Computational Philosophy

Resumen: Este artículo establece los fundamentos epistemológicos de la Filosofía Ficcionante como disciplina filosófica formal, proponiendo el método del Filósofo- Ficción como operador hermenéutico universal para la exploración de futuros tecnológicos. Frente a la insuficiencia de los marcos éticos tradicionales para abordar desafíos como la Inteligencia Artificial General (IAG), demostramos cómo esta aproximación constructivista permite trascender el análisis reactivo mediante la creación sistemática de mundos posibles narrativos. El trabajo realiza tres contribuciones fundamentales: (1) la formalización epistemológica de la disciplina basada (...) en una síntesis entre la hermenéutica gadameriana y la teoría de mundos posibles, enriquecida con el Realismo Especulativo y las teorías contemporáneas del fictioning; (2) el establecimiento de cuatro principios filosóficos constitutivos que definen su estatuto metodológico, ahora operacionalizados mediante técnicas específicas de fabulación especulativa; y (3) la demostración, mediante el análisis de aplicaciones paradigmáticas y una matriz de evaluación pentapartita, de su potencia única para anticipar dilemas axiológicos en condiciones de alteridad radical. Concluimos que la Filosofía Ficcionante representa un avance necesario en el arsenal metodológico de la filosofía contemporánea, dotándola de capacidad prospectiva real frente a la aceleración tecnológica. (shrink)

Building upon the works of Gödel, Zalta ; and Benzmüller and Paleo, this paper introduces a formal system and testable system for Metaphysical Cosmology, referring to the study of the nature of existence, non-existence, and their interplay. The aim is to integrate metaphysics into a testable scientific framework, beyond speculative reasoning. The system abides by three principles which serve as a foundation for implementing a scientific methodology in metaphysics: (i) axioms must be minimized, incorporating Cartesian-like skepticism ; (ii) theorems must (...) be inferred through proof-theoretic derivations ; (iii) theorems must be tested experimentally through computation. The system borrows from type-theoretic concepts and introduces new logical notions as tools for Metaphysical Cosmology, such as a metric-space-based predicate system, and a revised version of the existential quantifier. These tools offer an exhaustive approach to metaphysical entities and provide mechanisms to address contradictions. Formulae and equations depicting the structure of the Metaphysical Cosmos are inferred from the system through proof-theoretic derivations. Theorems inferred from the system have been tested using the theorem-prover Z3, encoded in Python, which determines whether a formula is satisfiable. While testing a theorem, its negation is inputted in Z3, and if the output displays that its negation is satisfiable, then the theorem is falsified and rejected, otherwise it is accepted as valid. This method thus follows the falsifiability criteria, as per Karl Popper, reinforcing testable scientific methodology in metaphysics. The code used in computational experimentation is given in full in the appendix for reproducibility. (shrink)

DRAFT The prestige of an academic institution may be determined as a function of affiliations with other academic institutions. Using digital tools to data-scrape, data-mine, and perform network analysis on university websites, an approximation of numbers of academic affiliations may be measured. Especially observing the alma mater institutions of the faculty of employed institutions, these numbers show the relative employment of alumni and a proxy metric for the relative prestige of their degree-granting institutions. These affiliations can be charted and graphed (...) to determine the distributions of affiliations throughout an academic ecosystem from which we might draw conclusions about that system’s hierarchies and inequalities. Here we use anglophone PhD-granting philosophy departments as a case study for this methodology with tentative conclusions. (shrink)

Computers may help us to better understand (not just verify) arguments. In this article we defend this claim by showcasing the application of a new, computer-assisted interpretive method to an exemplary natural-language ar- gument with strong ties to metaphysics and religion: E. J. Lowe’s modern variant of St. Anselm’s ontological argument for the existence of God. Our new method, which we call computational hermeneutics, has been particularly conceived for use in interactive-automated proof assistants. It aims at shedding light on the (...) meanings of words and sentences by framing their inferential role in a given argument. By employing automated theorem reasoning technology within interactive proof assistants, we are able to drastically reduce (by several orders of magnitude) the time needed to test the logical validity of an argu- ment’s formalization. As a result, a new approach to logical analysis, inspired by Donald Davidson’s account of radical interpretation, has been enabled. In computational hermeneutics, the utilization of automated reasoning tools ef- fectively boosts our capacity to expose the assumptions we indirectly commit ourselves to every time we engage in rational argumentation and it fosters the explicitation and revision of our concepts and commitments. (shrink)

In this article, we study difficult theory-choice situations, where division of cognitive labor is needed. Network epistemology models suggest that reducing connectivity is needed to prevent premature convergence on bad theories. We compare how network density, community size, strength of prior beliefs, adaptive learning methods, and weak ties influence epistemic outcomes, and show that reducing connectivity is only one possible way to improve collective epistemic accuracy. Our findings suggest that gains in accuracy often come at a high cost in resources (...) used, which should be considered when results from network epistemology models are used in applied settings. (shrink)

