Time, Leeway, and the Laws of Nature: Why Humean Compatibilists Cannot Be Eternalists

Metaphysica ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-71
Author(s):  
Andrei A. Buckareff
Keyword(s):  
Free Will ◽  
Laws Of Nature ◽  
History Of ◽  
Entire History ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Humean View ◽  
Strong Dual

Abstract Humean compatibilism combines a Humean conception of laws of nature with a strong dual-ability condition for free will that requires that agents possess the ability to decide differently when they make a free decision. On the Humean view of laws of nature, laws of nature are taken to be contingent non-governing descriptions of significant regularities that obtain in the entire history of the universe. On Humean compatibilism, agents are taken to possess dual ability when making free decisions because what the laws of nature will finally be is (at least partially) dependent upon how an agent decides. In this paper, I argue that the tenability of Humean compatibilism depends in part upon what theory of time is correct. More specifically, I argue that Humean compatibilism is untenable in a deterministic universe if eternalism is true.

The Ontology of Randomness

2019 ◽  
pp. 427-439
Author(s):  
Jeremy Horne
Keyword(s):  
Free Will ◽  
Order Statistics ◽  
Scientific Methods ◽  
Prediction Time ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Universe

This chapter reviews the existence of randomness, focusing on it existing in terms of what it is not, order. Included are a survey of current views and history of randomness, relevant concepts of whether something exists (ontology), how we know (epistemology), entropy, foundations of order, statistics, prediction, time, and scientific methods. Randomness is tied to determinism, and determinism becomes an issue of free will. Thus, discussions of free will cycle back to whether everything is laid out before us, but this is controversial, at best. We may only act as though there is randomness, similar to acting as though there were free will, even after being told that the universe, indeed, may be deterministic. Such a method is comparable to doing a logic proof in drawing an assumption line and displaying the consequences. Alternate worlds are referenced in which randomness may be seen in a different light.

Eschatological Verification Reconsidered

1977 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Hick
Keyword(s):  
Language Game ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Natural Phenomena ◽  
Divine Presence ◽  
Psychological Need ◽  
Presence Of God ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Entire History ◽  
The Universe

The world in which we find ourselves is religiously ambiguous. It is possible for different people (as also for the same person at different times) to experience it both religiously and non-religiously; and to hold beliefs which arise from and feed into each of these ways of experiencing. A religious man may report that in moments of prayer he is conscious of existing in the unseen presence of God, and is aware - sometimes at least - that his whole life and the entire history of the world is taking place within the ambience of the divine purpose. But on the other hand the majority of people in our modern world do not participate in that form of experience and are instead conscious of their own and others' lives as purely natural phenomena, so that their own experience leads them at least implicitly to reject the idea of a transcendent divine presence and purpose. If they are philosophically minded, they may well think that the believer's talk is the expression of what Richard Hare has called a blik, a way of feeling and thinking about the world which expresses itself in pseudo-assertions, pseudo because they are neither verifiable nor falsifiable and are therefore factually empty.1 The religious man speaks of God as a living reality in whose presence we are, and of a divine purpose which gives ultimate meaning to our lives. But is not the world the same whether or not we suppose it to exist in God's presence; and is not the course of history the same whether or not we describe it as fulfilling God's purposes? Is not the religious description thus merely a gratuitous embellishment, a logical fifth wheel, an optional language-game which may assuage some psychological need of the speaker but which involves no claims of substance concerning the objective nature or structure of the universe? Must not the central religious use of language then be accounted a non-cognitive use, whose function is not to assert alleged facts but to express a speaker's, or a community of speakers', emotions within the framework of a factually contentless blik, ‘slant’, or ‘onlook’?

Benjamin Apthorp Gould and the Founding of the Argentine National Observatory

1971 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 152-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
John E. Hodge
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Solar System ◽  
Major Change ◽  
History Of Astronomy ◽  
National Observatory ◽  
Great Work ◽  
History Of ◽  
Entire History ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Shape And Size

The nineteenth century witnessed the first major change in astronomy since the birth of the science in antiquity. With the exception, in the eighteenth century, of William Herschel's great work in the course of which he speculated on the origin, composition and shape of the universe itself, man's concern with the heavens had been limited to plotting and cataloguing the positions and the movements of the stars and planets. The entire history of astronomy had consisted of more and more accurate observations of the solar system and the stars within our own galaxy, although only the haziest notions of the shape and size of that “island universe” were entertained by thoughtful astronomers.

