Movatterモバイル変換

No categories

Export citation   Bookmark  

Export citation   Bookmark  

This paper addresses what we consider to be the most pressing challenge for the emerging science of consciousness: themeasurement problem of consciousness. That is, by what methods can we determine the presence of and properties of consciousness? Most methods are currently developed through evaluation of the presence of consciousness in humans and here we argue that there are particular problems in application of these methods to nonhuman cases—what we call the indicator validity problem and the extrapolation problem. The (...) first is a problem with the application of indicators developed using the differences between conscious and unconscious processing in humans to the identification of other conscious vs. nonconscious organisms or systems. The second is a problem in extrapolating any indicators developed in humans or other organisms to artificial systems. However, while pressing ethical concerns add urgency to the attribution of consciousness and its attendant moral status to nonhuman animals and intelligent machines, we cannot wait for certainty and we advocate the use of a precautionary principle to avoid causing unintentional harm. We also intend that the considerations and limitations discussed in this paper can be used to further analyze and refine the methods of consciousness science with the hope that one day we may be able to solve themeasurement problem of consciousness. (shrink)

Direct download(7 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   19 citations  

Direct download   Export citation   Bookmark  

Export citation   Bookmark  

Direct download   Export citation   Bookmark   135 citations  

The development of nineteenth-century geodeticmeasurement challenges the dominant coherentist account ofmeasurement success. Coherentists argue that measurements of a quantity are epistemically successful if their numerical outcomes converge across varying contextual constraints. Aiming at numerical convergence, in turn, offers an operational aim for scientists to solve problems of coordination. Geodesists faced such a problem of coordination between two indicators of the earth’s ellipticity, which were both based on imperfect ellipsoid models. While not achieving numerical convergence, their measurements (...) produced novel data that grounded valuable theoretical hypotheses. Consequently, they ought to be regarded as epistemically successful. This insight warrants a dynamic revision of coherentism, allowing to judge the success of a metric based on both its coherence and fruitfulness. On that view, scientificmeasurement aims to coordinate theoretical definitions and produce novel data and theoretical insights. (shrink)

Direct download(3 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   4 citations  

The aim of this essay is to distinguish and analyze several difficulties confronting attempts to reconcile the fundamental quantum mechanical dynamics with Born''s rule. It is shown that many of the proposed accounts ofmeasurement fail at least one of the problems. In particular, only collapse theories and hidden variables theories have a chance of succeeding, and, of the latter, the modal interpretations fail. Any real solution demands new physics.

Direct download(4 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   121 citations  

This book traces how such a seemingly immutable idea asmeasurement proved so malleable when it collided with the subject matter of psychology. It locates philosophical and social influences reshaping the concept and, at the core of this reshaping, identifies a fundamental problem: the issue of whether psychological attributes really are quantitative. It argues that the idea ofmeasurement now endorsed within psychology actually subverts attempts to establish a genuinely quantitative science and it urges a new direction. It (...) relates views onmeasurement by thinkers such as Holder, Russell, Campbell and Nagel to earlier views, like those of Euclid and Oresme. Within the history of psychology, it considers contributions by Fechner, Cattell, Thorndike, Stevens and Suppes, among others. It also contains a non-technical exposition of conjointmeasurement theory and recent foundational work by leadingmeasurement theorist R. Duncan Luce. (shrink)

Export citation   Bookmark   53 citations  

No categories

Export citation   Bookmark  

Direct download   Export citation   Bookmark   35 citations  

Export citation   Bookmark  

This work develops an epistemology ofmeasurement, that is, an account of the conditions under whichmeasurement and standardization methods produce knowledge as well as the nature, scope, and limits of this knowledge. I focus on three questions: (i) how is it possible to tell whether an instrument measures the quantity it is intended to? (ii) what do claims tomeasurement accuracy amount to, and how might such claims be justified? (iii) when is disagreement among instruments a (...) sign of error, and when does it imply that instruments measure different quantities? Based on a series of case studies conducted in collaboration with the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), I argue for a model-based approach to the epistemology of physicalmeasurement. To measure a physical quantity, I argue, is to estimate the value of a parameter in an idealized model of a physical process. Such estimation involves inference from the final state (‘indication’) of a process to the value range of a parameter (‘outcome’) in light of theoretical and statistical assumptions. Contrary to contemporary philosophical views,measurement outcomes cannot be obtained by mapping the structure of indications. Instead,measurement outcomes as well as claims to accuracy, error and quantity individuation can only be adjudicated relative to a choice of idealized modelling assumptions. (shrink)

