The paper focuses on the review of current literature on formal philosophy. Special attention is paid to the review of the book «Introduction to Formal Philosophy» [Hansson, Hendricks, 2018]. The book is a consistent introduction to the problems of formal philosophy, a research tradition that relies on the precise mathematical tools in order to study traditional philosophical problems. The methods of formal philosophy are successfully applied not only to the problems of ontology, epistemology and philosophy of language but also relevant (...) for the problems of ethics, axiology and social philosophy. The book demonstrates that it is not correct to identify formal philosophy with another area of study – philosophical logic, since formal philosophy uses not only logical methods of analysis, but also uses the tools of game theory, decision theory, probability theory, Bayesian statistics, and other theories. Although the book has a propaedeutic character, it also contains some open problems. These problems include the aggregation of the opinions of the group under the condition of a conflicting base of premises in the theory of public choice, there are still open problems in the interpretation of Arrow’s impossibility theorem and others. Certainly, formalization in itself is not a general solution to the particular philosophical problem, but only a tool that allows to formulate a problem in a more rigorous and precise way, which sometimes allows to reveal some unexpected consequences, some implicit contradictions and new solutions. Despite the importance of the concept of coherence in ethics, decision theory, philosophy of law, Bayesian epistemology, philosophy of science, the existing formalizations of the concept of coherence are highly specialized for epistemology, researchers recognize the lack of the relevant explanatory models. Overall, the book is an excellent introduction in to the field of formal philosophy, which provides a general overview of different aspects of formal philosophy and the opportunity to study particular research topics by means of an extensive bibliography accompanying each of the chapters. (shrink)

The article presents a careful analysis of the idea of the “open texture” of empirical concepts and the problems of verification in the way that they were formulated by Friedrich Waismann. The idea of the “open texture” means for Waismann a certain type of a linguistic indeterminacy or a sort of lack of definition, which must be distinguished from, and linked to, another types like vagueness or ambiguity. It is shown that empirical statements are not conclusively verifiable for two different (...) reasons: the incompleteness of description of the material object and the open texture of the terms involved. We cannot conclusively verify statements in which the empirical concepts are used, because we cannot define these concepts in an exhaustive way because of their open texture. Thus, the definition of the concept will be incomplete. Waismann’s approach to definition plays here a key role, and it is directly related to the open texture of concepts. The author proposes interpreting the open texture as an immanent property of the concept, as something that is embedded in it a priori, and which can cause a vagueness. Nevertheless, an open texture must be distinguished form a vagueness. This leads to the conclusion that an open texture is a possibility of vagueness; vagueness can be remedied by giving more accurate rules, open texture cannot. In this sense, the “open texture” of a language allows for a more precise definition of concepts (by adjusting the definition) if appropriate circumstances arise. This justifies the thesis that the argument of the open texture is the ontological basis of the linguistic anti-reductionism of Friedrich Waismann. (shrink)

The article presents a detailed consideration of the arguments from the symposium “Verifiability”, which was held on July 14, 1945 in London, proposed by Scottish philosopher and theologian Donald MacKinnon, Austrian logician and mathematician Friedrich Waismann and English logician and philosopher of science William Kneale. MacKinnon’s approach to verifiability was based on the metaphysics of fact, while Waismann and Kneale’s approach was based on the semantic specificity of empirical concepts (“open texture” and context of use) and on the truth-values of (...) empirical propositions. The symposium in question is interesting primarily because it is the last meaningful discussion on the concept of verifiability in the form in which it was understood by the Vienna Circle. Despite the fact that, in the coming years, this concept received a completely different interpretation, which stands away from the original source, the 1945 symposium could be rightfully treated as a canonical discussion on verifiability in the sense that nothing like this has ever happened in the philosophy after. (shrink)

The article presents the philosophical and linguistic conception of Friedrich Waismann – the theory of many-level-structure of language. The key point of this theory is that each language stratum has its own logic: different concepts of truth, the methods of verifiability and the completeness of description are used in different strata. All this has an influence on the structure of logic itself. This approach suggests that all homogeneous statements (identical in a logical sense) are grouped in one stratum. The relations (...) between the different strata are of a most complicated, peculiar and elusive nature and that does not allow to reduce statement of one stratum to another. According to Waismann, these considerations lead to a new picture of the language, naturally divided into strata. (shrink)

The article examines K.A. Rodin’s thesis on the possibility of including Wittgenstein’s remarks on intention and action in the context of legal philosophy research. It is shown that although the concepts of intention and intentional action are relevant to the philosophy of law, Wittgenstein’s own ideas did not have a significant impact on their relevance (and some of them did not have it at all). This influence is confined to the fact that, like Wittgenstein, many jurists and legal theorists, mainly (...) those who were influenced by the ideas of H.L.A. Hart, also objected to the causal theory of action. However, the influence is limited to this approach. (shrink)