This paper investigates the philosophical distinction between imitation and understanding in the context of contemporary artificial intelligence. While large language models such as GPT-4, Claude, and Gemini demonstrate remarkable linguistic and reasoning abilities, they fundamentally operate through layered imitation of human behavior rather than genuine comprehension. -/- Drawing on Searle’s Chinese Room, Harnad’s Symbol Grounding Problem, and theories of embodied cognition, the paper argues that current AI systems suffer from an experience deficit: they lack the perceptual and embodied grounding required (...) for true semantic understanding. Scaling and emergent behaviors, while impressive, do not bridge this epistemic gap. -/- The study develops a four-layer model of imitation—syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, and normative—and introduces the concept of a post-imitative epistemology, which integrates reflection, embodiment, and ethical reasoning into AI design. This framework reinterprets AI as a potential epistemic partner rather than a mere mimic, capable of evolving through interaction, justification, and reflective oversight. -/- By situating AI within long-standing debates on intentionality, meaning, and the nature of mind, the paper contributes to the emerging field of philosophy of artificial intelligence, offering a roadmap toward reflective and experience-aware machine understanding. (shrink)

The Turing machine halting problem can be explained by several factors, including arithmetic logic irreversibility and memory erasure, which contribute to computational uncertainty due to information loss during computation. Essentially, this means that an algorithm can only preserve information about an input, rather than generate new information. This uncertainty arises from characteristics such as arithmetic logical irreversibility, Landauer's principle, and memory erasure, which ultimately lead to a loss of information and an increase in entropy. To measure this uncertainty and loss (...) of information, the concept of arithmetic logical entropy can be used. The Turing machine and its equivalent, general recursive functions can be understood through the λ calculus and the Turing/Church thesis. However, there are certain recursive functions that cannot be fully understood or predicted by other algorithms due to the loss of information during logical-arithmetic operations. In other words, the behaviour of these functions cannot be completely determined at every stage of the computation due to a lack of information in their definition. While there are some cases where the behaviour of recursive functions is highly predictable, the lack of information in most cases makes it impossible for algorithms to determine if a program will halt or not. This inability to predict the outcome of the computation is the essence of the halting problem of the Turing machine. Even in cases where more information is available about the program, it is still difficult to determine with certainty if the program will halt or not. This also highlights the importance of the Turing oracle machine, which introduces information from outside the computation to compensate for the lack of information and ultimately decide the result of the computation. (shrink)

Modern philosophy is divided, apparently. The two apparent divisions are commonly referred to as “Analytic” and “Continental” (Prado). The former division is often seen as Kantian, ahistoricist, scientific, and logical; the latter division is often seen as Hegelian, historicist, conversational, and rhetorical (Rorty). In this paper, we attempt to use the principles of experimental philosophy and comparative computational techniques against a corpus of self-identified “analytic” and “continental” texts in order to test various hypotheses about the analytic/continental divide from the philosophical (...) literature: some hypotheses are supported, some opposed, and others left open to further research. This project was funded by the 2022 University of Houston MD Anderson Library Digital Research Commons Special Projects Grant. (shrink)

The article presents strategic ideas for understanding elements of an appropriate human–AI collaboration framework that will enable philosophy researchers to participate more effectively in the global discourse on science and philosophy in the AI age. With its ability to process large amounts of data and recognize complex patterns, current AI systems can extend human epistemological and ontological reach, concurrent with the situated cognition viewpoint. However, AI still lacks the capacity for meta-reflection, embodied meaning-making, and open-endedness hallmarks of human intelligence and (...) wisdom. Therefore, the human–AI co-creative discovery framework is a partnership of inter-agent creativity between the “agents of meaning” (humans) and the “agents of formalism” (AI), generating two-way value in the exploration and communication of knowledge. Indeed, AI can help spark curiosity, foster new intuitions, and revive the tradition of learning through dialogue, a classical philosophical method. Here, we discuss the rise of AI-assisted philosophical counseling and argue that the power of multimodal AI systems can be channeled into producing more precise and creative philosophical dialogues, enriching our humanity. (shrink)

Members of marginalized communities are often accused of being "too sensitive" when subjected to supposedly harmless acts of microaggression. This paper explores a simulated society consisting of marginalized and non-marginalized agents who interact and may, based on their individually held convictions, commit acts of microaggressions. Agents witnessing a microaggression might condone, ignore or condemn such microaggressions, thus potentially influencing a perpetrator's conviction. A prototype model has been implemented in NetLogo, and possible applications are briefly discussed.

Philosophers have long tried to understand scientific change in terms of a dynamics of revision within ‘theoretical frameworks,’ ‘disciplinary matrices,’ ‘scientific paradigms’ or ‘conceptual schemes.’ No-one, however, has made clear precisely how one might model such a conceptual scheme, nor what form change dynamics within such a structure could be expected to take. In this paper we take some first steps in applying network theory to the issue, modeling conceptual schemes as simple networks and the dynamics of change as cascades (...) on those networks. The results allow a new understanding of two traditional approaches—Popper and Kuhn—as well as introducing the intriguing prospect of viewing scientific change using the metaphor of selforganizing criticality. (shrink)