The microsecond old universe — Relics of QCD phase transition

2014 ◽  
Vol 29 (23) ◽  
pp. 1430024 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bikash Sinha
Keyword(s):  
Phase Transition ◽  
Cold Dark Matter ◽  
Baryon Number ◽  
Qcd Phase Transition ◽  
First Order ◽  
Qcd Phase Diagram ◽  
Hadron Phase ◽  
History Of ◽  
Entire History ◽  
The Universe

It is entirely plausible under reasonable conditions, that a first-order QCD phase transition occurred from quarks to hadrons when the universe was about a microsecond old. Relics, if there be any, after the quark–hadron phase transition are the most deciding signatures of the phase transition. It is shown in this paper that quark nuggets, the possible relics of first-order QCD phase transitions with baryon number larger than 1043 will survive the entire history of the universe up to now and can be considered as a candidate for the cold dark matter. The spin down core of the neutron star on the high density low temperature end of the QCD phase diagram initiates transition from hadrons to quarks. As the star spins down, the size of the core goes on increasing. Recently discovered massive Pulsar PSRJ 1614-2230 with a mass of 1.97 ± 0.04M⊙ most likely has a strongly interacting core. What possible observables can there be from these neutron stars?

Philo on Free Will: And the Historical Influence of His View

1942 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry Austryn Wolfson
Keyword(s):  
Free Will ◽  
Laws Of Nature ◽  
General Term ◽  
Physical Universe ◽  
Freedom Of The Will ◽  
The Will ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Universe

In Philo, as in any other philosopher, the problem of the freedom of the will in man is but a special phase of the more general problems of the existence of immutable laws in nature and the relation of mind to body. Now with regard to laws of nature Philo's view is clear. There are, according to him, certain unalterable laws by which the universe is governed, but these laws were established in the universe by God at the time of its creation. This view is expressed by him in a variety of ways in such statements as that there are “ordinances and laws which God laid down in the universe as unalterable” and that “this world is the Megalopolis and it has a single polity and a single law.” These laws of nature are sometimes designated by him in their totality by the general term Logos, by which he means an immanent Logos in the created physical universe, conceiving of it as part of that incorporeal Logos which existed prior to the creation of the universe. It is this immanent Logos which is described by him as “the bond of all existence,” which “holds and knits together all the parts” and which also “administers all things.”

scholarly journals KVARKER, LEPTONER OG DEN OVERFLØDIGE SAMLING: Jagten på en teori for alting – og ingenting

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens Paaske
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Periodic Table ◽  
Laws Of Nature ◽  
Contemporary History ◽  
Atomic Theory ◽  
Object A ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Selection Of

The article views collections as non-random accumulations, i.e. objects with interrelations and a well hidden, unifying theme. In the greatest of all collections, referred to loosely as the universe, such interrelations make up the “laws of nature” of which we have already unravelled so many. The theme under which it was all put together, however, has still to be revealed. After briefly outlining the evolution in physics from Democritos’ atomic theory to the 19th century advent of the periodic table of the elements, the article continues with a descent into the finer details of matter, ending up at the quarks and leptons which constitute the matter particles of the so-called standard model of elementary particles. The collection of all matter hitherto observed in the universe has repeatedly been subjected to a reduction based on the rationale that seemingly different objects are identified merely as different manifestations of the same object. A simpler, yet representative collection is established once the emerging structures of the collection at hand have been properly resolved. It is the nature of this sobering reductionist process which is the topic in which the discussion draws upon a selection of examples from the ancient, as well as the more contemporary, history of physics.  

scholarly journals Dust in Evolving Galaxies

2002 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 460-463 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paola Andreani
Keyword(s):  
Galaxy Formation ◽  
Dust Emission ◽  
Stellar Activity ◽  
Galaxy Formation And Evolution ◽  
History Of ◽  
Crucial Information ◽  
Entire History ◽  
Formation And Evolution ◽  
Lower Luminosity ◽  
The Universe

