The double look on complex dimension
Lowe is famous author of an ontology with 4 categories: substantial universals (kinds), non-substantial universals (properties), individual substances (objects), instantiations of properties (modes). This classification is not satisfactory, leading to dualism and insoluble questions —why these 4 categories? Surimposium approaches ontology much more simply by placing it in the complex dimension. In summary: Properties are … Read more
Abstract: Many of our motivations are wrongly considered natural. I take 3 examples: staying healthy, protecting nature, upholding equal rights. Behind them lie artificial ideals: Eternal Life, the Natural History Museum, Democratic Equality. Confused with principles truly constitutive of human nature, these ideals crush with their weight many aspects of our lives. They flatten our … Read more
Abstract: The errors of top-down/teleological causality make one think that only the bottom-up/ontological has fundamental value. It is however the first which is entirely creative of our mental scenes, including by lending to reality per se its models, without having direct access to it. Bottom-up causality is fundamentally constitutive of our reality, which hovers over … Read more
Is the ontology of the terms themselves correct? Philosophers defined the terms ‘ontology’ and ‘teleology’ before the rise of structuralism. That is, they named fundamental aspects of reality without a general theory about it. Is this reasonable? Can we keep the original meanings of these terms when a general theory requalifies them? Quine defined ontology … Read more
Abstract: The successes of human organization and its science have led us to a paradoxical powerlessness in the face of the climatic and geopolitical catastrophe that is looming. In this philosophical pamphlet, I explain the paradox by the absence of coordination between ontological science and teleological desires, the first homogeneous and the second heterogeneous. Powerlessness … Read more
This is the question posed by physicist Vlatko Vedral on his excellent blog ‘Musings on Quantum Mechanics‘. During the pre-publication of an article, he and his referee discuss the primary object of quantum physics. Is it the elementary quantum field, as Vlatko argues, or the click of the detector registering a particle, as the referee … Read more
Behaviorist crisis “The new theory of the unconscious, it is it who commands!” says Anne Debroise in Science & Vie, after reading Andrew Budson, a neurologist in Boston, but without having understood him well. I no longer know whether to rejoice or be sorry for this litany of articles aimed at de-pedestalizing our unfortunate consciousness. … Read more
Abstract: The concept of ‘causality’ deciphered with the Universal Philosophical Method (UniPhiM). This root concept was swept away from ontology by Bertrand Russell, then revived by different models: counterfactuals, agentism, probabilism, transfer —with in particular Max Kistler’s solution in 2003, the transfer of a conserved quantity. I show how UniPhiM makes the ontological invisibility of … Read more
This little story follows A Universal Philosophy. With this comprehensive method, you now have a double look at the world —even not being drunk. I will regularly introduce you to some applications. Here you discover how three common genres of mental scene work. Contrasting worlds. The true multiverse, uncertain in physics, is certain in psychology. … Read more
Warning The very idea of “ontological” classification is suspect. What is the being of a thing by reference to the thing alone? By definition it is the only one to experience it. A hook for knowledge: being results from a constitution. But if we think we know the constitution per se —the being of the … Read more