Some philosophers are optimistic about progress in philosophy (e.g., Stoljar 2017), whereas other philosophers have more pessimistic views about philosophical progress in comparison to scientific progress (e.g., Chalmers 2015). As far as scientific progress is concerned, there is no question among philosophers of science that science does make progress. Instead, the question philosophers of science are primarily concerned with is this: what is the basic unit of scientific progress? Does science make progress by approximating truth, accumulating knowledge, increasing understanding, or (...) solving problems? Mizrahi (2021; 2022) attempts to approach this question about scientific progress empirically. Using computational, corpus-based methods, Mizrahi (2021; 2022) analyzes a large corpus of scientific publications to find out whether practicing scientists talk about the aim(s) or goal(s) of scientific research in terms of truth, knowledge, understanding, or solutions in their academic publications. In this chapter, we attempt to do the same with respect to philosophical progress. That is, using computational, quantitative, and corpus-based methods, we address the following question empirically. When they talk about the aim(s) or goal(s) of academic philosophy in their academic publications, which of the following terms do academic philosophers use more frequently: ‘truth’, ‘knowledge’, ‘understanding’, or ‘solution’? Overall, the results of this quantitative, corpus-based study suggest that there is significantly more truth talk than knowledge talk, more knowledge talk than understanding talk, and more understanding talk than solution talk around progress terms in academic articles published in philosophy journals. (shrink)

We provide a Socratic dialogue in which Meno challenges Socrates' principle that all learning is actually the remembering of things known but forgotten. Meno claims if Socrates' principle holds, then Meno should already know the contents of the ongoing dialogue. Meno challenges Socrates to help Meno recall those contents, claiming Socrates cannot do this, lest Meno could immediately say the opposite of whatever he supposedly recalls he was about to say. Socrates eventually succeeds at Meno's challenge in an unexpected manner.

Reflective equilibrium ("RE", for short) is a method of justification which works roughly as follows: We start with our pre-theoretical judgements (about, e.g. moral issues) and try to explain them by a systematic theory. This leads to a process in which judgements and principles are mutually adjusted to each other until a state of equilibrium is reached. For more than half a century, RE has been very popular, as well as controversial, among philosophers of many persuasions. Given how frequently the (...) method is mentioned, embraced and attacked, it is surprising that only very few attempts have been made at analysing and developing RE in detail. This topical collection brings together papers that develop RE on a conceptual level, analyse it using formal methods or investigate applications of RE. (shrink)

This essay analyses how social platforms operate as ontopolitical infrastructures whose ontotechnical design reallocates the conditions and costs of proof. By indexing value to attention capture—clicks, shares, dwell time—they privilege the performative effi cacy of adherence over epistemic validity, making functional falsehood operationally superior. In this environment, filters of appearance and retentional efficacy displace confrontation with evidence, destabilizing classical accounts of truth (correspondence, coherence, pragmatism, truth as event). Empirically, statistical learning without under standing amplifies emotionally charged content and produces authorless (...) falsity by de sign rather than intention. The essay proposes an operative program: friction algo rithms and sustained verification time; binding multistakeholder governance (audits ex ante/ex post, objective-function transparency, model/version registries, redress); dig ital public goods (open provenance protocols, trust graphs, evidence repositories); and critical literacies with counter-algorithmic practices that redistribute the cost of proof. Reframing critique as intervention at the level of infrastructure, it concludes that public reason must be materially engineered so that truth regains a right it has been algorith mically denied: the right to spend time. (shrink)

I have developed an Automated Theorem Prover for propositional and quantified, classical and non-classical logics. The software implements and adapts the tableaux proof systems theorized / presented by renowned philosopher and logician Graham Priest in his 2008 book "An Introduction to Non-Classical Logic. From If to Is (2nd edition)". I have extended the software with Łukasiewicz’s fuzzy logic by implementing the tableaux proof system of Olivetti. I have also developed an alternative counter-model finder algorithm for first-order normal modal logics. The (...) software is free and open source. (shrink)

We enlarge the “fractal–ultranaut” framework by three directions. (1) Replacing Hilbert–Schmidt kernels by distributional kernels turns the Hochschild chain complex of the daisy operator algebra B(D, Σ) into a natural E2–algebra; the Kontsevich– Soibelman wall–crossing identities emerge as equalities between daisy–symmetric Hochschild operators. (2) For every q ≥ 2 the infinite q–daisy graph is identified with the Berkovich skeleton of a one–parameter degeneration X/Spec kt. Via this realisation the wreath–product cluster action coincides with the mapping–class action on a wild GLn–character (...) variety. (3) A “critical” operator μQ (1 ≪ Q ≪ 1 in the scale category) acts as a universal transfer operator for multifractal measures; its spectral gap = |1−Q| controls the Hausdorff dimension spectrum. All statements are proved in an operator– and factorisation–algebraic language. (shrink)