Export citation   Bookmark   21 citations  

The paper presents an argument for treating certain types of computer simulation as having the same epistemic status as experimentalmeasurement. While this may seem a rather counterintuitive view it becomes less so when one looks carefully at the role that models play in experimental activity, particularlymeasurement. I begin by discussing how models function as “measuring instruments” and go on to examine the ways in which simulation can be said to constitute an experimental activity. By focussing on (...) the connections between models and their various functions, simulation and experiment one can begin to see similarities in the practices associated with each type of activity. Establishing the connections between simulation and particular types of modelling strategies and highlighting the ways in which those strategies are essential features of experimentation allows us to clarify the contexts in which we can legitimately call computer simulation a form of experimentalmeasurement. (shrink)

Direct download(4 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   76 citations  

Measurement is widely applied because its results are assumed to be more reliable than opinions and guesses, but this reliability is sometimes justified in a stereotyped way. After a critical analysis of such stereotypes, a structural characterization ofmeasurement is proposed, as partly empirical and partly theoretical process, by showing that it is in fact the structure of the process that guarantees the reliability of its results. On this basis the role and the structure of background knowledge in (...)measurement and the justification of the conditions of object-relatedness ("objectivity") and subject-independence ("intersubjectivity") ofmeasurement are specifically discussed. (shrink)

Direct download(6 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   8 citations  

The blood oxygen level dependent effect that provides the contrast in functional magnetic resonance imaging has been demonstrated to affect the linewidth of spectral peaks as measured with magnetic resonance spectroscopy and through this, may be used as an indirect measure of cerebral blood flow related to neural activity. By acquiring MR-spectra interleaved with frames without water suppression, it may be possible to image the BOLD effect and associated metabolic changes simultaneously through changes in the linewidth of the unsuppressed water (...) peak. The purpose of this study was to implement this approach with the MEGA-PRESS sequence, widely considered to be the standard sequence for quantitativemeasurement of GABA at field strengths of 3 T and lower, to observe how changes in both glutamate and GABA levels may relate to changes due to the BOLD effect. MR-spectra and fMRI were acquired from the occipital cortex of 20 healthy participants whilst undergoing intrascanner visual stimulation in the form of a red and black radial checkerboard, alternating at 8 Hz, in 90 s blocks comprising 30 s of visual stimulation followed by 60 s of rest. Results show very strong agreement between the changes in the linewidth of the unsuppressed water signal and the canonical haemodynamic response function as well as a strong, negative, but not statistically significant, correlation with the Glx signal as measured from the OFF spectra in MEGA-PRESS pairs. Findings from this experiment suggest that the unsuppressed water signal provides a reliable measure of the BOLD effect and that correlations with associated changes in GABA and Glx levels may also be measured. However, discrepancies between metabolite levels as measured from the difference and OFF spectra raise questions regarding the reliability of the respective methods. (shrink)

Direct download(2 more)   Export citation   Bookmark  

In this paper we argue that the difference between standardmeasurement and proxymeasurement in paleoclimatology should not be understood in terms of ‘directness’. Measurements taken by climatologists to be paradigmatically non-proxy exhibit the kinds of indirectness that are thought to separate them proxymeasurement. Rather, proxy measurements and standard measurements differ in how they account for confounding causal factors. Measurements are ‘proxy’ to the extent that the measurements require vicarious controls, while measurements are not proxy, but (...) rather ‘standard’, to the extent that themeasurement apparatus provides sufficient physical control on its own. Guided by this account of proxymeasurement, we then consider some of the challenges specific to historical proxymeasurement and how it is that historical scientists address these challenges. Historical scientists rely on significant causal dependencies and naturally preserved signals to mitigate the influence of destructive processes over time. (shrink)

