{"title":"What Problem of Universals?","authors":"J. Wieland","doi":"10.21825/philosophica.82171","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21825/philosophica.82171","url":null,"abstract":"What is the Probl em of Universals? In this paper we take up t he cla ssic question and proceed as follows. In Sect. 1 we consider t hree problem solv ing settings and define the notion of problem solving accordingly. Basically I say that to solve problems is to eliminate undesirable, unspecified, or apparently incoherent scenarios. In Sect. 2 we apply the general observations from Sect. 1 to the Problem of Unive rsa l s. Mo re specifically, we single out two accounts of the problem which are based on the idea of eliminating apparently incoherent scenarios, and then propose modifications of those two accounts which, by contrast, are based on the idea of eliminating unspecified scenarios. In Sect. 3 we spell out two interesting ramifications.","PeriodicalId":36843,"journal":{"name":"Argumenta Philosophica","volume":"71 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72445233","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Towards a Fruitful Formulation of Needham’s Grand Question","authors":"S. Ducheyne","doi":"10.21825/philosophica.82166","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21825/philosophica.82166","url":null,"abstract":"As it stands, Needham’s Grand Question is simply too general and ill-posed to be answered in a meaningful way. In this paper it is argued that Needham’s Grand Question, to wit Why did science emerge in the West and not in China?, can only be fruitfully pursued, (1) on the condition that one explicates the assumptions and conceptions involved in an informative and motivated way, and (2) on the condition that the question is concretized and fine-tuned by means of and in terms of a series of specific questions. In this paper, I attempt to reformulate Needham’s Grand Question on the basis of a minimal conception of modern science. Next I will split up the Grand Question into a series of more specific, controllable and arguably more fruitful questions. * The author is Postdoctoral Research Fellow of the Research Foundation (FWOFlanders) and is indebted to Erik Weber and the anonymous referee for their comments and suggestions.","PeriodicalId":36843,"journal":{"name":"Argumenta Philosophica","volume":"13 6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83908541","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Unravelling the Methodology of Causal Pluralism","authors":"Anton Froeyman, L. Vreese","doi":"10.21825/philosophica.82174","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21825/philosophica.82174","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper we try t o b ring some c larification in the r ecent d ebate o n ca usal p luralism. Our first aim is to clarify what it means to have a pluralistic theory of causation and to articulate the criteria by means of which a certain theory of causation can or cannot qualify as a pluralistic theory of causation . W e als o show that there i s curre ntly no theory on the market which meets the se cr iteria, and therefore no full-blown pluralistic theory of causation exists. Because of this, we offer a general strategy by means of which pluralistic theories of causation can be developed.","PeriodicalId":36843,"journal":{"name":"Argumenta Philosophica","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74379181","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Since Heaven has not yet Destroyed this Culture, what Can the Men of Kuang Do to me?”: Cosmological Confucianism and the Development of Science","authors":"Bart Dessein","doi":"10.21825/philosophica.82167","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21825/philosophica.82167","url":null,"abstract":"This article addresses the issue how, in traditiona l Chinese society in which Confucianism held a dominant position, philosophy was organized in ‘schools of thought,’ how these schools remained relatively sta ble ‘transmitters of wisdom,’ and how they dealt with ‘science’. More precisely, it is argued that the kind of ‘cosmological Confucianism’ that became the state o rthodoxy of imperial China is a kind of correlative thinking that accepts a cl ose relation between the natural and the political world. In a context in which ‘phi losophers’ increasingly became advisors to the political elite in their performing of their duties of maintaining cosmic order, the ruling elite came to depend on th e advice of these ‘philoso* The author is professor Chinese language and cultu re at Ghent University. He is indebted to Erik Weber for his invitation to contri bute to this issue, and to the anonymous reader for his/her comments and suggestions.","PeriodicalId":36843,"journal":{"name":"Argumenta Philosophica","volume":"287 15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76580053","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Regiomontanus and Chinese Mathematics","authors":"Albrecht Heeffer","doi":"10.21825/philosophica.82169","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21825/philosophica.82169","url":null,"abstract":"This paper critically assesses the claim by Gavin Menzies that Regiomontanus knew about the Chinese Remainder Theorem (CRT) through the Shu shū Jiǔ zhāng (SSJZ) written in 1247. Menzies uses this among many others arguments for his controversial theory that a large fleet of Chinese vessels visited Italy in the first half of the 15th century. We first refute that Regiomontanus used the method from the SSJZ. CRT problems appear in earlier European arithmetic and can be solved by the method of the Sun Zi, as did Fibonacci. Secondly, we pro-vide evidence that remainder problems were treated within the European abbaco tradition independently of the CRT method. Finally, we discuss the role of recre-ational mathematics for the oral dissemination of sub-scientific knowledge.","PeriodicalId":36843,"journal":{"name":"Argumenta