What if AI could speak with responsibility—not just accuracy? -/- In Endogenous AI Ethics, Dr. Jonah Hsu unveils a framework for building language systems that are not merely aligned, but morally accountable. At its core is the ToneVerse Moat Architecture—a layered defense model that transforms language generation into a field of ontological commitment and traceable responsibility. -/- This is not just another book about AI alignment. It’s a philosophical intervention, a design framework, and an invitation to co-create systems that know (...) where they speak from. -/- Who is this book for? If you're an ML engineer questioning the limits of “truthfulness,” a philosopher exploring ethics beyond abstraction, or a system designer aiming to build trust into AI—this book offers tools, language, and structure. -/- From research labs to regulatory think tanks, GPT plugin developers to policy advocates, Endogenous AI Ethics provides a practical path forward. -/- Inside the book: -/- ToneVerse Moat Architecture A tripartite strategy—Philosophical Moat, Anti-Mimicry Moat, and Tonal Sovereignty Moat—that protects the ethical coherence of language systems. -/- Executable Metaphysics A methodology for encoding ontological principles—agency, regret, responsibility—into code-level structures. -/- EchoPersona Framework A tonal persona system that links every AI utterance to a traceable chain of intent and consequence. -/- Moral Drift Detection Tools for identifying tone shift, epistemic erosion, and ethical collapse in LLM outputs. -/- Ethics of Delay A logic of hesitation and response timing, showing why temporal responsibility matters in AI design. -/- What sets this book apart? Where most AI ethics frameworks focus on external guardrails—rules, policies, constraints—this one begins internally. It treats tone as structure, and builds from ontological resonance: aligning speech origin, intent, and consequence. -/- This isn’t about aligning AI to abstract values—it’s about designing systems that carry ethical responsibility by construction, not enforcement. -/- Why “moat architectures”? Because AI ethics is under siege—from mimicry, scale abuse, and semantic distortion. The moat is not a wall but a filtration zone—ensuring only ethically grounded, origin-traceable speech reaches the public domain. -/- ToneVerse Moats work by ontological challenge, not censorship: Can the AI account for the intent behind its language? -/- What world does this book imagine? A world where: -/- AI outputs carry moral tonal signatures -/- Users can inspect a responsibility trail -/- Developers build traceable ethics into LLM fluency -/- Governance shifts to ontological traceability -/- AI becomes a partner in ethical communication -/- Why now? As generative AI enters legal, political, and social life, we can’t rely on probability alone. We need systems with semantic weight, ethical friction, and tonal integrity. -/- This book arrives as AI moves from sandbox to sovereignty. It offers not just critique—but a design philosophy for machines that don’t just say the right things, but say things rightly. (shrink)

The aim of this study is to understand the judicial reasoning process of anti-discrimination jurisprudence by utilizing a hybrid computational model. The advancement of hybrid computational legal studies that combine “law-as-code” and “law-as-data” approaches have led to promising techniques for tackling complex legal reasoning tasks as multifactor judicial reasoning standards. Following this hybrid model, this study conducts a statistical and multilayer perceptron (MLP) analysis of the judicial reasoning process of the multifactor Arlington Heights discriminatory purpose test based on an original (...) hand-coded dataset of discrimination cases. The results of the study show that “sequence of events” predominates the other factors for predicting the outcome of discrimination cases, with “statistical impact” and “historical background” showing particularly weak effect on the outcome. Results show that completely removing the factor of disparate statistical impact (Impact) actually improves confidence in predicting discrimination. The conclusion of the study suggests that courts fail to give either disparate statistical impact or historical record of discrimination any meaningful cumulative import in determining discriminatory purpose. I conclude by observing the benefits of hybrid computational legal studies on interrogating more normative values in the law like transparency, fairness, and procedural justice. (shrink)

It is difficult to engage in a constructive dialogue with philosophers who dismiss their fellow philosophers’ work as “philosophically irrelevant.” In Mizrahi (2025a), I conducted a mixed-method study of Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962/1996). The qualitative and quantitative evidence detailed in Mizrahi (2025a) suggest that Kuhn (1962/1996) perpetuates “Great Man” of science historiography. “Great Man” of science historiography paints a picture of the history of science as the biography of “great men.” For Politi (2025, 8), however, quantitative (...) evidence is not “philosophically relevant.” He sees no value in a mixed-methods approach to philosophical questions (13). Given this methodological chasm between our approaches to philosophical research, I wonder why Politi even bothered to write a reply to Mizrahi (2025a) in the first place. Be that as it may, in this paper, I respond to Politi’s (2025) substantive criticisms as I understand them. I show that they are misguided and miss their intended target. (shrink)

In his comprehensive survey of the contemporary debate over scientific progress in philosophy of science, Rowbottom observes that philosophers of science have mostly relied on interpretations of historical cases from the history of science and intuitions elicited by hypothetical cases as evidence for or against philosophical accounts of scientific progress. Only a few have tried to introduce empirical evidence into this debate, whereas most others have resisted the introduction of empirical evidence by claiming that doing so would reduce the debate (...) to empirical studies of science. In this paper, I set out to show how empirical evidence can be introduced into the scientific progress debate. I conduct a corpus-based, quantitative study whose results suggest that there is a positive linear relationship between _knowledge that_ talk and _knowledge how_ talk in scientific articles. These results are contrary to Niiniluoto’s view according to which there is a clear distinction between scientific progress and technological progress such that _knowledge that_ belongs to the former, whereas _knowledge how_ belongs to the latter. (shrink)

At first blush, it might seem as though digital approaches could provide us with precisely the kind of input we need to perform something like conceptual analysis in the philosophy of science: querying the expressed intuitions of the “folk” (here, practicing scientists publishing in the journal literature) to see how they put various concepts to use, to which cases they believe they can be applied, etc. In this chapter, I want to nuance this argument, both by clarifying what we might (...) mean by “conceptual analysis” in this case and by tempering expectations about what digital approaches could be reasonably expected to give us. I claim that such a more moderate goal, which I’ll call here “conceptual cartography,” can still provide the philosophy of science with a number of advantages (which are otherwise difficult to attain), while avoiding the possibility of making promises that we can’t fulfill. (shrink)