Direct download(3 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   4 citations  

This paper challenges “traditionalmeasurement-accuracy realism”, according to which there are in nature quantities of which concrete systems have definite values. An accuratemeasurement outcome is one that is close to the value for the quantity measured. For ameasurement of the temperature of some water to be accurate in this sense requires that there be this temperature. But there isn’t. Not because there are no quantities “out there in nature” but because the term ‘the temperature of (...) this water’ fails to refer owing to idealization and failure of specificity in picking out concrete cases. The problems can be seen as an artifact of vagueness, and so doing facilitates applying Eran Tal’s robustness account ofmeasurement accuracy to suggest an attractive way of understanding vagueness in terms of the function of idealization, a way that sidesteps the problems of higher order vagueness and that shows how idealization provides a natural generalization of what it is to be vague. (shrink)

Direct download(2 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   15 citations  

This long-awaited two-volume set constitutes the definitive presentation of the system of classifying moral judgment built up by Lawrence Kohlberg and his associates over a period of twenty years. Researchers in child development and education around the world, many of whom have worked with interim versions of the system, indeed, all those seriously interested in understanding the problem of moral judgment, will find it an indispensable resource. Volume I reviews Kohlberg's stage theory, and the by-now large body of research on (...) the significance and utility of his moral stages. Issues of reliability and validity are addressed. The volume ends with detailed instructions for using the forms in Volume 2. Volume 2, in a specially-designed, user-friendly format, includes three alternative functionally-equivalent forms of the scoring system. (shrink)

Direct download   Export citation   Bookmark   172 citations  

Recent philosophy ofmeasurement has emphasized the existence of both diachronic and synchronic “loops,” or feedback processes, in the epistemic achievements ofmeasurement. A widespread response has been to conclude thatmeasurement outcomes do not convey interest-independent facts about the world, and that only a coherentist epistemology ofmeasurement is viable. In contrast, I argue that a form ofmeasurement realism is consistent with these results. The insight is that antecedent structure in measuring spaces constrains (...) our empirical procedures such that successfulmeasurement conveys a limited, but veridical knowledge of “fixed points,” or stable, interest- independent features of the world. (shrink)

No categories

Direct download(5 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   4 citations  

Within the context of psychologicalmeasurement, realist commitments pervade methodology. Further, there are instances where particular scientific practices and decisions are explicable most plausibly against a background assumption of epistemic realism. That psychometrics is a realist enterprise provides a possible toehold for Stephen Jay Gould’s objections to psychometrics in The Mismeasure of Man and Joel Michell’s charges that psychometrics is a “pathological science.” These objections do not withstand scrutiny. There are no fewer than three activities in ongoing psychometric research (...) which presuppose a commitment to a minimal epistemic realism. Those activities include selecting between different models for representing data, estimating ability in the context of item response theory, and the move to make the individual the fundamental unit of analysis in psychometrics thereby calling for a shift in what sorts of data are evidentially relevant. In none of these activities are the commitments and disregard for evidence that Gould and Michell find objectionable or “pathological.”. (shrink)

Direct download(4 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   11 citations  

In this paper I assess the adequacy of no-conspiracy conditions employed in the usual derivations of the Bell inequality in the context of EPR correlations. First, I look at the EPR correlations from a purely phenomenological point of view and claim that common cause explanations of these cannot be ruled out. I argue that an appropriate common cause explanation requires that no-conspiracy conditions are re-interpreted as mere common cause-measurement independence conditions. In the right circumstances then, violations ofmeasurement (...) independence need not entail any kind of conspiracy (nor backwards in time causation). To the contrary, ifmeasurement operations in the EPR context are taken to be causally relevant in a specific way to the experiment outcomes, their explicit causal role provides the grounds for a common cause explanation of the corresponding correlations. (shrink)

Direct download(7 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   8 citations  

The decision-theoretic account of probability in the Everett or many-worlds interpretation, advanced by David Deutsch and David Wallace, is shown to be circular. Talk of probability in Everett presumes the existence of a preferred basis to identifymeasurement outcomes for the probabilities to range over. But the existence of a preferred basis can only be established by the process of decoherence, which is itself probabilistic.