During its hundred-year history, Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus has undergone a variety of interpretations and explanations. But the significance of this work cannot be limited to an assessment of whether it had an impact on the development of logical positivism or not. Similarly, the reading of Tractatus cannot be reduced to just an ethical or some other readings. This article proposes to study a possible reading of “Tractatus” in terms of legal philosophy, which is based on the relation between facts, (...) values and norms, as well as on how interesting it could be (or would be) for legal philosophy. (shrink)

The article presents an analysis of K.A. Rodin’s argument that after publishing of Peter Winch’s book “The Idea of Social Science” (1958) the discussions of rule-following problem concerning to social epistemology and the methodology of social studies have not had tangible results. It is shown by the example of modern legal studies that this conclusion is not valid. On the contrary, Wittgenstein’s problem of rule-following and the very idea of rule-shaped activity have proved to have a great importance for an (...) analytical legal philosophy and turned into an independent subject of study. (shrink)

The article shows that Borisov’s direct solution to the problem of skepticism about meaning using a special type of introspection is associated with the assumption of the agent’s direct access to their own consciousness. This assumption has two complicating consequences: the analogy with Moore’s paradox and the Platonic concept of meaning. It is also shown that direct access to meaning as a way of Borisov’s direct solution of the skeptical paradox significantly uses the performativity of the speech act, narrowing the (...) scope of analysis of the original problem. The little-studied problem of distinction in the analysis of the skeptical paradox of meaningful and formalized mathematics is noted. (shrink)

The article is devoted to the comparison of two types of proofs in mathematical practice, the methodological differences of which go back to the difference in the understanding of the nature of mathematics by Descartes and Leibniz. In modern philosophy of mathematics, we talk about conceptual and formal proofs in connection with the so-called Hilbert Thesis, according to which every proof can be transformed into a logical conclusion in a suitable formal system. The analysis of the arguments of the proponents (...) and opponents of the Thesis, “conceptualists” and “formalists”, is presented respectively by the two main antagonists – Y. Rav and J. Azzouni. The focus is on the possibility of reproducing the proof of “interesting” mathematical theorems in the form of a strict logical conclusion, in principle feasible by a mechanical procedure. The argument of conceptualists is based on pointing out the importance of other aspects of the proof besides the logical conclusion, namely, in introducing new concepts, methods, and establishing connections between different sections of meaningful mathematics, which is often illustrated by the case of proving Fermat’s Last Theorem (Y. Rav). Formalists say that a conceptual proof “points” to the formal logical structure of the proof (J. Azzouni). The article shows that the disagreement is based on the assumption of asymmetry of mutual translation of syntactic and semantic structures of the language, as a result of which the formal proof loses important semantic factors of proof. In favor of a formal proof, the program of univalent foundations of mathematics In. Vojevodski, according to which the future of mathematical proofs is associated with the availability of computer verification programs. In favor of conceptual proofs, it is stated (A. Pelc) that the number of steps in the supposed formal logical conclusion when proving an “interesting” theorem exceeds the cognitive abilities of a person. The latter circumstance leads the controversy beyond the actual topic of mathematical proof into the epistemological sphere of discussions of “mentalists” and “mechanists” on the question of the supposed superiority of human intelligence over the machine, initiated by R. Penrose in his interpretation of the Second Theorem of Goedel, among whose supporters, as it turned out, was Goedel himself. (shrink)

Betrifft die Handschrift Cod. 555 der Burgerbibliothek Bern.

У статті аналізуються свідчення вірменських істориків ХІІІ - початку XIV ст. відносно подій хрестових походів 1147 - 1149 рр. і 1189 - 1192 рр.; визначено специфіку традиції історіописання, яка була притаманна середньовічним вірменським хроністам. На основі джерелознавчого дослідження з'ясовано рівень достовірності повідомлень вірменських наративів, ступінь їхньої об'єктивності та інформативності.

Verification and validation of computer codes and models used in simulations are two aspects of the scientific practice of high importance that recently have been discussed widely by philosophers of science. While verification is predominantly associated with the correctness of the way a model is represented by a computer code or algorithm, validation more often refers to the model’s relation to the real world and its intended use. Because complex simulations are generally opaque to a practitioner, the Duhem problem can (...) arise with verification and validation due to their entanglement; such an entanglement makes it impossible to distinguish whether a coding error or the model’s general inadequacy to its target should be blamed in the case of a failure. I argue that a clear distinction between computer modeling and simulation has to be made to disentangle verification and validation. Drawing on that distinction, I suggest to associate modeling with verification and simulation, which shares common epistemic strategies with experimentation, with validation. To explain the reasons for their entanglement in practice, I propose a Weberian ideal–typical model of modeling and simulation as roles in practice. I examine an approach to mitigate the Duhem problem for verification and validation that is generally applicable in practice and is based on differences in epistemic strategies and scopes. Based on this analysis, I suggest two strategies to increase the reliability of simulation results, namely, avoiding alterations of verified models at the validation stage as well as performing simulations of the same target system using two or more different models. In response to Winsberg’s claim that verification and validation are entangled I argue that deploying the methodology proposed in this work it is possible to mitigate inseparability of V&V in many if not all domains where modeling and simulation are used. (shrink)