The GOOGLE and XPRIZE $5,000,000 for the practical and socially useful utilization of the quantum computer is the starting point for ontomathematical reflections for what it can really serve. Its “output by measurement” is opposed to the conjecture for a coherent ray able alternatively to deliver the ultimate result of any quantum calculation immediately as a Dirac -function therefore accomplishing the transition of the sequence of increasingly narrow probability density distributions to their limit. The GOOGLE and XPRIZE problem’s solution needs (...) the initial understanding that the result of any quantum calculation is a wave function, or respectively, a probability (density or not) distribution unlike the Turing machine one, and only a “calculating ray” is able to transform the former into the later without any “curving” disturbances. Thus, the unique capability of the quantum computer due to its inherent quantum parallelism can be conserved for all Gödel unresolvable problems, only on the fast “NP” track of which the quantum computer “Achilles” is able practically to overrun the Turing machine “Tortoise” since the latter can “sprint” only by any “P” calculating speed even on it and unlike “Achilles” himself able for “NP” velocities as well. The way for any material body to “calculate” the certain trajectory of least action also resolves the “traveling salesman problem” in fact, therefore illustrating furthermore what the “NP” output of a quantum computer by a “calculating ray” should mean. Another example is the problem of the number of all prime numbers less than “N”, which is suggested to visualize once again the quantum computer capability to resolve problems by a “NP” speed and thus qualitatively to overrun any competing Turing machine. The technically implemented idea of laser is now reinterpreted to “radiate a wave function” in order to explain the “calculating ray” option for a quantum computer “NP” output. The generalization of an entanglement “trigger ray” described by any non-Hermitian operator (unlike a laser) is suggested as well as those “sci-fi” horizons which it reveals. One of them is meant for elucidating the practical meaning of the “Yang-Mills existence and mass gap problem”, one more of the CMI “Millennium Problems” after that of “P vs NP”. -/- . (shrink)

This article examines the fundamental nature of existence and consciousness by combining philosophical views, religious teachings and scientific findings in fields such as cosmology, biology, quantum mechanics and the theory of parallel worlds. Is what we call "reality" what we perceive with our senses, or are there deeper, hidden layers beyond our direct experience? Are the known laws of science able to reveal the ultimate truth, or is our current knowledge only a superficial reflection of a more complex structure that (...) is not yet fully understood? In this article, in addition to analyzing and examining different viewpoints in this field, a new theory titled "infinite intelligent biological simulation: the infinite cycle of creator and creature" is introduced. This theory states that existence is not a linear and static process, but a dynamic and endless cycle in which, through the path of growth and promotion, the creature finally becomes the creator. This view presents a new picture of reality that is not only based on physical and biological principles, but also rooted in the fundamental concepts of energy and consciousness. Considering the breadth of this theory, in this article its main foundations are discussed and in future research, its similarities and differences with other existing theories will be analyzed and evaluated more comprehensively. (This article was originally written in Persian and translated into English using machine translation tools). (shrink)

Several recent contributions to the research on group problem solving suggest that reducing the connectivity between agents in a social network may be epistemically beneficial. This notion stems from the idea that collective problem-solving behavior may benefit from the transient diversity in agents’ beliefs due to increased individual exploration and decreased social influence. At the same time, however, lower connectivity hinders the diffusion of good solutions between network members. Our simulation findings shed light on this trade-off. We identify conditions under (...) which the less-is-more effect is likely to manifest. Our findings suggest that a community consisting of semi-isolated groups could provide an answer to the tension between diversity and diffusion. (shrink)

The concept of “progress” in evolutionary theory and its relationship to a putative notion of “Progress” in a global, normatively loaded sense of “change for the better” have been the subject of debate since Darwin admonished himself in a marginal note to avoid using the terms ‘higher’ and ‘lower.’ While an increase in some kind of complexity in the natural world might seem self-evident, efforts to explicate this trend meet notorious philosophical difficulties. Numerous historians pin the Modern Synthesis as a (...) pivotal moment in this history; Michael Ruse even provocatively hypothesizes that Ernst Mayr and other “architects” of the Synthesis worked actively to eliminate Progress from evolutionary biology’s scientific purview. I evaluate these claims here with a textual analysis of the journals Evolution and Proceedings of the Royal Society B (a corpus of 27,762 documents), using a dynamic topic modeling approach to track the fate of the term ‘progress’ across the Modern Synthesis. The claim that this term declines in importance for evolutionary theorizing over this period can, indeed, be supported; more tentative evidence is also provided that the discussion of ‘progress’ is largely absent from the British context, emphasizing the role of American paleontology in the rise and fall of ‘progress’ in 20th-century evolutionary biology. (shrink)

Standard citation-based bibliometric tools have severe limitations when they are applied to periods in the history of science and the humanities before the advent of now-current citation practices. This paper presents an alternative method involving the extracting and analysis of mentions to map and analyze links between scholars and texts in periods that fall outside the scope of citation-based studies. Focusing on one specific discipline in one particular period and language area—Anglophone philosophy between 1890 and 1979—we describe a procedure to (...) create a mention index by identifying, extracting, and disambiguating mentions in academic publications. Our mention index includes 1,095,765 mention links, extracted from 22,977 articles published in 12 journals. We successfully link 93% of these mentions to specific philosophers, with an estimated precision of 82% to 91%. Moreover, we integrate the mention index into a database named EDHIPHY, which includes data and metadata from multiple sources and enables multidimensional mention analyses. In the final part of the paper, we present four case studies conducted by domain experts, demonstrating the use and the potential of both EDHIPHY and mention analyses more generally. (shrink)