Direct download(9 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   36 citations  

This study reviews the current information concerning themeasurement of the situation awareness (SA) of the teleoperated drivers of remotely controlled cars. The teleoperated drivers who drive these cars are in a remote location, and they control the cars through a communication interface. The objective methods with probes are beneficial in measuring SA on a closed circuit without real traffic. Questions specifically should address the information provided on the road by haptic sensations, such as the slope of the road (...) and the vehicle's speed. Methods for measuring SA that involve probes and interruptions obviously are not suitable for use on public roads. A stable environment for the display and control of the communication interface is suitable for an eye tracker in measuring SA. These features also facilitate the use of subjective observer-rating methods. Both of these methods are suitable for driving on real roads because they are not intrusive. SA research in a real-road environment also should demonstrate how the SA of other drivers is affected by seeing a car without a driver. Given the remote character of driving, cultural differences in cognition may have a significant influence on the SA of the teleoperated driver. (shrink)

Direct download(2 more)   Export citation   Bookmark  

According to a long-standing belief, introspection provides privileged access to the mind, while objective methods, which we denote as “extrospection”, suffer from basic epistemic deficits. Here we will argue that neither an introspective privilege exists nor does extrospection suffer from such deficits. We will focus on two entailments of an introspective privilege: first, such a privilege would require that introspective evidence prevails in cases of conflict with extrospective information. However, we will show that this is not the case: extrospective claims (...) can prevail in cases of conflict. These conflicts are resolved by an inference to the explanation that best accounts for the available evidence. This explanation may speak in favor of extrospection. Second, given an introspective privilege, the development of extrospectivemeasurement techniques should be restricted by the accuracy of introspective reports. We will argue that this problem is part of a more general issue that comes up with the establishment ofmeasurement in the natural sciences. We will identify three strategies that have proven successful in dealing with the problem in the natural sciences. It will turn out that all these strategies are available for extrospectivemeasurement as well. Consequently, the insufficiencies of introspective reports do not impose a limit on the accuracy of extrospectivemeasurement methods. We conclude that neither an introspective privilege nor basic extrospective deficits exist. This does not mean that extrospection will ever replace introspection. Rather, both approaches provide independent and indispensable forms of epistemic access to the mind. (shrink)

Direct download(3 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   1 citation  

There is a received view onmeasurement scales. It includes both a classification of scales and a set of prescriptions regardingmeasurement inferences. This article casts doubt on the adequacy of this received view. To do this, I propose an epistemic characterization of the ordinal/interval distinction, that is, one in terms of researchers’ beliefs. This novel characterization reveals the ordinal/interval distinction as too coarse grained and thus the received view as too restrictive of a framework formeasurement (...) research. (shrink)

Direct download(3 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   2 citations  

Export citation   Bookmark   8 citations  

The science of metrology characterizes the concept of precision in exceptionally loose and open terms. That is because the details of the concept must be filled in—what I call narrowing of the concept—in ways that are sensitive to the details of a particularmeasurement ormeasurement system and its use. Since these details can never be filled in completely, the concept of the actual precision of an instrument system must always retain some of the openness of its general (...) characterization. The idea that there is something that counts as the actual precision of ameasurement system must therefore always remain an idealization, a conclusion that would appear to hold very broadly for terms and the concepts they express. (shrink)

Direct download(4 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   17 citations  

A brief review of the attempts to define “elements of reality” in the framework of quantum theory is presented. It is noted that most definitions of elements of reality have in common the feature to be a definite outcome of somemeasurement. Elements of reality are extended to pre- and post- selected systems and to measurements which fulfill certain criteria of weakness of the coupling. Some features of the newly introduced concepts are discussed.

