurde Einstein zum größten Physiker des 20. Jahrhunderts erklärt, neben Newton zum größten Physiker aller Zeiten. Umso mehr sollen Petrićs Verdienste gewürdigt werden, nicht nur in Bezug auf seine Theorie des mathematischen und physikalischen Raumes, sondern auch hinsichtlich seiner phänomenologischen Theorie von Ebbe und Flut, die Petrić, als ein unmittelbarer Vorgänger Kepplers und ganze 100 Jahre vor Newton, in sein interessantes philosophisches System der Beschreibung des Universums und der darin stattfindenden Naturerscheinungen eingebaut hat. (shrink)

The debate between the dynamical and the statistical interpretations of natural selection is centred on the question of whether all explanations that employ the concepts of natural selection and drift are reducible to causal explanations. The proponents of the statistical interpretation answer negatively, but insist on the fact that selection/drift arguments are explanatory. However, they remain unclear on where the explanatory power comes from. The proponents of the dynamical interpretation answer positively and try to reduce selection/drift arguments to some of (...) the most prominent accounts of causal explanation. In turn, they face the criticism raised by statisticalists that current accounts of causation have to be violated in some of their core conditions or otherwise used in a very loose manner in order to account for selection/drift explanations. We propose a reconciliation of both interpretations by conveying evolutionary explanations within the unificationist model of scientific explanation. Therefore, we argue that the explanatory power in natural selection arguments is a result of successful unification of individual- and population-level facts. A short case study based on research on sympatric speciation will be presented as an example of how population- and individual-level facts are unified to explain the morphological mosaic of bill shape in island scrub jays. (shrink)

‘Human life and sexuality have become the watershed moral issues of our age ’: so begins Nancy Pearcey’s Love Thy Body. Pearcey’s overall aim is to reclaim the moral significance of human embo...

Les célèbres historiens des sciences soulignent l’importance du traité de Petrić sur la marée haute et la marée basse dont s’est servi Kepler dans ses tentatives pour formuler la nature universelle de la gravitation. Les différences entre la marée haute et la marée basse dans des mers différentes ont été expliquées dans le cadre du modèle de l’univers de Petrić . Il a conclu correctement que la Lune et le Soleil sont les deux causes générales de la marée sans toutefois (...) reconnaître le rôle de la gravitation. Dans son système philosophique Petrić expliquait la marée haute et la marée basse comme une conséquence de l’influence de la lumière et de la chaleur . Après Petrić, la marée haute et la marée basse ont été expliquées par la science comme un effet de la gravitation , c’est à dire comme un effet de la courbure de l’espace-temps . Dans cet article une description mathématique de la marée haute et de la marée basse sera présentée dans le cadre de la théorie de la gravitation de Newton, ainsi qu’un calcul soigneusement élaboré du même phénomène dans la courbure de l’espace-temps dans le cadre de la théorie générale de la relativité, en cas d’un champ de gravitation faible . La correction relativiste appliquée à la marée haute ou à la marée basse, apparaît peu importante en relation à l’expression classique de Newton, ce à quoi on s’attendait dans le cas des champs de gravitation faibles. Pourtant, les deux théories, celle de Newton et celle d’Einstein, quelque parfaites qu’elles soient dans leur description des marées, n’expliquent pas la marée haute et basse d’une manière aussi détaillé que l’avait fait Petrić dans sa théorie phénoménologie en soulignant le caractère local du phénomène. De nombreux colloques dans le monde entier dédiés à l’année miraculeuse 1905 ont désigné Einstein comme étant le plus grand physicien du 20e siècle, et avec Newton, un des plus grands physiciens de tous les temps. Par conséquent il est très important d’insister sur le rôle de Petrić, non seulement pour ses théories d’espace mathématique et physique, mais aussi pour sa théorie phénoménologique de la marée haute et de la marée basse que Petrić, qui a été le prédécesseur de Kepler, anticipant Newton d’une centaines d’années, a incorporé dans son système philosophique original de l’univers et des phénomènes naturels. (shrink)

There are two reasons for asking such an apparently unanswerable question. First, Max Born's recollections of what Minkowski had told him about his research on the physical meaning of the Lorentz transformations and the fact that Minkowski had created the full-blown four-dimensional mathematical formalism of spacetime physics before the end of 1907, both indicate that Minkowski might have arrived at the notion of spacetime independently of Poincare and at a deeper understanding of the basic ideas of special relativity independently of (...) Einstein. So, had he lived longer, Minkowski might have employed successfully his program of regarding four-dimensional physics as spacetime geometry to gravitation as well. Moreover, Hilbert had derived the equations of general relativity simultaneously with Einstein. Second, even if Einstein had arrived at what is today called Einstein's general relativity before Minkowski, Minkowski would have certainly reformulated it in terms of his program of geometrizing physics and might have represented gravitation fully as the manifestation of the non-Euclidean geometry of spacetime exactly like he reformulated Einstein's special relativity in terms of spacetime. [NOTE: The text of two explanations was taken from my previous paper "Is Gravitation Interaction or just Curved-Spacetime Geometry?" because those explanations had to be repeated in the present paper anyway.]. (shrink)