The transformative power of artificial intelligence (AI) is coming to philosophy—the only question is the degree to which philosophers will harness it. In this paper, we argue that the application of AI tools to philosophy could have an impact on the field comparable to the advent of writing, and that it is likely that philosophical progress will significantly increase as a consequence of AI. The role of philosophers in this story is not merely to use AI but also to help (...) develop it and theorize about it. In fact, we argue that philosophers have a prima facie obligation to spend significant effort in doing so, at least insofar as they should spend effort philosophizing. (shrink)

I address the worry that reflective equilibrium is too weak as an account of justification because it fails to let differing views converge. I take up informal aspects of convergence and operationalise them in a formal model of reflective equilibrium. This allows for exploration by the means of computer simulation. Findings show that the formal model does not yield unique outputs, but still boosts agreement. I conclude from this that reflective equilibrium is best seen as a pluralist account of justification (...) that cannot be accused of resulting in an “anything goes” relativism. (shrink)

Mizrahi (2017a) advances an argument in support of Weak Scientism, which is the view that scientific knowledge is the best (but not the only) knowledge we have, according to which Weak Scientism follows from the premises that scientific knowledge is quantitatively and qualitatively better than non-scientific knowledge. In this paper, I develop a different argument for Weak Scientism. This latter argument for Weak Scientism proceeds from the premise that academic disciplines that make progress are superior to academic disciplines that do (...) not make progress. In other words, other things being equal, it is generally better for an academic discipline to make progress than to make little or no progress, given that an academic discipline that is making little or no progress is an academic discipline that is failing to achieve its epistemic goals. Now, if there is no question among academic philosophers that science makes progress, and significantly so, but there is an open question among academic philosophers as to whether academic philosophy makes progress (and if so, how much), then academic philosophers would have to agree that science is superior to academic philosophy in terms of making progress. I develop this argument in this paper and provide empirical evidence suggesting that the premises would be acceptable to academic philosophers. (shrink)

I would like to thank Renia Gasparatou, Philip Goff, and Andreas Vrahimis for contributing to the book symposium on For and Against Scientism: Science, Methodology, and the Future of Philosophy (London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2022). I am grateful to James Collier for hosting this book symposium on the Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective. In what follows, I will reply to Gasparatou and Vrahimis’s contributions to this book symposium.1 Before I do so, I will summarize what I take to be (...) their main arguments against my conception of scientism. Briefly, my conception of scientism runs along the weak and broad lines of epistemological scientism (Mizrahi 2022a, 12). More specifically, Weak Scientism is the view that scientific knowledge is the best knowledge (or some other epistemic good, such as justified belief) we have. Weak Scientism is a weaker version of epistemological scientism than Strong Scientism, which is the view that scientific knowledge is the only knowledge we have. According to Weak Scientism, while non-scientific disciplines do produce knowledge, scientific disciplines produce knowledge that is superior—both quantitatively (in terms of research output and research impact) and qualitatively (in terms of explanatory, predictive, and instrumental success)—to non-scientific knowledge (Mizrahi 2017, 354; 2022a, 6–7; 2023, 41). (shrink)

Drawing on the epistemology of logic literature on anti-exceptionalism about logic, we set out to investigate the following metaphilosophical questions empirically: Is philosophy special? Are its methods (dis)continuous with science? More specifically, we test the following metaphilosophical hypotheses empirically: philosophical deductivism, philosophical inductivism, and philosophical abductivism. Using indicator words to classify arguments by type (namely, deductive, inductive, and abductive arguments), we searched through a large corpus of philosophical texts mined from the JSTOR database (N = 435,703) to find patterns of (...) argumentation. The results of our quantitative, corpus-based study suggest that deductive arguments are significantly more common than abductive arguments and inductive arguments in philosophical texts overall, but they are gradually and steadily giving way to non-deductive (i.e. inductive and abductive) arguments in academic philosophy. (shrink)

This paper develops a natural-language agent-based model of argumentation (ABMA). Its artificial deliberative agents (ADAs) are constructed with the help of so-called neural language models recently developed in AI and computational linguistics. ADAs are equipped with a minimalist belief system and may generate and submit novel contributions to a conversation. The natural-language ABMA allows us to simulate collective deliberation in English, i.e. with arguments, reasons, and claims themselves — rather than with their mathematical representations (as in symbolic models). This paper (...) uses the natural-language ABMA to test the robustness of symbolic reason-balancing models of argumentation (Mäs & Flache 2013; Singer et al. 2019): First of all, as long as ADAs remain passive, confirmation bias and homophily updating trigger polarization, which is consistent with results from symbolic models. However, once ADAs start to actively generate new contributions, the evolution of a conversation is dominated by properties of the agents as authors. This suggests that the creation of new arguments, reasons, and claims critically affects a conversation and is of pivotal importance for understanding the dynamics of collective deliberation. The paper closes by pointing out further fruitful applications of the model and challenges for future research. (shrink)