Direct download(9 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   15 citations  

Our primary aim in this paper is to sketch the account of virtue that we think most amenable to virtuemeasurement. Our account integrates Whole Trait Theory from psychology with a broadly neo-Aristotelian approach to virtue. Our account is ‘ecumenical’ in that it has appeal for a wide range of virtue ethicists. According to WTT, a personality trait is composed of a set of situation-specific trait-appropriate responses, which are produced when certain “social-cognitive” mechanisms are triggered by the perception of (...) trait-relevant stimuli in a person’s external and/or internal environment. Moving from this starting point, we discuss our conception of a virtue and respects in which it both aligns with and diverges from Aristotle’s conception. We discuss roles for practical wisdom and motivation in our conception of virtue, and highlight respects in which WTT provides an amenable empirical framework into which key Aristotelian elements can be integrated. We conclude with brief remarks about our conception as an empirically adequate and measurable account. (shrink)

Direct download(2 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   5 citations  

My thesis is that there are good reasons for a philosophical account ofmeasurement to deal primarily with the properties or magnitudes of objects measured, rather than with the objects themselves. The account I present here embodies both a realism aboutmeasurement and a realism about the existence of the properties involved inmeasurement. It thus provides an alternative to most current treatments ofmeasurement, many of which are operationalistic or conventionalistic, and nearly all of which (...) are nominalistic.1 This enables the present account to give better explanations of a number of features ofmeasurement and other aspects of science than competing accounts ofmeasurement can, and to be more readily integrated into a realist account of natural laws and causation. It also illustrates a general strategy for combining a familiar and powerful approach to representation with intensional entities like properties, which I think can be useful for dealing with a number of philosophical problems. (shrink)

Direct download   Export citation   Bookmark   32 citations  

It has been realized that themeasurement problem of quantum mechanics is essentially the determinate-experience problem, and in order to solve the problem, the physical state representing themeasurement result is required to be also the physical state on which the mental state of an observer supervenes. This necessitates a systematic analysis of the forms of psychophysical connection in the solutions to themeasurement problem. In this paper, I propose a new, mentalistic formulation of themeasurement (...) problem which lays more stress on psychophysical connection. By this new formulation, it can be seen more clearly that the three main solutions to themeasurement problem, namely Everett’s theory, Bohm’s theory and collapse theories, correspond to three different forms of psychophysical connection. I then analyze these forms of psychophysical connection. It is argued that the forms of psychophysical connection required by Everett’s and Bohm’s theories have potential problems, while an analysis of how the mental state of an observer supervenes on her wave function may help solve the structured tails problem of collapse theories. (shrink)

No categories

Direct download(2 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   7 citations  

A geometric approach to quantum mechanics with unitary evolution and non-unitary collapse processes is developed. In this approach the Schrödinger evolution of a quantum system is a geodesic motion on the space of states of the system furnished with an appropriate Riemannian metric. The measuring device is modeled by a perturbation of the metric. The process ofmeasurement is identified with a geodesic motion of state of the system in the perturbed metric. Under the assumption of random fluctuations of (...) the perturbed metric, the Born rule for probabilities of collapse is derived. The approach is applied to a two-level quantum system to obtain a simple geometric interpretation of quantum commutators, the uncertainty principle and Planck’s constant. In light of this, a lucid analysis of the double-slit experiment with collapse and an experiment on a pair of entangled particles is presented. (shrink)

Direct download(9 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   16 citations  

THE LOGIC OF SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIATION Apart from the studies to be reported here, there have been few, if any, systematic attempts to subject meaning to..