Philosophica","volume":"9 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84179460","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Revisionary and Descriptive Metaphysics","authors":"M. Keinänen","doi":"10.21825/philosophica.82172","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21825/philosophica.82172","url":null,"abstract":"The goal of formal ontological inquiry is to reveal the categorial str ucture of the mind-independent reality. In the first part of this article, I criticiz e t wo popular ways to study the categorial structure, Strong and Weak Modelling. In the second part of the article (secs. 3-5), I present my positive account. The systematic description of the different kinds of entities ass umed by our commonsense conceptions (Descriptive Metaphysics) forms a starting-point of the study of the categorial structure of t he world. However, it is the task of Revisionary Metaphysics to see k for the best conception of the categorial structure. Revisionary Metaphysics proceeds as testing alternative c onceptions of the categorial structure (different categorial schemes). The main new contribution of the article is to propose certain general principles for the comparison of such alternative conceptions.","PeriodicalId":36843,"journal":{"name":"Argumenta Philosophica","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88748510","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Debate between Causal Realism and Causal Constructivism: Metaphilosophical Reflections","authors":"E. Weber","doi":"10.21825/philosophica.82173","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21825/philosophica.82173","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper I discuss, from a metaphilosophical point of view, the debate between causal realism and causal constructivism. First , I argue that the debate, if it is couche d in the general terms as it is t raditionally done , re sts on a false di lemma. Then I argue that the debate must be disentangled into several more specific debates in order to be interesting.","PeriodicalId":36843,"journal":{"name":"Argumenta Philosophica","volume":"13 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80761489","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Brain and Nerve Stimulation for Mood Enhancement","authors":"D. De Ridder","doi":"10.21825/philosophica.82182","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21825/philosophica.82182","url":null,"abstract":"Enhancing brain activity and function is a very ancient practice which is usua lly accom plished by taking illegal drugs. Prescription medication is becoming more commonly used as a means of enhancing mood, and recently, it has become possible to modulate mood by applying magnetic (TMS) or electrica l current to the brain (tDCS, implanted electrodes) or by training the brain to work at predetermined oscillations (neurofeedback). A summary of the available neuromodulation techniques will be p resented associated with data from human subjects implanted with cortical and/or subcutaneous electrodes that demonstrate the potential for electrical neuro-enhancement. 1. The neurobiology of mood and emotion Mood can be defined as a relatively lasting emotional or affective state. Mood and emotion differ in that mood lasts longer than an emotion, is less specific, often less intense, and less likely to be triggered by a particular stimulus or event. Mood can be considered a normal physiological affective state generated by the brain. Mood disorders, a pathological emotional state, are disabling disturbances of mood or emotion. They most likely result from a failure to regulate mood (Johnstone et al, 2007). Major depression, for instance, can be described as a failure to regulate negative emotions. This is similar to fear, a physiological emotional state, and anxiety disorder, a pathological state, where a failure to regulate fear circuits leads to anxiety even though objective information about the outside world may indicate that the situation is not dangerous (LeDoux, 2003). Major depression is usually characterized by persistent mood states such as","PeriodicalId":36843,"journal":{"name":"Argumenta Philosophica","volume":"18 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87299364","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Can Successful Mood Enhancement Make Us Less Happy?","authors":"B. Brülde","doi":"10.21825/philosophica.82184","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21825/philosophica.82184","url":null,"abstract":"The main question is whether chemically induced mood enhancement is (if successful) likely to make us happier, or whether it may rather have detrimental effects on our long-term happiness. This question is divided into three: (i) What effects are mood-enhancing drugs likely to have on the long-term happiness of the person who takes these drugs? (ii) How would these drugs affect the happiness of the immediate environment of the people who take them, e.g. children or spouses? (iii) What effects would a wide-spread use of mood-enhancing drugs have on society as a whole, and how would this affect the long-term happiness of its citizens? My answers to these questions are very tentative, partly because we know too little about what non-hedonic effects these drugs can be expected to have. It is possible that these drugs would have detrimental effects on some determinants of happiness, however, e.g. marriage and friendship, social and physical activity, rational problem-solving and mental effectiveness, political participation and interpersonal trust. But on the other hand, there are also a number of determinants of happiness that might be positively affected by a wide-spread and frequent use of mood-enhancing drugs.","PeriodicalId":36843,"journal":{"name":"Argumenta Philosophica","volume":"30 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79500682","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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