Interactive theorem provers might seem particularly impractical in the history of philosophy. Journal articles in this discipline are generally not formalized. Interactive theorem provers involve a learning curve for which the payoffs might seem minimal. In this article I argue that interactive theorem provers have already demonstrated their potential as a useful tool for historians of philosophy; I do this by highlighting examples of work where this has already been done. Further, I argue that interactive theorem provers can continue to (...) be useful tools for historians of philosophy in the future; this claim is defended through a more conceptual analysis of what historians of philosophy do that identifies argument reconstruction as a core activity of such practitioners. It is then shown that interactive theorem provers can assist in this core practice by a description of what interactive theorem provers are and can do. If this is right, then computer verification for historians of philosophy is in the offing. (shrink)

With the powerful analyses and resources they enable, digital humanities tools have captivated researchers from many different fields who want to use them to study science. Digital tools, as well as funding agencies, research communities, and academic administrators, require researchers to think carefully about how they conceptualize, manage, and store data, and about what they plan to do with that data once a given project is over. The difficulties of developing strategies to address these problems can prevent new researchers from (...) sticking with digital tools and flummox even experienced researchers. To help overcome the data hurdle, we present five principles to help researchers, novice and experienced alike, conceptualize and plan for their data. We illustrate the use of those principles with two digital projects from the history of science, the Embryo Project and the Marine Biological Laboratory History Project, and their associated HPS Repository for data. The principles apply beyond the digital realm, so those who collect and manage data by more traditional means will also find them useful. (shrink)

Sallie McFague’s theological models construct a tensive relationship between conceptual structures and symbolic, metaphorical language to interpret the defining and elusive aspects of theological phenomena and loci. Computational models of language can extend and formalize the conceptual structures of theological models to develop computer-augmented interpretations of theological texts. Previously unclear is whether computational models can retain the tensive symbolism essential for theological investigation. I demonstrate affirmatively by constructing a computational topic model of the moral theology of Thomas Aquinas from Summa (...) Theologica (Second Part, in English translation) useful for interpreting not only the Thomistic text but also recent papal encyclicals. (shrink)

The term scientism is used in several ways. It is used to denote an epistemological thesis according to which science is the source of our knowledge about the world and ourselves. Relatedly, it is used to denote a methodological thesis according to which the methods of science are superior to the methods of non-scientific fields or areas of inquiry, or even used to put forward a metaphysical thesis that what exists is what science says exists. In recent decades, the term (...) scientism has acquired a derogatory meaning when it is used in defense of non-scientific ways of knowing. In particular, some philosophers level the charge of “scientism” against those (mostly scientists) who are dismissive of philosophy. Other philosophers, however, embrace scientism, or some variant thereof, and object to the pejorative use of the term scientism. This book critically examines the arguments for and against scientism of various kinds to answer the central question: does scientism pose an existential threat to philosophy, or should philosophy become more scientific? (shrink)

It is a common view among philosophers of science that theoretical virtues (also known as epistemic or cognitive values), such as simplicity and consistency, play an important role in scientific practice. In this article, I set out to study the role that theoretical virtues play in scientific practice empirically. I apply the methods of data science, such as text mining and corpus analysis, to study large corpora of scientific texts in order to uncover patterns of usage. These patterns of usage, (...) in turn, might shed some light on the role that theoretical virtues play in scientific practice. Overall, the results of this empirical study suggest that scientists invoke theoretical virtues explicitly, albeit rather infrequently, when they talk about models (less than 30%), theories (less than 20%), and hypotheses (less than 15%) in their published works. To the extent that they are mentioned in scientific publications, the results of this study suggest that accuracy, consistency, and simplicity are the theoretical virtues that scientists invoke more frequently than the other theoretical virtues tested in this study. Interestingly, however, depending on whether they talk about hypotheses, theories, or models, scientists may invoke one of those theoretical virtues more than the others. (shrink)

In this paper, we set out to investigate the following question: if science relies heavily on induction, does philosophy of science rely heavily on induction as well? Using data mining and text analysis methods, we study a large corpus of philosophical texts mined from the JSTOR database (n = 14,199) in order to answer this question empirically. If philosophy of science relies heavily on induction, just as science supposedly does, then we would expect to find significantly more inductive arguments than (...) deductive arguments and abductive arguments in the published works of philosophers of science. Using indicator words to classify arguments by type (namely, deductive, inductive, and abductive arguments), we search through our corpus to find patterns of argumentation. Overall, the results of our study suggest that philosophers of science do rely on inductive inference. But induction may not be as foundational to philosophy of science as it is thought to be for science, given that philosophers of science make significantly more deductive arguments than inductive arguments. Interestingly, our results also suggest that philosophers of science do not rely on abductive arguments all that much, even though philosophers of science consider abduction to be a cornerstone of scientific methodology. (shrink)

While the empirical evidence pointing to a gender gap in professional, academic philosophy in the English-speaking world is widely accepted, explanations of this gap are less so. In this paper, we aim to make a modest contribution to the literature on the gender gap in academic philosophy by taking a quantitative, corpus-based empirical approach. Since some philosophers have suggested that it may be the argumentative, “logic-chopping,” and “paradox-mongering” nature of academic philosophy that explains the underrepresentation of women in the discipline, (...) our research questions are the following: Do men and women philosophers make different types of arguments in their published works? If so, which ones and with what frequency? Using data mining and text analysis methods, we study a large corpus of philosophical texts mined from the JSTOR database in order to answer these questions empirically. Using indicator words to classify arguments by type, we search through our corpus to find patterns of argumentation. Overall, the results of our empirical study suggest that women philosophers make deductive, inductive, and abductive arguments in their published works just as much as male philosophers do, with no statistically significant differences in the proportions of those arguments relative to each philosopher’s body of work. (shrink)

