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1 Introduction First I wish to extend my thanks to the Metanexus Institute for planning this conference, for locating it in my favorite European country, and in particular for inviting me to be on the program with the person I’ve long believed to be the most sophisticated scholar writing on the free-will problem. In this…
1. Introduction – Problems of terminology The words “reduction” and “reductionism” are extremely ambiguous. Different authors use different meanings and definitions and therefore extremely unproductive polemics could be generated. For example, philosophers understand by “reduction” replacing one theory by a newer more encompassing theory, while scientists understand by the same word exactly the opposite operation….
The paper that we present is the fruit of the efforts of an interdisciplinary team of mathematicians: interdisciplinary within a common framework, in the sense of being mathematicians specialized in specific areas, such as logic, statistics, number analysis, mathematical physics, etc. What joins us together – besides a common general field of endeavour – is…
The conception of the person cannot be understood in isolation from the philosophical system as a whole because it is the whole system that conditions this understanding. Therefore, disputes concerning the constitutive elements of the person are also disputes concerning philosophical systems. In addition, the choice of philosophical categories employed in framing anthropology mediates the…
It has become commonplace to talk about “The End of Metaphysics,” and “Religion after Metaphysics,” to express a sense of relief over the liberation of religion and philosophy from an oppressive and extrinsic concept. Religious thought “after metaphysics,” according to this sentiment, should not be beholden to or be dependent on ontology. Arguments for this…
A model is a scientifically derived product of our brain and only an approximation of the phenomenon observed by humans in real time. Since models or images influence the way we deal with the phenomena they represent in everyday life, the importance of the models becomes evident as does our responsibility for the models. This…
I am deeply honored to have been asked by Eric Weislogel to make some introductory remarks on behalf of the American Philosophical Association.† First let me say that I was delighted last December when the APA Eastern Division Executive Committee voted to recognize the Metanexus Institute as an ìaffiliated organization,î allowing it to hold sessions…
1. Reductionism, antireductionism and human sciences. The notion of reductionism that in this contribution I will try to discuss does not match to that usually assumed by the natural sciences. I refer instead to a tendency to the simplification of the horizon of being, or of a region of it, through a unifying point of…
1. The touchstones of the question: a brief overview The keystone of Aristotelian thought is the distinction between act and potency in every real thing, except for Pure Act itself1. Thus, this duality should also be accounted for in relation to the reality of human being. The following question arises in this context: does the…
Introduction: What is the Self? In this paper I will try to show that that there are by necessity emotional moments in our Selves, without them no Self. S is only a Self if it can be placed in emotional space. I will explain by and by what I mean by “emotional space”, for the…