The Gesta Normannorum Ducum is one of the most important sources for the history of Normandy and England in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and contains the earliest prose account of the Norman Conquest. It was written by a succession of authors, the first of whom was William of Jumieges, who wrote for William the Conqueror. Later historians, such as Orderic Vitalis and Robert of Torigni, interpolated and extended the chronicle as far as King Henry I. The later accretions reveal (...) much not only about changing attitudes towards the Norman invasion of England, but also about views of the early Viking foundations of Normandy.Elisabeth van Houts's two-volume edition is based on a study of all forty-seven extant manuscripts of the Gesta, including the earliest surviving copy of c. 1100, unknown until very recently. The full original text of William of Jumieges is supplied, as well as the integral text of the subsequent revisions and additions. Volume I contains Dr van Houts's introduction to the whole work, together with the text and translation of books i-iv. Volume II contains books v-viii. The edition forms an important contribution to our understanding of Anglo-Norman politics. (shrink)

The Gesta Normannorum Ducum is one of the most important sources for the history of Normandy and England in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and contains the earliest prose account of the Norman Conquest. It was written by a succession of authors, the first of whom was William of Jumièges, who wrote for William the Conqueror. Later writers, such as Orderic Vitalis and Robert of Torigni, interpolated and extended the chronicle as far as King Henry I. The later accretions reveal (...) much not only about changing attitudes towards the Norman invasion of England, but also about views of the early Viking foundation of Normandy. Elisabeth van Houts's two-volume edition is based on a study of all forty-seven extant manuscripts of the Gesta, including the earliest surviving copy of c. 1100, hitherto unknown. The full original text of William of Jumièges is supplied, as well as the integral text of the subsequent revisions and additions. Volume I contains Dr van Houts's introduction to the whole work, together with the text and translation of books i-iv. Books v-viii will appear in Volume II. The edition forms an important contribution to our understanding of Anglo-Norman politics. (shrink)

It was recently shown that the Madelung equations, that is, a hydrodynamic form of the Schrödinger equation, can be derived from a canonical ensemble of neural networks where the quantum phase was identified with the free energy of hidden variables. We consider instead a grand canonical ensemble of neural networks, by allowing an exchange of neurons with an auxiliary subsystem, to show that the free energy must also be multivalued. By imposing the multivaluedness condition on the free energy we derive (...) the Schrödinger equation with “Planck’s constant” determined by the chemical potential of hidden variables. This shows that quantum mechanics provides a correct statistical description of the dynamics of the grand canonical ensemble of neural networks at the learning equilibrium. We also discuss implications of the results for machine learning, fundamental physics and, in a more speculative way, evolutionary biology. (shrink)

