Combining Philosophers

All the ideas for Geoffrey Gorham, Alfred North Whitehead and Eric R. Scerri

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42 ideas

1. Philosophy / C. History of Philosophy / 2. Ancient Philosophy / c. Classical philosophy
European philosophy consists of a series of footnotes to Plato [Whitehead]
     Full Idea: The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.
     From: Alfred North Whitehead (Process and Reality [1929], p.39)
     A reaction: Outsiders think this is a ridiculous remark, but readers of Plato can only be struck by what a wonderful tribute Whitehead has come up with. I would say that at least 80% of this database deals with problems which were discussed at length by Plato.
5. Theory of Logic / G. Quantification / 2. Domain of Quantification
With 'extensive connection', boundary elements are not included in domains [Whitehead, by Varzi]
     Full Idea: In Whitehead's theory of extensive connection, no boundary elements are included in the domain of quantification. ...His conception of space contains no parts of lower dimensions, such as points or boundary elements.
     From: report of Alfred North Whitehead (Process and Reality [1929]) by Achille Varzi - Mereology 3.1
     A reaction: [Varzi says we should see B.L.Clarke 1981 for a rigorous formulation. Second half of the Idea is Varzi p.21]
7. Existence / B. Change in Existence / 2. Processes
In Whitehead 'processes' consist of events beginning and ending [Whitehead, by Simons]
     Full Idea: There are no items in Whitehead's ontology called 'processes'. Rather, the term 'process' refers to the way in which the basic things - which are still events - come into existence and cease to exist. Whitehead called this 'becoming'.
     From: report of Alfred North Whitehead (Process and Reality [1929]) by Peter Simons - Whitehead: process and cosmology 'The mature'
14. Science / A. Basis of Science / 4. Prediction
If a theory can be fudged, so can observations [Scerri]
     Full Idea: A theorist may have designed his theory to fit the facts, but is it not equally possible for observers to be influenced by a theory in their report of experimental facts?
     From: Eric R. Scerri (The Periodic Table [2007], 05 'Power')
     A reaction: This is in reply to Lipton's claim that prediction is better than accommodation because of the 'fudging' problem. The reply is that you might fudge to achieve a prediction. If it was correct, that wouldn't avoid the charge of fudging.
14. Science / A. Basis of Science / 6. Falsification
Why abandon a theory if you don't have a better one? [Gorham]
     Full Idea: There is no sense in abandoning a successful theory if you have nothing to replace it with.
     From: Geoffrey Gorham (Philosophy of Science [2009], 2)
     A reaction: This is also a problem for infererence to the best explanation. What to do if your best explanation is not very good? The simple message is do not rush to dump a theory when faced with an anomaly.
If a theory is more informative it is less probable [Gorham]
     Full Idea: Popper's theory implies that more informative theories seem to be less probable.
     From: Geoffrey Gorham (Philosophy of Science [2009], 3)
     A reaction: [On p.75 Gorham replies to this objection] The point is that to be more testable they must be more detailed. He's not wrong. Theories are meant to be general, so they sweep up the details. But they need precise generalities and specifics.
14. Science / B. Scientific Theories / 1. Scientific Theory
Is Newton simpler with universal simultaneity, or Einstein simpler without absolute time? [Gorham]
     Full Idea: Is Newton's theory simpler than Einstein's, since there is only one relation of simultaneity in absolute time, or is Einstein's simpler because it dispenses with absolute time altogether?
     From: Geoffrey Gorham (Philosophy of Science [2009], 4)
     A reaction: A nice question, to which a good scientist might be willing to offer an answer. Since simultaneity is crucial but the existence of time is not, I would vote for Newton as the simpler.
Structural Realism says mathematical structures persist after theory rejection [Gorham]
     Full Idea: Structural Realists say that modern science achieves a true or 'truer' account of the world only with respect to its mathematical structure rather than its intrinsic qualities or nature. The structure carries over to new theories.
     From: Geoffrey Gorham (Philosophy of Science [2009], 4)
     A reaction: At first glance I am unconvinced that when an old theory is replaced it neverthess contains some sort of 'mathematical structure' which endures and is worth preserving. No doubt Worrall, French and co have examples.
Structural Realists must show the mathematics is both crucial and separate [Gorham]
     Full Idea: Structural Realists must show that it is the mathematical aspects of the theories, not their content, that account for their success ….and that their structure and content can be clearly separated.
     From: Geoffrey Gorham (Philosophy of Science [2009], 4)
     A reaction: Their approach certainly seems to rely on mathematical types of science, so it presumably fits biology, geology and even astronomy less well.
14. Science / B. Scientific Theories / 3. Instrumentalism
Theories aren't just for organising present experience if they concern the past or future [Gorham]
     Full Idea: The strangeness of interpreting theories as mere tools for organising present experience is brought out clearly in sciences like cosmology and paleontology, which largely concern events in the remote past or future.
