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Philosophia naturalis

Archiv für Naturphilosophie und die philosophischen Grenzgebiete der exakten Wissenschaften und Wissenschaftsgeschichte

Herausgegeben von Bernulf Kanitscheider, Bernd-Olaf Küppers, C. Ulises Moulines und Erhard Scheibe

Band 38 (2001). IV, 320  Seiten. € 94.-
Studentenabonnement € 49.-

Aus dem Inhalt von Heft 1

Evandro Agazzi: Philosopy of Nature and Natural Science

Philosophy of Nature is often conceived nowadays as an aged and archaic domain that, at most, can be the object of some historical investigations aiming at knowing what certain thinkers of the past ages have written under such a denomination (and expecting to find a lot of gratuitous and fantastic claims, perhaps mixed up with a few scattered clever remarks). In brief, philosophy of Nature would be something like an out-of-date <genre>, irremediably died out like the chivalric poems in literature: it belongs to the past and, even so, it constitutes one of the must caducous expressions of the past. The reason for this widespread opinion is that philosophy of Nature has been affected in the most direct and traumatic way by the glorious development of modern science, and of its efforts of distinguishing itself from (and even opposing itself to) philosophy in general.

Andreas Bartels: Incommensurability and its Roots in Nature

Some philosophers engaged in the incommensurability debate, most prominently Nancy Nersessian, have focused on showing that incommensurability does not affect our idea of scientific rationality. This is argued to be the case even if radically different ontologies proposed by ‚incommensurable‘ theories are involved. The reason given is that incommensurability of results is compatible with rationality of the cognitive process that has produced the results. According to Nersessian, not that the results of scientific research are systematically related and thereby made ‚commensurable‘ characterizes scientific rationality, but that the thought process producing these results can be analysed in terms of well-accepted and traceable problem solving strategies.

Johannes Reich: Über Struktur oder das Verhältnis der Teile zum Ganzen

This article is a contribution to a better understanding of the properties of complex systems in the framework of Naturalism. It is an exemplary description of the meaning of the fundamental notions of existence and structure and of the tightly related notion of newness.

A unified notion of the existence of all things in the world - material as well as immaterial - builds the foundation of the proposed naturalism. The main criterion to qualify the existence of a thing in this context is to deny its existence if no physically measurable (i.e. material) correlate could be imagined. The immaterial is found in the structure of things, which exist in a complementary way to matter: all matter exists only structured and all structure exists only in some way attached to matter. A complementary understanding of the meaning of structure and matter is the key to escape Descartes' cul-de-sac, to divide the world into the two separate realms of material and immaterial things.

The remarkable contents of the notion of structure are firstly its freedom from any conservation law: it can arise and go by with almost no restriction. Secondly the notion of structure comprises the relationship between the whole and its parts. I.e. the property of several things to show a structure always defines a whole. To perceive a whole is identical with perceiving (at least part of) its structure.

The relationship between the properties of the whole and its parts is investigated. Several examples are given to show how new, afore unknown properties of a part can emerge if it is put into a new context. The question whether all properties of a whole can be deduced from the properties of its parts and its structure is shown to be undecidable, i.e it can neither be proofed nor disproofed. Pragmatically I recommend a positive answer because a more skeptical view would result in tremendous limitations as is the case with intuitionism in mathematics. It is further shown that properties of wholes do not appear by any mysterious 'emergent' forces from the properties of its parts but that it is a fundamental property of wholeness that the properties of the whole and its parts are hierarchically related.

The notion of newness is reduced to the notion of the unpredictable. Something new arises always when something unpredictable happens. It is shown that the theory of information is based on the concept of quantitative newness. This is accomplished by a preceeding agreement of a transmitter and a receiver of signals on a predefined, countable and formal decidable alphabet. If the conditions of the information theory are not met something qualitatively new will arise. It is therefore obvious that in our world new things permanently arise and disappear once and for all.