Il testo vuole testimoniare della piena partecipazione delle scienze sociali alla storia delle scienze, in un quadro di sviluppo che prevede la ricezione in Europa della riforma della filosofia naturale attuata da Francesco Bacone nel XVII secolo e recepita nel principio dell’induzione da Auguste Comte in Francia e da Herbert Spencer in Inghilterra. I temi della fondazione delle scienze sono quindi al centro dell’opera di ricostruzione di eventi cruciali. L’investigazione della natura e del mondo empirico da parte dell’uomo sociale si (...) svolge attraverso i secoli nei modi prescritti dalla filosofia naturale, laddove la tradizione antica e medioevale lasciava irrisolti alcuni problemi di tipo finalistico e vitalistico. Nel Cinquecento e soprattutto nel Seicento assistiamo ad una certa ripresa di tematiche suscitate dall’atomismo e dal meccanicismo in concomitanza del declino della fisica aristotelica. Nel secolo di Cartesio, che rifiutava l’atomismo, la ricerca di una teoria della materia dominò la scena nonché quella del movimento rettilineo uniforme che determinava lo stato di quiete dei corpi, come si nota nei Principia philosophiae del 1644 (pubblicati in francese nel 1647). Il principio che la conoscenza derivasse soltanto dall’interpretazione e dal commento dei testi antichi, sotto una certa forma di principium potestatibus, fu gradualmente sostituito da una filosofia della storia del progresso incarnata nell’ambito della conoscenza scientifica dal metodo sperimentale. La Rivoluzione scientifica culminò con l’applicazione di questa metodologia nella filosofia naturale, nelle scienze della vita (biologia, anatomia, zoologia, botanica), nella medicina e nella chimica, nella fisica (ottica, magnetismo, termologia, elettricità) nonché nella scoperte di William Harvey sulla pressione del sangue, di Evangelista Torricelli sulla pressione dell’atmosfera, Francesco Redi sui corpi viventi e Isaac Newton sulla natura della luce. In particolare, Newton seppe sintetizzare la tradizione dell’empirismo inglese, che va da Ruggero Bacone e Guglielmo di Ockham a John Locke, suo contemporaneo. Il contesto di sviluppo delle idee illuministiche e del positivismo in Francia segnò l’evolversi in Occidente della riflessione più matura sulle scienze e sulle scienze sociali nei vari contesti storico-concreti dove la filosofia naturale poté essere interpretata alla luce di nuove scoperte, le quali dovevano segnare, a loro volta, il momento incisivo di una azione progressiva dell’uomo condotta sulla natura stessa e, in modo tale da fare risaltare, infine, il passaggio al mondo della cultura del progresso. Come è noto, l’idea del progresso sta alla base di tante teorizzazioni della società a partire dal XVIII secolo. Per questo, basterà anche ricordare ciò che Kant pensasse dell’ Illuminismo quando affermava: “L’illuminismo è l’uscita dell’uomo dallo stato di minorità che egli deve imputare a se stesso. Minorità è l’incapacità di servirsi del proprio intelletto senza la guida di un altro. Questa minorità è imputabile a se stesso, se la causa non dipende dalla mancanza di intelligenza ma da mancanza di decisione e del coraggio di far uso del proprio intelletto senza essere guidati da un altro. Sapere aude! Abbi il coraggio di servirti della tua propria intelligenza. È questo il motto dell’illuminismo.” La stessa identificazione data da Auguste Comte nel suo Cours all’uso del termine ‘positivo’ cercava di spiegare come si potesse “considerare tutti i fenomeni come assoggettati a leggi naturali ed invariabili, la scoperta e la riduzione al minor numero possibile delle quali è il fine di tutti i nostri sforzi, considerando inoltre come assolutamente inaccessibile e vuota di senso la ricerca di quelle che si chiamano cause, sia cause prime che quelle finali” (Cours de philosophie positive, I). Al cospetto del nuovo modo di pensare e di operare i temi fondanti dell’intervento umano sulla natura circolavano in concomitanza della diffusione dei saperi scientifici, di quei saperi che si erano manifestati quindi in forma di pratiche illuministiche, cioè di un insieme di ragioni teoriche e pratiche poste in relazione tra loro a beneficio del mondo sociale circostante. Gradualmente anche il tema della rappresentazione dei fenomeni della vita si rapporta allo sviluppo della nuova filosofia naturale, tenendo conto del fatto che le scienze raggiungono uno stadio positivo nonché astratto e concreto (v. Herbert Spencer, The Classification of the Sciences). Ciò sarebbe sufficiente per spiegare il nesso esistente tra le scienze e i fenomeni vitali organici, cioè quel collegamento tra lo sviluppo filosofico e scientifico e il progresso dell’ambiente natura-le e sociale. (shrink)

We attempt to make superdeterminism more intuitive, notably by simulating a deterministic model system, a billiard game. In this system an initial ‘bang’ correlates all events, just as in the superdeterministic universe. We introduce the notions of ‘strong’ and ‘soft’ superdeterminism, in order to clarify debates in the literature. Based on the analogy with billiards, we show that superdeterministic correlations may exist as a matter of principle, but be undetectable for all practical purposes. Even if inaccessible, such strong-superdeterministic correlations can (...) explain why soft-, or effective, superdeterministic theories can be built. We counter classic objections to superdeterminism such as the claim that it would be at odds with the scientific method, and with the construction of new theories. Finally, we show that probability theory, as a physical theory, indicates that superdeterminism has a greater explanatory power than its competitors: it can coherently answer questions from probability theory for which other positions remain powerless. Since probability theory is, in a sense, the most unifying physics theory (all physical systems comply with it), this argument confers considerable weight. (shrink)

The name of Pavel Ivanovich Novgorodtsev is not very widely known to the reader at large. It has only been in the last ten or twelve years that isolated studies of particular problems in his creative works have begun to appear.

The institution of the principle of distribution in accordance with work performed in the process of the building of socialism and the consistent implementation of this principle under the conditions of developed socialism are powerful factors in the establishment and consistent implementation of the principle of the universality of work. In the course of the building of communism, payment in accordance with work done will remain the principal source of growth of incomes. Therefore, the completeness of satisfaction of people's requirements (...) and their prosperity depend predominantly on the amount and quality of the work given to society. However, a high level of communist consciousness presumes not merely participation in social labor but a perceived need to work as efficiently and productively as possible. (shrink)