Direct download   Export citation   Bookmark   202 citations  

The conduct of most of social science occurs outside the laboratory. Such studies in field science explore phenomena that cannot for practical, technical, or ethical reasons be explored under controlled conditions. These phenomena cannot be fully isolated from their environment or investigated by manipulation or intervention. Yetmeasurement, including rigorous or clinicalmeasurement, does provide analysts with a sound basis for discerning what occurs under field conditions, and why. In Science Outside the Laboratory, Marcel Boumans explores the state (...) ofmeasurement theory, its reliability, and the role expert judgment plays in field investigations from the perspective of the philosophy of science. Its discussion of the problems of passive observation, the calculus of observation, the two-model problem, and model-based consensus uses illustrations drawn primarily from economics. Rich in research and discussion, the volume clarifies the extent to whichmeasurement provides valid information about objects and events in field sciences, but also has implications formeasurement in the laboratory. Scholars in the fields of philosophy of science, social science, and economics will find Science Outside the Laboratory a compelling and informative read. (shrink)

Direct download(3 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   13 citations  

Prevention of age-related disorders is increasingly in focus of health policies, and it is hoped that early intervention on processes of deterioration can promote healthier and longer lives. New opportunities to slow down the aging process are emerging with new fields such as personalized nutrition. Data-intensive research has the potential to improve the precision of existing risk factors, e.g., to replace coarse-grained markers such as blood cholesterol with more detailed multivariate biomarkers. In this paper, we follow an attempt to develop (...) a new aging biomarker. The vision among the project consortium, comprising both research and industrial partners, is that the new biomarker will be predictive of a range of age-related conditions, which may be preventable through personalized nutrition. We combine philosophical analysis and ethnographic fieldwork to explore the possibilities and challenges of managing aging through bodily signs that are not straightforwardly linked to symptomatic disease. We document how the improvement ofmeasurement brings about new conceptual challenges of demarcating healthy and unhealthy states. Moreover, we highlight that the reframing of aging as risk has social and ethical implications, as it is generative of normative notions of what constitutes successful aging and good citizenship. (shrink)

Direct download(2 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   10 citations  

According to the realist interpretation,measurement commits us not just to the logically independent existence of things in space and time, but also to the existence of quantitatively structured properties and relations, and to the existence of real numbers, understood as relations of ratio between specific levels of such attributes.Measurement is defined as the estimation of numerical relations (or ratios) between magnitudes of a quantitative attribute and a unit. The history of scientificmeasurement, from antiquity to (...) the present may be interpreted as revealing a progressive deepening in the understanding of this position. First, the concept of ratio was broadened to include ratios between incommensurable magnitudes; second, the concept of a quantitative attribute was broadened to include non-extensive quantities; third, quantitative structure and its relations to ratios and real numbers were elaborated; and finally, the issue of empirically distinguishing between quantitative and non-quantitative structures was addressed. This interpretation ofmeasurement understands it in a way that is continuous with scientific investigation in general, i.e., as an attempt to discover independently existing facts. (shrink)

Direct download   Export citation   Bookmark   18 citations  

The paper introduces what is deemed as the general epistemological problem ofmeasurement: what characterizesmeasurement with respect to generic evaluation? It also analyzes the fundamental positions that have been maintained about this issue, thus presenting some sketches for a conceptual history ofmeasurement. This characterization, in which three distinct standpoints are recognized, corresponding to a metaphysical, an anti-metaphysical, and relativistic period, allows us to introduce and briefly discuss some general issues on the current epistemological status of (...)measurement science. (shrink)

Direct download   Export citation   Bookmark   18 citations  

This anthology is a unique compilation of scientific contributions on the topic ofmeasurement and understanding, showing how terms such as number,measurement, understanding, model, pattern are used in a wide variety of disciplines. Based on the results and experiences from their own projects, 23 researchers comment on the potentials and limitations of individual methodological approaches and success factors of interdisciplinary collaboration. In doing so, they sound out the different significance of quantification and empirical evidence for their own (...) disciplines and examine the influence of methodological approaches on existing models and images. The common goal is to want to understand the world; the methods, however, are highly diverse. (shrink)

No categories

Direct download(2 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   1 citation  