Werner Csech: "Bedingungen der Möglichkeit" einer Transzendentalphysik? Kritische Reflexionen zum Begründungsansatz Carl Friedrich von Weizsäckers

Man wird aus den Fachkreisen der Wissenschaftsgeschichte keinen nennenswerten Widerspruch ernten, wenn man behauptet, daß mit dem 20. Jahrhundert die Zeit der Universalgelehrten endgültig zu Ende gegangen ist. Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker (geb. am 28.06.1912) ist einer der wenigen zeitgenössischen Wissenschaftler, die noch ein umfassendes und fundiertes Wissen auf verschiedenen Gebieten der Wissenschaft und Kultur besitzen. Eine besondere Kostbarkeit besteht darin, daß von Weizsäcker die Kenntnisse des gelernten Physikers und Philosophen in Personalunion vereinigt.

Alfred Gierer: Ibn Khaldun on Solidarity ("Asabiyah") - Modern Science on Cooperativeness and Empathy: a Comparison

Understanding cooperative human behaviour depends on insights into the biological basis of human altruism, as well as into socio-cultural development. In terms of evolutionary theory, kinship and reciprocity are well established as underlying cooperativeness. Reasons will be given suggesting an additional source, the capability of a cognition-based empathy that may have evolved as a by-product of strategic thought. An assessment of the range, the intrinsic limitations, and the conditions for activation of human cooperativeness would profit from a systems approach combining biological and socio-cultural aspects. However, this is not yet the prevailing attitude among contemporary social and biological scientists who often hold prejudiced views of each other’s notions. It is therefore worth noticing that the desirable integration of aspects has already been attempted, in remarkable and encouraging ways, in the history of thought on human nature. I will exemplify this with the ideas of the fourteenth century Arab-Muslim historian Ibn Khaldun. He set out to explicate human cooperativeness – "asabiyah" – as having a biological basis in common descent, but being extendable far beyond within social systems, though in a relatively unstable and attenuated fashion. He combined psychological and material factors in a dynamical theory of the rise and decline of political rulership, and related general social phenomena to basic features of human behaviour influenced by kinship, expectation of reciprocity, and empathic emotions.

Joachim Schummer: Aristotle on Technology and Nature

Due to the rapid development and ubiquitous impact of modern technology, many people feel that nature is in danger of becoming extinct. From the 13th century until today, philosophers and theologians have been seeking advice from Aristotle to define both nature and technology in a way that the former restricts the latter. In this paper, I reconsider three corresponding theses usually attributed to Aristotle. 1) Technology imitates nature, such that there is no place for authentic human creativity. 2) Technology in supplementing and completing nature fulfils but the inherent aims of nature. 3) There is an ontological hiatus between natural things and artifacts such that technology cannot reproduce or change natural things. I argue that 3) is inconsistent with 1) and 2) and that Aristotle’s writings support none of the three theses in general. Instead, his proper concept of technology places little restrictions on technological innovation. While the putative ontological hiatus has been most influential in the history of chemistry/alchemy, Aristotle himself rather holds a relative distinction that he levels out just in the realm of chemistry. Moreover, the case of genetic engineering shows that current problems are beyond the scope of Aristotelian theory. Rather than presenting solutions, I argue that claiming Aristotle’s authority to support criticism of modern technology does justice neither to Aristotle nor to the complexity of today’s problems.

Krzysztof Wójtowicz: Die "Reverse Mathematics" und ihre philosophische Relevanz

Fast die ganze Mathematik kann im Rahmen der Mengenlehre (z.B. von Zermelo-Fraenkel) interpretiert werden. Mathematische Begriffe wie: natürliche, ganze, rationale, reelle Zahlen, reellwertige Funktionen, topologische Räume, Banachräume, usw. lassen sich als bestimmte Mengen definieren.

Der Begriff, auf dem die Mengenlehre im wesentlichen aufgebaut ist, ist die Unendlichkeit. Die infinitären Methoden sind in der modernen Mathematik unentbehrlich – sie verleihen der Mathematik ihre Stärke. Andererseits kann man nicht behaupten, daß der Gebrauch dieser Methoden intuitiv gut fundiert wäre. Wir haben keinen direkten epistemischen Zugang zu den unendlichen Objekten, deswegen können wir auch nicht behaupten, daß wir über eine Einsicht in die "unendliche Welt" verfügen. Daher bedarf die Mathematik – wenn sie auf so einem derart vagen Begriff aufgebaut wird – einer Rechtfertigung.

Das ist (grob gesagt) der Ausgangspunkt des Hilbertschen Programms.