Combining Philosophers

Ideas for H.Putnam/P.Oppenheim, New Scientist writers and Carrie Jenkins

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5 ideas

7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 5. Reason for Existence
Current physics says matter and antimatter should have reduced to light at the big bang [New Sci.]
     Full Idea: Our best theories of physics imply we shouldn't be here. The big bang ought to have produced equal amounts of matter and antimatter particles, which would have almost immediately annihilated each other, leaving nothing but light.
     From: New Scientist writers (New Scientist articles [2013], 2015.05.23)
     A reaction: This is not, of course, a rejection of physics, but a puzzle about the current standard model of physics.
CP violation shows a decay imbalance in matter and antimatter, leading to matter's dominance [New Sci.]
     Full Idea: The phenomenon of charge-parity (CP) violation says that under certain circumstances antiparticles decay at different rates from their matter counterpart. ...This might explain matter's dominance in the universe, but the effect is too small.
     From: New Scientist writers (New Scientist articles [2013], 2015.05.23)
     A reaction: Physicists are currently studying CP violations, hoping to explain why there is any matter in the universe. This will not, I presume, explain why matter and antimatter arrived in the first place.
7. Existence / C. Structure of Existence / 1. Grounding / c. Grounding and explanation
We can learn about the world by studying the grounding of our concepts [Jenkins]
     Full Idea: What concept grounding does for us is ensure that our concepts, like the results of our empirical tests, can be treated as a source of information about the independent world.
     From: Carrie Jenkins (Grounding Concepts [2008], 4.4)
     A reaction: Presumably we learn our concepts hand-in-hand with experience, so learning our concepts is itself learning about the world. Later checking of concepts and their relations largely confirms what we already knew?
7. Existence / C. Structure of Existence / 4. Ontological Dependence
There's essential, modal, explanatory, conceptual, metaphysical and constitutive dependence [Jenkins, by PG]
     Full Idea: Dependence comes in essential, modal, explanatory, conceptual, metaphysical and constitutive forms.
     From: report of Carrie Jenkins (Grounding Concepts [2008], 1.2) by PG - Db (ideas)
     A reaction: You'll have to look up Jenkins for the details.
7. Existence / E. Categories / 4. Category Realism
The concepts we have to use for categorising are ones which map the real world well [Jenkins]
     Full Idea: Concepts which are indispensably useful for categorising, understanding, explaining, and predicting our sensory input are likely to be ones which map the structure of that input well.
     From: Carrie Jenkins (Grounding Concepts [2008], 4.6)
     A reaction: Anti-realists about classification seem to think that we just invent an array of concepts, and then start classifying with them. The truth seems to be that the actual classes of worldly thing have generated our concepts.