Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Causes and Counterfactuals', 'Coherence: The Price is Right' and 'A Universe from Nothing'

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21 ideas

2. Reason / A. Nature of Reason / 6. Coherence
Coherence problems have positive and negative restraints; solutions maximise constraint satisfaction [Thagard]
Coherence is explanatory, deductive, conceptual, analogical, perceptual, and deliberative [Thagard]
Explanatory coherence needs symmetry,explanation,analogy,data priority, contradiction,competition,acceptance [Thagard]
3. Truth / A. Truth Problems / 6. Verisimilitude
Verisimilitude comes from including more phenomena, and revealing what underlies [Thagard]
7. Existence / C. Structure of Existence / 2. Reduction
An understanding of the most basic physics should explain all of the subject's mysteries [Krauss]
7. Existence / C. Structure of Existence / 6. Fundamentals / c. Monads
In 1676 it was discovered that water is teeming with life [Krauss]
14. Science / B. Scientific Theories / 1. Scientific Theory
Neither a priori rationalism nor sense data empiricism account for scientific knowledge [Thagard]
14. Science / C. Induction / 6. Bayes's Theorem
Bayesian inference is forced to rely on approximations [Thagard]
14. Science / D. Explanation / 3. Best Explanation / a. Best explanation
The best theory has the highest subjective (Bayesian) probability? [Thagard]
26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 1. Causation
Causal statements are used to explain, to predict, to control, to attribute responsibility, and in theories [Kim]
26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 9. General Causation / c. Counterfactual causation
Many counterfactuals have nothing to do with causation [Kim, by Tooley]
Counterfactuals can express four other relations between events, apart from causation [Kim]
Causation is not the only dependency relation expressed by counterfactuals [Kim]
26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 9. Counterfactual Claims
Many counterfactual truths do not imply causation ('if yesterday wasn't Monday, it isn't Tuesday') [Kim, by Psillos]
27. Natural Reality / B. Modern Physics / 1. Relativity / a. Special relativity
Space itself can expand (and separate its contents) at faster than light speeds [Krauss]
27. Natural Reality / B. Modern Physics / 1. Relativity / b. General relativity
General Relativity: the density of energy and matter determines curvature and gravity [Krauss]
27. Natural Reality / B. Modern Physics / 2. Electrodynamics / d. Quantum mechanics
Uncertainty says that energy can be very high over very short time periods [Krauss]
27. Natural Reality / B. Modern Physics / 4. Standard Model / e. Protons
Most of the mass of a proton is the energy in virtual particles (rather than the quarks) [Krauss]
27. Natural Reality / C. Space / 2. Space
Empty space contains a continual flux of brief virtual particles [Krauss]
27. Natural Reality / E. Cosmology / 3. The Beginning
The universe is precisely 13.72 billion years old [Krauss]
27. Natural Reality / E. Cosmology / 10. Multiverse
It seems likely that cosmic inflation is eternal, and this would make a multiverse inevitable [Krauss]