AbstractI will first review the observational evidence relating dust emission and the energy production in the far-IR/submm range. This latter contains crucial information on the global baryons transformation and the related stellar activity in the Universe. Present knowledge on this topic relies mainly on the far-IR local surveys of IRAS and ISO missions and on submm/mm surveys performed with SCUBA and MAMBO arrays. Further constraints are provided by the measurements of the Cosmic far-IR Background (CFIRB). Our scanty knowledge of galaxy formation and evolution is mainly caused by the difficulties of unveiling stellar activity at redshifts larger than 1 and at present we may only have detected massive objects in a transient hyper-luminous phase. We still lack an unbiased census of the much more numerous population of lower luminosity dusty objects. It will soon be possible to disclose the entire history of evolving dusty objects, and therefore of the stellar activity, selecting unbiased samples out of far-IR imaging and photometry in deep far-IR surveys.

scholarly journals German Editions of the “Formula of Concord” of the 16th century in the Collection of the Russian State Library

2019 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 375-382
Author(s):  
Tatiana A. Dolgodrova
Keyword(s):  
Free Will ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
16Th Century ◽  
Complete Collection ◽  
Russian State ◽  
History Of ◽  
Entire History ◽  
State Library ◽  
First Time ◽  
The City

The author considers the publications of the “Formula of Concord” (lat. Formula Concordiae), one of the principal symbolic books of Lutheranism. For the first time the article reveals part of the collections of the Russian State Library (RSL), containing within the displaced cultural values ten editions of the “Formula of Concord” in German, the first of them (Dresden, 1580, Shtekel and Berg Printers) is presented in four copies. The article traces the entire history of the monument, which is equal by dogmatic significance to the “Augsburg Confession” — the earliest exposition of the doctrinal statements of Lutheranism. “Book of Concord” was supposed to stop the strife between Orthodox Gnesiolutherans and Pro-Calvinist Melanchthonists that arose after Luther’s death, when his friend and associate Philip Melanchthon, inclined to Calvinism, became the head of Lutherans. In matters of faith, he showed pliability, which provoked conflicts. Jacob Andreae became the author of the concise version of Concordia. Martin Chemnitz took over the editorship of the article “On Free Will”, and David Khitreus, who was involved in the issues of Communion, joined the work. The first version of the “Formula of Concord” was completed in the summer of 1576 in the city of Torgau, where Elector Augustus of Saxony convened the theological Convention. After receiving comments and minor amendments, the document was solemnly signed in Berg on May 29, 1577.The author analyses the composition of the book. The original version in 12 articles was written in German, and then translated into Latin by Lucas Osiander. However, the desire to unite all Lutheran churches under the auspices of the new symbol did not succeed — the “Formula of Concord” received Church’s recognition only in the electorates of Saxony and some other areas.The study of all ten copies of “Concordia” from the RSL leads to the conclusion that this almost complete collection of all published editions of “Formula of Concord” gives a largely comprehensive view of them: demonstrates borrowings, imitations of the first edition (Dresden, 1580), as well as features and innovations of individual publications. Some of them are unique, for example, the personal copy of the Saxon elector Augustus or the illuminated copy belonged to the Dukes of Saxony. The article may be of interest to art historians, book historians, source researchers and museum workers.

Roshdi Rashed

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 279-295
Author(s):  
Mohammed Aref
Keyword(s):  
Review Essay ◽  
Great Book ◽  
Mathematical Language ◽  
Single Word ◽  
Major Work ◽  
Galileo Galilei ◽  
Elementary Knowledge ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Universe

This review essay introduces the work of the Egyptian scientific historian and philosopher Roshdi Rashed, a pioneer in the field of the history of Arab sciences. The article is based on the five volumes he originally wrote in French and later translated into Arabic, which were published by the Centre for Arab Unity Studies and which are now widely acclaimed as a unique effort to unveil the achievements of Arab scientists. The essay reviews this major work, which seems, like Plato’s Republic to have “No Entry for Those Who Have No Knowledge of Mathematics” written on its gate. If you force your way in, even with elementary knowledge of computation, a philosophy will unfold before your eyes, described by the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei as “written in that great book which ever lies before our eyes—I mean the universe—but we cannot understand it if we do not first learn the language and grasp the symbols, in which it is written. This book is written in the mathematical language, and the symbols are triangles, circles and other geometrical figures, without whose help it is impossible to comprehend a single word of it; without which one wanders in vain through a dark labyrinth.” The essay is a journey through this labyrinth where the history of world mathematics got lost and was chronicled by Rashed in five volumes translated from the French into Arabic. It took him fifteen years to complete.

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