Could There Be A Science of Consciousness?

Could there be exactly two things?

Many philosophers think that, necessarily, any material objects have a fusion (let’s call that doctrine “Universalism”). In this paper I point out a couple of strange consequences of Universalism and related doctrines, and suggest that they are strange enough to constitute a powerful argument against those views. By “thing” I mean material thing. We all believe that there actually are many more...

Could There Be a Hole in Type Ia Supernovae?

In the favored progenitor scenario, Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) arise from a white dwarf accreting material from a non-degenerate companion star. Soon after the white dwarf explodes, the ejected supernova material engulfs the companion star; two-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations by Marietta et al. (2000) show that, in the interaction, the companion star carves out a conical hole of opening...

Can there be science without philosophy?

Over the last few decades, philosophy has gained an increasingly bad reputation among working scientists. Prominent researchers have suggested, in various forms and degrees of mockery, that philosophy has little or nothing positive to contribute to science. This essay provides a response to these allegations. We begin by examining, and ultimately questioning, an influential argument purporting ...

Can there be a science of complex systems?

At the outset of my remarks, I must apologize for appearing before you in this insubstantial form. We should expect that one important chapter in a theory of complexity, perhaps more than one chapter, will be devoted to describing the ways in which we may avoid complexity. Now the chief complexity in travel lies in the journey to and from the airport—threading your way through streets, highways...

Just lip prints? No: there could be something else.