Physics avoidance : essays in conceptual strategy / Mark Wilson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wilson, Mark, 1947- author.

Standardized Title:

Essays. Selections

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Science--Philosophy.

Science.

Physical Description:

xviii, 427 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

[Oxford, United Kingdom] : Oxford University Press, [2017]

Summary:

Mark Wilson presents a series of explorations of our strategies for understanding the world. 'Physics avoidance' refers to the fact that we frequently cannot reason about nature in the straightforward manner we anticipate, but must seek alternative policies that allow us to address the questions we want answered in a tractable way. Within both science and everyday life, we find ourselves relying upon thought processes that reach useful answers in opaque and roundabout manners. Conceptual innovators are often puzzled by the techniques they develop, when they stumble across reasoning patterns that are easy to implement but difficult to justify. But simple techniques frequently rest upon complex foundations-a young magician learns how to execute a card-guessing trick without understanding how its progressive steps squeeze in on a proper answer. As we collectively improve our inferential skills in this gradually evolving manner, we often wander into unfamiliar explanatory landscapes in which simple words encode physical information in complex and unanticipated ways. Like our juvenile conjurer, we fail to recognize the true strategic rationales underlying our achievements and may turn instead to preposterous rationalizations for our policies. We have learned how to reach better conclusions in a more fruitful way, but we remain baffled by our own successes. At its best, philosophical reflection illuminates the natural developmental processes that generate these confusions and explicates their complexities. But current thinking within philosophy of science and language works to opposite effect by relying upon simplistic conceptions of 'cause', 'law of nature', 'possibility', and 'reference' that ignore the strategic complexities in which these concepts become entangled within real-life usage. To avoid these distortions, better descriptive tools are wanted. The nine new essays within this volume illustrate this need for finer discriminations through a range of revealing cases, of both historical and contemporary significance. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Pragmatics' Place at the Table 1

Appendix 1 The "Worlds" of Science and Common Sense 40

Appendix 2 Investigative Moods and Logical Reasoning 46

2 Physics Avoidance 51

Appendix 1 Initial/Boundary Condition Mimics 90

Appendix 2 Constraints and the Physics of Mechanism 94

3 From the Bending of Beams to the Problem of Free Will 99

Appendix: The Problem of the Physical Infinitesimal 130

4 Two Cheers for Anti-Atomism 136

Appendix: Hertz's Challenge and the Underdetermination of Theory 196

5 The Greediness of Scales 201

6 Believers in the Land of Glory 241

Appendix: The Origins of Conceptual Clashes I: Pressure 281

7 Is There Life in Possible Worlds? 287

Appendix: The Origins of Conceptual Clashes II: Force 320

8 Semantic Mimicry 324

9 A Second Pilgrim's Progress 362.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Electronic version: Wilson, Mark, Essays. Selections. Physics avoidance.

ISBN:

0198803478

9780198803478

OCLC:

987345605