     From: Geoffrey Gorham (Philosophy of Science [2009], 4)
     A reaction: Not conclusive. An anti-realist has to interpret those sciences in terms of the current observations that are available.
For most scientists their concepts are not just useful, but are meant to be true and accurate [Gorham]
     Full Idea: The main difficulty with instrumentalism is its implausible account ot the meaning of theoretical claims and concepts. Most scientists take them to be straightforward attempts to describe the world. Most say they are useful because they are accurate.
     From: Geoffrey Gorham (Philosophy of Science [2009], 4)
     A reaction: Instrumentalism is seen as a Pragmatist view, and Dewey is cited.
14. Science / B. Scientific Theories / 4. Paradigm
The periodic system is the big counterexample to Kuhn's theory of revolutionary science [Scerri]
     Full Idea: The history of the periodic system appears to be the supreme counterexample to Kuhn's thesis, whereby scientific developments proceed in a sudden, revolutionary fashion.
     From: Eric R. Scerri (The Periodic Table [2007], 03 'Rapid')
     A reaction: What is lovely about the periodic table is that it seems so wonderfully right, and hence no revolution has ever been needed. The big theories of physics and cosmology are much more precarious.
14. Science / D. Explanation / 1. Explanation / b. Aims of explanation
Scientists eventually seek underlying explanations for every pattern [Scerri]
     Full Idea: Whenever scientists are presented with a useful pattern or system of classification, it is only a matter of time before the begin to ask whether there may be some underlying explanation for the pattern.
     From: Eric R. Scerri (The Periodic Table [2007], Intro 'Evol')
     A reaction: Music to my ears, against the idea that the sole aim of science is accurately describe the patterns.
14. Science / D. Explanation / 2. Types of Explanation / d. Consilience
Consilience makes the component sciences more likely [Gorham]
     Full Idea: The more unification and integration is found among the modern sciences, the less likely it seems it will have all been a dream.
     From: Geoffrey Gorham (Philosophy of Science [2009], 4)
     A reaction: I believe this strongly. Ancient theories which were complex, wide ranging and false do not impress me. This is part of my coherence view of justification.
14. Science / D. Explanation / 3. Best Explanation / a. Best explanation
The periodic table suggests accommodation to facts rates above prediction [Scerri]
     Full Idea: Rather than proving the value of prediction, the development and acceptance of the periodic table may give us a powerful illustration of the importance of accommodation, that is, the ability of a new scientific theory to explain already known facts.
     From: Eric R. Scerri (The Periodic Table [2007], 05 'Intro')
     A reaction: The original table made famous predictions, but also just as many wrong ones (Scerri:143), and Scerri thinks this aspect has been overrated.
26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 1. Nature
Aristotelian physics has circular celestial motion and linear earthly motion [Gorham]
     Full Idea: Aristotelian physics assumed that celestial motion is naturally circular and eternal while terrestrial motion is naturally toward the center of the earth and final.
     From: Geoffrey Gorham (Philosophy of Science [2009], 4)
     A reaction: The overthrow of this by Galileo and then Newton may have been the most dramatic revolution of the new science. It opened up the possibility of universal laws of physics.
26. Natural Theory / B. Natural Kinds / 1. Natural Kinds
Natural kinds are what are differentiated by nature, and not just by us [Scerri]
     Full Idea: Natural kinds are realistic scientific entities that are differentiated by nature itself rather than by our human attempts at classification.
     From: Eric R. Scerri (The Periodic Table [2007], Intro 'Evol')
If elements are natural kinds, might the groups of the periodic table also be natural kinds? [Scerri]
     Full Idea: Elements defined by their atomic numbers are frequently assumed to represent 'natural kinds' in chemistry. ...The question arises as to whether groups of elements appearing in the periodic table might also represent natural kinds.
     From: Eric R. Scerri (The Periodic Table [2007], 10 'Elements')
     A reaction: Scerri says the distinction is not as sharp as that between the elements. As a realist, he believes there is 'one ideal periodic classification', which would then make the periods into kinds.
26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 1. Causation
Whitehead held that perception was a necessary feature of all causation [Whitehead, by Harré/Madden]
     Full Idea: On Whitehead's view, not only is a volitional sense of 'causal power' projected on to physical events, but 'perception in the causal mode' is literally ascribed to them.
     From: report of Alfred North Whitehead (Process and Reality [1929]) by Harré,R./Madden,E.H. - Causal Powers 3.II
     A reaction: This seems to be a close relative of Leibniz's monads. 'Perception' is a daft word for it, but in some way everything is 'responsive' to the things adjacent to it.