Članak je usmjeren ususret paradigmi nove fizike koju treba iznijeti LHC, ali s kritičkim prosuđivanjem toga razvoja pomoću Kuhnovih teza i epistemologije povezanih s modernom fizikom. Promišljanja i prosudbe nove filozofije niču iz LHC-fizike, koja se tumači kao »science universelle« . LHC, kao najveći sudarivač čestica u svijetu do sada, nije motiviran time da uništi Boga niti bilo koju vjeru u svijetu, već za otkrivanje novih čestica s njihovim interakcijama i kozmologijom u Prirodi, baš onoliko koliko pružaju LHC-scenariji na Tera-elektron-volt (...) skali. Polazeći od ponovnog otkrića fizike Standardnog modela i otkrića Higgsovih bozona, nova fizika na LHC-u ide mogućim putovima u skladu s problemom hijerarhije u suvremenoj fizici. K tome još, SM nije konačna teorija i upućuje se prema ne-standardnoj fizici poput supersimetrije , dodanih dimenzija na TeV-skali s kozmološkim posljedicama te ostale scenarije. Ne-standardna fizika, teorija i pokus, predviđa se otvorenom pa je formuliran novi princip agnostičkog eksperimentalizma kao najprikladniji filozofski princip, jer se ne mogu sva opažanja znati/predvidjeti na LHC-u. Čak i ako eksperimentalni program LHC-a krene u krivome smjeru, mnoge će mogućnosti izroniti iz Pandorine kutije fizike. Tada će filozofska promišljanja postati vrlo važna, napose Kuhnovi pogledi kao i naš AE princip te noviji mediteranski razvoj filozofije. Uostalom, standardna paradigma kao i nova fizika na LHC-u ne opisuju svijet u kojemu danas živimo.A paper is aiming towards a new physics paradigm to be brought by the LHC with a critical assessing on that development by the Kuhnian theses and epistemology related to modern physics. Thinking and critical assessments on the new philosophy arise up from the LHC physics, which is interpreted as the ‘science universelle’ . The LHC as the world’s largest particle collider as ever been was not motivated neither to destroy God nor any religion in the World, but to investigate new particles with their interactions and cosmology of the Nature inasmuch as it has proposed by the LHC scenarios on the Tera-electron-Volt scale. Starting from the rediscovery of the Standard Model and discovery of the Higgs bosons, the new physics at the LHC goes by the possible roads according to the Hierarchy Problem in contemporary physics. However, the SM is not a final theory by inquiring a Non-Standard physics, such as Supersymmetry , Extra Dimensions on the TeV scale with cosmological implications, and other scenarios. A Non-Standard physics, both theory and experiment, is foreseen to be open and a novel view of agnostic experimentalism was formulated to be the best philosophical principle, since we can’t know/predict everything to be observed in the LHC. Even if experimental programme of the LHC wouldn’t go in the right way, then many possibilities may emerge from the Pandora’s Box of physics. Then, philosophical considerations would become very important, particularly Kuhn’s views on it including our AE principle and new Mediterranean development of philosophy, respectively. After all, either standard paradigm or the new physics of the LHC doesn’t describe the world in which we live. (shrink)

Despite "what has probably been the most vigorous campaign ever waged against the concept of relativistic mass" p. 51) it is argued that the relativistic increase of the mass is an experimental fact.

This paper brings, for the first time, an interesting modern description of the Patricius’ phenomenological theory of tides and its modern relativistic understanding. Famous historians of science are emphasizing Patricius’ treatise on tides, which had been of primary importance for Kepler in his attempts at formulating the universal character of attraction. Patricius had tried to explain the variety of phenomena of tides in various seas as part of his model of the universe . He correctly recognized the Moon and the (...) Sun as two general causes of tides , but failed to see the role of gravity. Patricius rather ascribed tides, within the framework of his general philosophy, to be caused by light and heat . Science after Patricius explained tides as an effect of gravity , and later in the 20th century as an effect of spacetime curvature . The mathematical description of tides within Newton’s theory of gravitation was shown in the paper, along with a more refined calculation of the same phenomenon in curved spacetime within the general relativity theory for the case of weak gravitational fields . The general relativistic correction found to be very small compared to the classical Newtonian expression, as one should expect when dealing with weak gravitational fields. Both theories – Newton’s and Einstein’s – despite their precision and beauty in describing tides, do not, however, describe tides in such detail as Patricius’ theory which includes the local features of the phenomenon. At various symposia all over the world dedicated to his miraculous year of 1905 , Einstein has been recognized as the greatest physicists of the 20th century, and with Newton the two greatest physicists of all times. In the paper Patricius is understood as a direct predecessor of Kepler in the theory of tides, a hundred years before Newton. (shrink)

My aim here is to show that approximate truth as a paraconsistent notion can be successfully incorporated into the analysis of scientific unification, thus advancing towards a more realistic representation of theory development that takes into account the controversies that often loom alongside the progress of research programmes. I support my analysis with a case study of the recent debate in ecology centred around the existence of the paradox of enrichment and the controversy between ecological models of predation that employ (...) prey-dependent and ratio-dependent functional responses. These models were initially proposed as equally good representations of the basic aspects of predator–prey dynamics. However, both models generated inconsistent observational consequences and, therefore, introduced a contradiction within predator–prey theory. I argue that by accepting these models as approximately true representations of predator–prey dynamics we can convey how the available observational data have been successfully systematized in a consistent way under them. This first step in resolving the controversy relied on building a series of contrastive arguments based on both models’ derivations about population dynamics and the available empirical data. The heightening of this contrast between the models, in turn, was also essential in defining a limiting function which can be used to integrate both models and reach a new unified expression of predator–prey dynamics. (shrink)