SynthesePub Date : 2023-10-26DOI: 10.1007/s11229-023-04357-2
Harry Collins
{"title":"Science as a counter to the erosion of truth in society","authors":"Harry Collins","doi":"10.1007/s11229-023-04357-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-023-04357-2","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The role of scientific values has taken on new urgency with recent changes in the politics of Western societies. The threat is the erosion of the distinction between true and false in political circles. This could rapidly lead to democracy sliding into populism thence fascism. In the light of this, philosophy and sociology of science should themselves re-examine their role. The main point of the paper is to argue that science could and should push against the erosion of truth in society. Sociological thinking has sometimes tended to erode the difference between science and ordinary thought but it should no longer ignore the political consequences and should, instead, start to take scientific values as a positive resource in society. The philosophical analysis of scientific values, which I will refer to as ‘scientific value analysis, or ‘SVA’, has championed the impact of societal values on science but should also look at the way scientific values could positively affect societal values.","PeriodicalId":49452,"journal":{"name":"Synthese","volume":"43 9","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134908602","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
SynthesePub Date : 2023-10-26DOI: 10.1007/s11229-023-04338-5
André Sant’Anna
{"title":"Is remembering constructive imagining?","authors":"André Sant’Anna","doi":"10.1007/s11229-023-04338-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-023-04338-5","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The (dis)continuism debate —the debate over whether remembering is a form of imagining—is a prominent one in contemporary philosophy of memory. In recent work, Langland-Hassan (2021) has argued that this debate is best understood as a dispute over whether remembering is a form of constructive imagining . In this paper, I argue that remembering is not a form of constructive imagining because constructive processes in remembering and imagining are constrained , and hence controlled , in different ways at the level of consciousness. More specifically, I argue that remembering and imagining differ in terms of the interventions we can make on the constructive processes as they unfold. If this is correct, then a form of discontinuism is vindicated: remembering and imagining are, on this view, processes of different kinds.","PeriodicalId":49452,"journal":{"name":"Synthese","volume":"6 3","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134907367","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
SynthesePub Date : 2023-10-26DOI: 10.1007/s11229-023-04371-4
Błażej Skrzypulec
{"title":"Bodily sense and structural content","authors":"Błażej Skrzypulec","doi":"10.1007/s11229-023-04371-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-023-04371-4","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Bodily awareness seems to present the body as a topologically connected whole, composed of many parts. In consequence, the source of topological and mereological content of bodily awareness comes into question. In particular, it may be asked whether (a) such content is provided by the bodily sense, i.e., sensory mechanisms which, like proprioception, presents the body “from the inside,” or (b) it is a product of “exteroceptive” elements of bodily awareness, which represents the body “from the outside” in a similar way to that of other physical objects. This paper argues that while passive touch and proprioception are unlikely to present the body as a topological and a mereological whole, such content is likely to be provided by kinesthesis. In consequence, it is plausible that holistic topological and mereological bodily content is present in virtue of certain mechanisms of bodily sense.","PeriodicalId":49452,"journal":{"name":"Synthese","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134908627","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
SynthesePub Date : 2023-10-26DOI: 10.1007/s11229-023-04361-6
Richard Lauer, Kareem Khalifa
{"title":"Should ordinary race talk be ontologically privileged? Moving social science into the philosophical mainstream","authors":"Richard Lauer, Kareem Khalifa","doi":"10.1007/s11229-023-04361-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-023-04361-6","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":49452,"journal":{"name":"Synthese","volume":"170 3","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136382046","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
SynthesePub Date : 2023-10-24DOI: 10.1007/s11229-023-04368-z
Kevin C. Elliott
{"title":"Navigating dissent by managing value judgments: the case of Lyme disease","authors":"Kevin C. Elliott","doi":"10.1007/s11229-023-04368-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-023-04368-z","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":49452,"journal":{"name":"Synthese","volume":"38 4","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135273288","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
SynthesePub Date : 2023-10-24DOI: 10.1007/s11229-023-04366-1
Michael H. Herzog, Adrien Doerig, Christian Sachse
{"title":"Why computational complexity may set impenetrable barriers for epistemic reductionism","authors":"Michael H. Herzog, Adrien Doerig, Christian Sachse","doi":"10.1007/s11229-023-04366-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-023-04366-1","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract According to physicalism, everything is physical or metaphysically connected to the physical. If physicalism were true, it seems that we should – in principle – be able to reduce the descriptions and explanations of special sciences to physical ones, for example, explaining biological regularities, via chemistry, by the laws of particle physics. The multiple realization of the property types of the special sciences is often seen to be an obstacle to such epistemic reductions. Here, we introduce another, new argument against epistemic reduction. Based on mathematical complexity, we show that, under certain conditions, there can be “complexity barriers” that make epistemic reduction – in principle – unachievable even if physicalism were true.","PeriodicalId":49452,"journal":{"name":"Synthese","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135316155","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
SynthesePub Date : 2023-10-24DOI: 10.1007/s11229-023-04370-5
Hannah Hilligardt
{"title":"Partisan science and the democratic legitimacy ideal","authors":"Hannah Hilligardt","doi":"10.1007/s11229-023-04370-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-023-04370-5","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The democratic legitimacy ideal requires value judgments in science to be legitimised by democratic procedures in order for them to reflect the public interest or democratic aims. Such a view has been explicitly defended by Intemann (2015) and Schroeder (2021), amongst others, and reflects a more widely shared commitment to a democratisation of science and integration of public participation procedures. This paper suggests that the democratic legitimacy ideal in its current form does not leave space for partisan science – science that is politically or societally engaged. This is problematic because partisan research can contribute substantially to science and society, a point that I will illustrate with a recent case study from the Netherlands. To resolve this problem, I scrutinise the notion of democratic legitimacy and consider its use in the values in science discourse. Current discussions focus on democratic decision-making procedures to legitimise specific value judgements. I show that this focus does not adequately represent sound procedures of legitimisation at the hand of political theories of representation. Consequently, I develop a different approach: I propose to consider scientists as a special case of representatives who are authorised to make independent value judgements while nevertheless being constrained by the demands of their constituencies. Based on this approach, I argue that values in science do not need to be based on democratically agreed upon aims or the public interest in every instance. Instead, I advocate for a pluralist system of scientific mandates, which differs from both value pluralism and the democratic legitimacy ideal.","PeriodicalId":49452,"journal":{"name":"Synthese","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135316033","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
SynthesePub Date : 2023-10-21DOI: 10.1007/s11229-023-04377-y
Jacopo Ambrosj, Hugh Desmond, Kris Dierickx
{"title":"The value-free ideal in codes of conduct for research integrity","authors":"Jacopo Ambrosj, Hugh Desmond, Kris Dierickx","doi":"10.1007/s11229-023-04377-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-023-04377-y","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":49452,"journal":{"name":"Synthese","volume":"58 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135512463","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
SynthesePub Date : 2023-10-19DOI: 10.1007/s11229-023-04363-4
Oliver Laas
{"title":"Deepfakes and trust in technology","authors":"Oliver Laas","doi":"10.1007/s11229-023-04363-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-023-04363-4","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":49452,"journal":{"name":"Synthese","volume":"30 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135730148","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}