26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 8. Scientific Essentialism / a. Scientific essentialism
The colour of gold is best explained by relativistic effects due to fast-moving inner-shell electrons [Scerri]
     Full Idea: Many seemingly mundane properties of elements such as the characteristic color of gold ....can best be explained by relativistic effects due to fast-moving inner-shell electrons.
     From: Eric R. Scerri (The Periodic Table [2007], 01 'Under')
     A reaction: John Locke - I wish you were reading this! That we could work out the hidden facts of gold, and thereby explain and predict the surface properties we experience, is exactly what Locke thought to be forever impossible.
27. Natural Reality / B. Modern Physics / 4. Standard Model / a. Concept of matter
The stability of nuclei can be estimated through their binding energy [Scerri]
     Full Idea: The stability of nuclei can be estimated through their binding energy, a quantity given by the difference between their masses and the masses of their constituent particles.
     From: Eric R. Scerri (The Periodic Table [2007], 10 'Stabil')
If all elements are multiples of one (of hydrogen), that suggests once again that matter is unified [Scerri]
     Full Idea: The work of Moseley and others rehabilitated Prout's hypothesis that all elements were composites of hydrogen, being exact multiples of 1. ..This revitalized some philososophical notions of the unity of all matter, criticised by Mendeleev and others.
     From: Eric R. Scerri (The Periodic Table [2007], 06 'Philos')
27. Natural Reality / C. Space / 3. Points in Space
Whitehead replaced points with extended regions [Whitehead, by Quine]
     Full Idea: Whitehead tried to avoid points, and make do with extended regions and sets of regions.
     From: report of Alfred North Whitehead (Process and Reality [1929]) by Willard Quine - Existence and Quantification p.93
27. Natural Reality / F. Chemistry / 1. Chemistry
How can poisonous elements survive in the nutritious compound they compose? [Scerri]
     Full Idea: A central mystery of chemistry is how the elements survive in the compounds they form. For example, how can poisonous grey metal sodium combine with green poisonous gas chlorine, to make salt, which is non-poisonous and essential for life?
     From: Eric R. Scerri (The Periodic Table [2007], Intro 'Elem')
     A reaction: A very nice question which had never occurred to me. If our digestive system pulled the sodium apart from the chlorine, we would die.
Periodicity and bonding are the two big ideas in chemistry [Scerri]
     Full Idea: The two big ideas in chemistry are chemical periodicity and chemical bonding, and they are deeply interconnected.
     From: Eric R. Scerri (The Periodic Table [2007], Intro 'Per')
Chemistry does not work from general principles, but by careful induction from large amounts of data [Scerri]
     Full Idea: Unlike in physics, chemical reasoning does not generally proceed unambiguously from general principles. It is a more inductive science in which large amounts of observational data must be carefully weighed.
     From: Eric R. Scerri (The Periodic Table [2007], 05 'Mendel')
     A reaction: This is why essentialist thinking was important for Mendeleev, because it kept his focus on the core facts beneath the messy and incomplete data.
The electron is the main source of chemical properties [Scerri]
     Full Idea: It is the electron that is mainly responsible for the chemical properties of the elements.
     From: Eric R. Scerri (The Periodic Table [2007], 06 'Intro')
A big chemistry idea is that covalent bonds are shared electrons, not transfer of electrons [Scerri]
     Full Idea: One of the most influential ideas in modern chemistry is of a covalent bond as a shared pair of electrons (not as transfer of electrons and the formation of ionic bonds).
     From: Eric R. Scerri (The Periodic Table [2007], 08 'Intro')
     A reaction: Gilbert Newton Lewis was responsible for this.
Does radioactivity show that only physics can explain chemistry? [Scerri]
     Full Idea: Some authors believe that the interpretation of the properties of the elements passed from chemistry to physics as a result of the discovery of radioactivity. ...I believe this view to be overly reductionist.
     From: Eric R. Scerri (The Periodic Table [2007], 06 'Radio')
     A reaction: It is all a matter of the explanations, and how far down they have to go. If most non-radiocative chemistry doesn't need to mention the physics, then chemistry is largely autonomous.
27. Natural Reality / F. Chemistry / 2. Modern Elements
It is now thought that all the elements have literally evolved from hydrogen [Scerri]
     Full Idea: The elements are now believed to have literally evolved from hydrogen by various mechanisms.
     From: Eric R. Scerri (The Periodic Table [2007], 10 'Evol)
19th C views said elements survived abstractly in compounds, but also as 'material ingredients' [Scerri]
     Full Idea: In the 19th century abstract elements were believed to be permanent and responsible for observed properties in compounds, but (departing from Aristotle) they were also 'material ingredients', thus linking the metaphysical and material realm.
     From: Eric R. Scerri (The Periodic Table [2007], 04 'Nature')
     A reaction: I'm not sure I can make sense of this gulf between the metaphysical and the material realm, so this was an account heading for disaster.