Digital personal data is increasingly framed as the basis of contemporary economies, representing an important new asset class. Control over these data assets seems to explain the emergence and dominance of so-called “Big Tech” firms, consisting of Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google/alphabet, and Facebook. These US-based firms are some of the largest in the world by market capitalization, a position that they retain despite growing policy and public condemnation—or “techlash”—of their market power based on their monopolistic control of personal data. We (...) analyse the transformation of personal data into an asset in order to explore how personal data is accounted for, governed, and valued by Big Tech firms and other political-economic actors. However, our findings show that Big Tech firms turn “users” and “user engagement” into assets through the performativemeasurement, governance, and valuation of user metrics, rather than extending ownership and control rights over personal data per se. We conceptualize this strategy as a form of “techcraft” to center attention on the means and mechanisms that Big Tech firms deploy to make users and user data measurable and legible as future revenue streams. (shrink)

No categories

Direct download   Export citation   Bookmark   7 citations  

Putnam and Searle famously argue against computational theories of mind on the skeptical ground that there is no fact of the matter as to what mathematical function a physical system is computing: both conclude (albeit for somewhat different reasons) that virtually any physical object computes every computable function, implements every program or automaton. There has been considerable discussion of Putnam's and Searle's arguments, though as yet there is little consensus as to what, if anything, is wrong with these arguments. In (...) the present paper we show that an analogous line of reasoning can be raised against the numericalmeasurement (i.e., numerical representation) of physical magnitudes, and we argue that this result is a reductio ad absurdum of the challenge to computational skepticism. We then use this reductio to get clearer about both (i) what's wrong with Putnam's and Searle's arguments against computationalism, and (ii) what can be learned about both computational implementation and numericalmeasurement from the shortcomings of both sorts of skeptical argument. (shrink)

Direct download(2 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   12 citations  

In his Scientific Representation (2008), van Fraassen argues that measuring is a form of representation. In fact, everymeasurement pinpoints its target in accordance with specific operational rules within an already-constructed theoretical space, in which certain conceptual interconnections can be represented. Reichenbach’s 1920 account of coordination is particularly interesting in this connection. Even though recent reassessments of this account do not do full justice to some important elements lying behind it, they do have the merit of focusing on a (...) different aspect of his early work that traditional interpretations of relativized a priori principles have unfortunately neglected in favour of a more “structural” role for coordination. In Reichenbach’s early work, however, the idea of coordination was employed not only to indicate theory-specific fundamental principles such as the ones suggested in the literature on conventional principles in science, but also to refer to more “basic” assumptions. In Reichenbach, these principles are preconditions both of the individuation of physical magnitudes and of theirmeasurement, and, as such, they are necessary to approach the world in the first instance. This paper aims to reassess Reichenbach’s approach to coordination and to the representation of physical quantities in light of recent literature onmeasurement and scientific representation. (shrink)

Export citation   Bookmark   9 citations  

Export citation   Bookmark  

To establish the evaluation index system of urbanization innovation level and ecological efficiency, the entropy method is applied to measure the comprehensive index of urbanization innovation level and ecological efficiency, the VAR model is established, and empiricalmeasurement is used to study the internal relationship and dynamic development between urbanization innovation level and ecological efficiency. The empirical results show the following: The overall development of the innovation level in 30 cities in China is uneven, there is a large gap (...) between the urban innovation level in backwards areas and economically developed areas, and there is a certain coupling effect between the urban innovation level and ecological efficiency. There is a long-term dynamic equilibrium relationship between the urban innovation level and ecological efficiency, which will exert certain pressure on the ecological environment in the process of urbanization. However, the continuous improvement of urbanization will have a positive impact on the improvement of the ecological environment. The improvement of ecological efficiency will also promote the improvement of the urban innovation level. Therefore, this paper puts forwards policy suggestions to promote the harmonious development of urbanization and the ecological environment and provides a reference for realizing the balanced development of urbanization and ecological efficiency in China. (shrink)

Direct download(2 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   1 citation  