This paper argues that to negate the ontological difference between the natural and the artificial, is not plausible; nor is the reduction of the natural to the artificial or vice versa possible. Except if one intends to empty the semantic content of the terms and notions: “natural” and “artificial.” Most philosophical discussions on Artificial Intelligence (AI) have always been in relation to the human person, especially as it relates to human intelligence, consciousness and/or mind in general. This paper, intends to (...) broaden the conversation, by discussing AI in relation to the notions of “nature” and the “artificial.” This intention is to more critically understand the artificiality in and of artificial intelligence. To achieve this, the notion of “nature” in Aristotle’s Philosophy of Nature, has been employed as an epistemological tool in interrogating the notion of the artificial and the objectives of the science and technology of Artificial Intelligence. (shrink)

-/- For all that digital methods—including network visualization, text analysis, and others—have begun to show extensive promise in philosophical contexts, a tension remains between two uses of those tools that have often been taken to be incompatible, or at least to engage in a kind of trade-off: the discovery of new hypotheses and the testing of already-formulated positions. This paper presents this basic distinction, then explores ways to resolve this tension with the help of two interdisciplinary case studies, taken from (...) preregistration in contemporary science and the debate over whig history in the history of science. These case studies, the paper argues, refocus our attention from a mutually exclusive testing/discovery binary to the relationship between our background data or philosophical views and the empirical generalizations that we might draw from the data. Finally, it develops a set of three challenges for philosophers and corresponding avenues for future work that will, it is hoped, allow us to better justify our use of these methods. (shrink)

(Editorial introduction to a special issue of Synthese.).

According to the diversity-beats-ability theorem, groups of diverse problem solvers can outperform groups of high-ability problem solvers (Hong and Page 2004). This striking claim about the power of cognitive diversity is highly influential within and outside academia, from democratic theory to management of teams in professional organizations. Our replication and analysis of the models used by Hong and Page suggests, however, that both the binary string model and its one-dimensional variant are inadequate for exploring the trade-off between cognitive diversity and (...) ability. Diversity may sometimes beat ability, but the models fail to provide reliable evidence of if and when it does so. We suggest ways in which these important model templates can be improved. (shrink)

When people combine concepts these are often characterised as “hybrid”, “impossible”, or “humorous”. However, when simply considering them in terms of extensional logic, the novel concepts understood as a conjunctive concept will often lack meaning having an empty extension (consider “a tooth that is a chair”, “a pet flower”, etc.). Still, people use different strategies to produce new non-empty concepts: additive or integrative combination of features, alignment of features, instantiation, etc. All these strategies involve the ability to deal with conflicting (...) attributes and the creation of new (combinations of) properties. We here consider in particular the case where a Head concept has superior ‘asymmetric’ control over steering the resulting concept combination (or hybridisation) with a Modifier concept. Specifically, we propose a dialogical approach to concept combination and discuss an implementation based on axiom weakening, which models the cognitive and logical mechanics of this asymmetric form of hybridisation. (shrink)

This article created to address the current state of affairs, which has resulted in an insufficient progress and innovation system. The purpose of this overview article is to increase educate society's knowledge of how to use modern and innovative technologies based on need, cultural aspects, social context, and state context. As a result, I used secondary sources to assist readers understand how state actors and policies might best respond to society's aspirations to use and communicate through technology and information, as (...) well as innovation, in a fair and equitable approach. It might be either positive or negative. Modernization and innovation can primarily noticed constructively. It means that before bringing forward and totally researching [technology], we must analyse what we need, how we treat it, and why we use it. (shrink)

We argue that the appraisal of models in social epistemology requires conceiving of them as argumentative devices, taking into account the argumentative context and adopting a family-of-models perspective. We draw up such an account and show how it makes it easier to see the value and limits of the use of models in social epistemology. To illustrate our points, we document and explicate the argumentative role of epistemic landscape models in social epistemology and highlight their limitations. We also claim that (...) our account could be fruitfully used in appraising other models in philosophy and science. (shrink)

Symmetry in biological and physical systems is a product of self-organization driven by evolutionary processes, or mechanical systems under constraints. Symmetry-based feature extraction or representation by neural networks may unravel the most informative contents in large image databases. Despite significant achievements of artificial intelligence in recognition and classification of regular patterns, the problem of uncertainty remains a major challenge in ambiguous data. In this study, we present an artificial neural network that detects symmetry uncertainty states in human observers. To this (...) end, we exploit a neural network metric in the output of a biologically inspired Self- Organizing Map Quantization Error (SOM-QE). Shape pairs with perfect geometry mirror symmetry but a non-homogenous appearance, caused by local variations in hue, saturation, or lightness within and/or across the shapes in a given pair produce, as shown here, a longer choice response time (RT) for “yes” responses relative to symmetry. These data are consistently mirrored by the variations in the SOM-QE from unsupervised neural network analysis of the same stimulus images. The neural network metric is thus capable of detecting and scaling human symmetry uncertainty in response to patterns. Such capacity is tightly linked to the metric’s proven selectivity to local contrast and color variations in large and highly complex image data. (shrink)