27. Natural Reality / F. Chemistry / 3. Periodic Table
Moseley, using X-rays, showed that atomic number ordered better than atomic weight [Scerri]
     Full Idea: By using X-rays, Henry Moseley later discovered that a better ordering principle for the periodic system is atomic numbers rather than atomic weight, by subjecting many different elements to bombardment.
     From: Eric R. Scerri (The Periodic Table [2007], 06 'Intro')
     A reaction: Moseley was killed in the First World War at the age of 26. It is interesting that they more or less worked out the whole table, before they discovered the best principle on which to found it.
Some suggested basing the new periodic table on isotopes, not elements [Scerri]
     Full Idea: Some chemists even suggested that the periodic table would have to be abandoned in favor of a classification system that included a separate place for every single isotope.
     From: Eric R. Scerri (The Periodic Table [2007], 06 'Intro')
     A reaction: The extreme case is tin, which has 21 isotopes, so is tin a fundamental, or is each of the isotopes a fundamental? Does there have to be a right answer to that? All tin isotopes basically react in the same way, so we stick with the elements table.
Elements are placed in the table by the number of positive charges - the atomic number [Scerri]
     Full Idea: The serial number of an element in the periodic table, its atomic number, corresponds to the number of positive charges in the atom.
     From: Eric R. Scerri (The Periodic Table [2007], 07 'Models')
     A reaction: Note that this is a feature of the nucleus, despite that fact that the electrons decide the chemical properties. A nice model for Locke's views on essentialism.
Elements in the table are grouped by having the same number of outer-shell electrons [Scerri]
     Full Idea: The modern notion is that atoms fall into the same group of the periodic table if they possess the same numbers of outer-shell electrons.
     From: Eric R. Scerri (The Periodic Table [2007], 07 'Quantum')
     A reaction: Scerri goes on to raise questions about this, on p.242. By this principle helium should be an alkaline earth element, but it isn't.
Orthodoxy says the periodic table is explained by quantum mechanics [Scerri]
     Full Idea: The prevailing reductionist climate implies that quantum mechanics inevitably provides a more fundamental explanation for the periodic system.
     From: Eric R. Scerri (The Periodic Table [2007], 08 'Concl')
     A reaction: Scerri has argued that chemists did much better than physicists in working out how the outer electron shells of atoms worked, by induction from data, rather than inference from basic principles.
Pauli explained the electron shells, but not the lengths of the periods in the table [Scerri]
     Full Idea: Pauli explained the maximum number of electrons successive shells can accommodate, ...but it does not explain the lengths of the periods, which is the really crucial property of the periodic table.
     From: Eric R. Scerri (The Periodic Table [2007], 07 'Pauli')
     A reaction: Paulis' Exclusion Principle says no two electrons in an atom can have the same set of four quantum numbers. He added 'spin' as a fourth number. It means 'electrons cannot be distinguished' (243). Scerri says the big problem is still not fully explained.
Moseley showed the elements progress in units, and thereby clearly identified the gaps [Scerri]
     Full Idea: Moseley's work showed that the successive elements in the periodic table have an atomic number greater by one unit. The gaps could then be identified definitively, as 43, 61, 72, 75, 85, 87, and 91.
     From: Eric R. Scerri (The Periodic Table [2007], 06 'Henry')
     A reaction: [compressed]
Elements were ordered by equivalent weight; later by atomic weight; finally by atomic number [Scerri]
     Full Idea: Historically, the ordering of elements across periods was determined by equivalent weight, then later by atomic weight, and eventually by atomic number.
     From: Eric R. Scerri (The Periodic Table [2007], 01 'React')
     A reaction: So they used to be ordered by quantities (measured by real numbers), but eventually were ordered by unit items (counted by natural numbers). There need to be distinct protons (unified) to be counted.
The best classification needs the deepest and most general principles of the atoms [Scerri]
     Full Idea: An optimal classification can be obtained by identifying the deepest and most general principles that govern the atoms of the elements.
     From: Eric R. Scerri (The Periodic Table [2007], 10 'Continuum')
     A reaction: He adds (p.286) that the best system will add the 'greatest degree of regularity' to these best principles.
To explain the table, quantum mechanics still needs to explain order of shell filling [Scerri]
     Full Idea: The order of shell filling has not yet been deduced from first principles, and this issue cannot be avoided if one is to really ask whether quantum mechanics explains the periodic system in a fundamental manner.
     From: Eric R. Scerri (The Periodic Table [2007], 09 'From')
Since 99.96% of the universe is hydrogen and helium, the periodic table hardly matters [Scerri]
     Full Idea: All the elements other than hydrogen and helium make up just 0.04% of the universe. Seen from this perspective, the periodic table appears to rather insignificant.
     From: Eric R. Scerri (The Periodic Table [2007], 10 'Astro')