In this paper, I argue for a distinction between two scales of coordination in scientific inquiry, through which I reassess Georg Simon Ohm’s work on conductivity and resistance. Firstly, I propose to distinguish betweenmeasurement coordination, which refers to the specific problem of how to justify the attribution of values to a quantity by using a certainmeasurement procedure, and general coordination, which refers to the broader issue of justifying the representation of an empirical regularity by means of (...) abstract mathematical tools. Secondly, I argue that the development of Ohm’smeasurement practice between the first and the second experimental phase of his work involved the change of themeasurement coordination on which he relied to express his empirical results. By showing how Ohm relied on different calibration assumptions and practices across the two phases, I demonstrate that the concurrent change of both Ohm’s experimental apparatus and the variable that Ohm measured should be viewed based on the different form ofmeasurement coordination. Finally, I argue that Ohm’s assumption that tension is equally distributed in the circuit is best understood as part of the general coordination between Ohm’s law and the empirical regularity that it expresses, rather thanmeasurement coordination. (shrink)

Direct download(3 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   3 citations  

Whether or not quantum physics can account for molecular structure is a matter of considerable controversy. Three of the problems raised in this regard are the problems of molecular structure. We argue that these problems are just special cases of themeasurement problem of quantum mechanics: insofar as themeasurement problem is solved, the problems of molecular structure are resolved as well. In addition, we explore one consequence of our argument: that claims about the reduction or emergence of (...) molecular structure cannot be settled independently of the choice of a particular resolution to themeasurement problem. Specifically, we consider how three standard putative solutions to themeasurement problem inform our under- standing of a molecule in isolation, as well as of chemistry’s relation to quantum physics. (shrink)

Direct download(3 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   11 citations  

In both axiomatic theories and the practice of extensivemeasurement, it is assumed that a series of replicas of any given object can be found. The replicas give rise to a standard series, the "multiples" of the given object. The numerical value assigned to any object is determined, approximately, by comparisons with members of a suitable standard series. This prescription introduces unspecified errors, if the comparison process is somewhat insensitive, so that "replicas" are not really equivalent. In this paper, (...) it is assumed that the comparison process leads only to a semiorder, which allows for such insensitivity. It is shown that, nevertheless, extensivemeasurement can be carried out, provided that a certain set of (plausible) axioms is valid. Approximate measures, and their limits of error, can be derived from finite sets of semiorder observations. These approximate measures converge to ratio-scale exactmeasurement. (shrink)

Direct download(8 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   8 citations  

Recently, several philosophers and physicists have increasingly noticed the hegemony of unitarity in the black hole information loss discourse and are challenging its legitimacy in the face of themeasurement problem. They proclaim that embracing non-unitarity solves two paradoxes for the price of one. Though I share their distaste over the philosophical bias, I disagree with their strategy of still privileging certain interpretations of quantum theory. I argue that information-restoring solutions can be interpretation-neutral because the manifestation of non-unitarity in (...) Hawking's original derivation is unrelated to what's found in collapse theories or generalized stochastic approaches, thereby decoupling the two puzzles. (shrink)

Direct download(3 more)   Export citation   Bookmark  

The philosophy ofmeasurement studies the conceptual, ontological, epistemic, and technological conditions that makemeasurement possible and reliable. A new wave of philosophical scholarship has emerged in the last decade that emphasizes the material and historical dimensions ofmeasurement and the relationships betweenmeasurement and theoretical modeling. This essay surveys these developments and contrasts them with earlier work on the semantics of quantity terms and the representational character ofmeasurement. The conclusions highlight four characteristics of (...) the emerging research program in philosophy ofmeasurement: it is epistemological, coherentist, practice oriented, and model based. (shrink)

Direct download(3 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   68 citations  

This paper presents a novel semantic analysis of unit names (like pound and meter) and gradable adjectives (like tall, short and happy), inspired bymeasurement theory (Krantz et al. In Foundations ofmeasurement: Additive and Polynomial Representations, 1971). Based onmeasurement theory’s four-way typology of measures, I claim that different adjectives are associated with different types of measures whose special characteristics, together with features of the relations denoted by unit names, explain the puzzling limited distribution of measure (...) phrases, as well as unit-based comparisons between predicates (as in the table is longer than it is wide). All considered, my analyses support the view that the grammar of natural languages is sensitive to features ofmeasurement theory. (shrink)

Direct download(6 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   14 citations