The Search for a Naturalistic World View: Volume 2

This two-volume collection of Abner Shimony's essays written over a period of forty years explores the interrelations between science and philosophy.

Abner Shimony (Author)

9780521373531, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 26 February 1993

352 pages
23.6 x 15.5 x 2.7 cm, 0.648 kg

"There is so much to be learned and savored in these two volumes that my goal here has not been to 'summarize' Abner Shimony's Oeuvres, but to entice the reader into perusing this collection of masterfully written essays." American Journal of Physics

Abner Shimony an eminent philosopher of science, whose work has exerted a profound influence in both the philosophy and physics communities. This two-volume collection of his essays written over a period of forty years explores the interrelations between science and philosophy. Shimony regards the knowing subject as an entity in nature whose faculties must be studied from the points of view of evolutionary biology and empirical psychology. He maintains that the twentieth century is one of the great ages of metaphysics, given the deep implications of quantum mechanics, relativity theory, and molecular biology. The first volume, Scientific Method and Epistemology, deals with the dialectic of subject and object, epistemic probability, induction and scientific theories, perception and conception, and fact and values. The focus of the second volume, Natural Sciences and Metaphysics, is on quantum mechanical measurement and non-locality, parts and wholes, time, and mind and matter.

Acknowledgements
Part I. Measurment in Quantum Theory: 1. Role of the observer in quantum theory
2. Approximate measurement in quantum mechanics with Mary H. Fehrs
3. Proposed neutron interferometer test of some non-linear variants of wave mechanics
4. Desiderata for modified quantum mechanics
5. Filters with infinitely many components
6. Proposed neutron interferometer observation of the sign change of a spinor due to 2? precession with Michael A. Horne
Part II. Quantum Entaglement and Nonlocality: 7. Experimental consequences of local hidden-variable theories
8. An exposition of Bell's theorem
9. Contextual hidden variables theories and Bell's inequalities
10. Controllable and uncontrollable nonlocality
11. Events and processes in the quantum world
12. An exchange on local beables: comment on Bell's theory with Michael A. Horne and John F. Clauser
13. Physical and philosophical issues of the Bohr-Einstein debate
Part III. Complex Systems: 14. The methodology of synthesis: parts and wholes in low energy physics
15. Some proposals concerning parts and wholes
16. The non-existence of a principle of natural selection: reply to Sober
Part IV. Time: 17. Towards a revision of the protophysics of time
18. The transient now
Part V. The Mental and the Physical: 19. Quantum physics and the philosophy of Whitehead
20. Reflections on the philosophy of Bohr, Heisenberg and Schrödinger
21. Wave-packet reduction as a medium of communication with Joseph Hall, Christopher Kim, and Brian MecElroy
Index.

Subject Areas: Philosophy of science [PDA], Social & political philosophy [HPS]