The Virtues of Pursuit-Worthy Speculation: The Promises of Cosmic Inflation

The paper investigates the historical and contemporary pursuit-worthiness of cosmic inflation-the rationale for working on it (rather than necessarily the evidential support for claims to its approximate truth): what reasons existed, and exist, that warrant inflation's status as the mainstream paradigm studied, explored, and further developed by the majority of the cosmology community? We'll show that inflation exemplifies various salient theory virtues: explanatory depth, unifying/integrative power, fertility and positive heuristics, the promotion of understanding, and the prospect (and passing) of novel benchmark tests. This, we'll argue, constitutes inflation's auspicious promise. It marks inflation as preferable over both the inflation-less Hot Big Bang Model, as well as rivals to inflation: inflation, we maintain, rightly deserved, and continues to deserve, the concerted research efforts it has enjoyed.Comment: Forthcoming in British Journal for the Philosophy of Scienc

The Virtues of Pursuit-Worthy Speculation: The Promises of Cosmic Inflation

The paper investigates the historical and contemporary pursuit-worthiness of cosmic inflation-the rationale for working on it (rather than necessarily the evidential support for claims to its approximate truth): what reasons existed, and exist, that warrant inflation's status as the mainstream paradigm studied, explored, and further developed by the majority of the cosmology community? We'll show that inflation exemplifies various salient theory virtues: explanatory depth, unifying/integrative power, fertility and positive heuristics, the promotion of understanding, and the prospect (and passing) of novel benchmark tests. This, we'll argue, constitutes inflation's auspicious promise. It marks inflation as preferable over both the inflation-less Hot Big Bang Model, as well as rivals to inflation: inflation, we maintain, rightly deserved, and continues to deserve, the concerted research efforts it has enjoyed

The Virtues of Pursuit-Worthy Speculation: The Promises of Cosmic Inflation

The paper investigates the historical and contemporary pursuit-worthiness of cosmic inflation-the rationale for working on it (rather than necessarily the evidential support for claims to its approximate truth): what reasons existed, and exist, that warrant inflation's status as the mainstream paradigm studied, explored, and further developed by the majority of the cosmology community? We'll show that inflation exemplifies various salient theory virtues: explanatory depth, unifying/integrative power, fertility and positive heuristics, the promotion of understanding, and the prospect (and passing) of novel benchmark tests. This, we'll argue, constitutes inflation's auspicious promise. It marks inflation as preferable over both the inflation-less Hot Big Bang Model, as well as rivals to inflation: inflation, we maintain, rightly deserved, and continues to deserve, the concerted research efforts it has enjoyed

THE UNIVERSAL EVOLUTION AND THE ORIGIN OF LIFE

The origin of life occupies a very important place in the study of the evolution. Its liminal location between life and non-life poses special challenges to researchers who study this subject. Current approaches in studying the origin and evolution of early life are reductive: they either reduce the domain of non-life to the domain of life or vice versa. This contribution seeks to provide a perspective that would avoid reductionism of any kind. Its goal is to outline a frame that would include both domains and their respective evolutions as its particular cases. The study examines the main theoretical perspectives on the origin and evolution of early life and provides a constructive critique of these perspectives. An objective view requires viewing an object or a phenomenon from all available points of view. The goal of this contribution is not to prove the current perspectives wrong and to deny their achievements. It seeks to provide an angle that would be sufficiently wide and would allow synthesizing current perspectives for a comprehensive and objective interpretation of the origin and evolution of early life. In other words, it seeks to outline a frame for an objective view that will help understand life’s place within the universe

The Idea of Man

The Idea of Man' presents a new ontology, or idea of human being, by developing the logic that naturally flows from that which is original, necessary, inherent and essential to this being - upright posture. The verticality of man, simply and mutely constituted by his innate 'uprightness', is taken as the ontological key to understanding the idea of man, the world of language and the very possibility of Being itself. In this, the book conceives in unison both an Ontological Anthropology and an Anthropological Ontology

Respectable Holidays: The Archaeology of Capitalism and Identities at the Crosbyside Hotel (c. 1870-1902) and Wiawaka Holiday House (mid-1910s-1929), Lake George, New York

The nineteenth century industrialization of America, the development of the middle class, anxiety about social belonging, and industrial capitalism are deeply intertwined. As America industrialized, people moved from rural communities, where people were known and support systems ran deep, to the cities to find work. Managers, who acted as proxies for owners, became so prevalent that they formed a new class. Middle class identity, rooted in a particular performance of respectability, whiteness, gender, distinguished its members from untrustworthy capitalist business owners and from the rough lives of the working classes. Middle class values became synonymous with American values. This essentialization of middle class respectability is a manifestation of capitalist ideology wielded to create new markets under consumer capitalism. Archaeological excavations at Wiawaka on Lake George, New York provided a material window on these processes. From 1857 to 1902, the Crosbyside Hotel served as a middle-class, mixed gender resort on the grounds of what is now Wiawaka. Vacationers performed middle class respectability and belonging while enjoying the benefits of nature. In 1903, Wiawaka moved in to the former Crosbyside, a single-gender, mixed-class moral reform vacation house for respectable working women and their middle-class benefactors. These women also performed middle class respectability and belonging while enjoying the benefits of nature. In both cases, people worked to make these vacations possible. This dissertation is one of a very few archaeological investigations of late nineteenth century hotels, and the first to examine women’s holiday houses. Using Third Space and performativity, artifacts from the Crosbyside and from the mid-1910s to 1929 associated with Wiawaka were used to explore interrelated facets of identity including gender, class, race, and respectability. Differences between how people negotiated identity in the era of industrial capitalism (Crosbyside) and consumer capitalism (Wiawaka) were identified, as were the ways that identities were shaped and confined by capitalism through powerful ideas of respectability. Also identified were material examples of the labor of leisure – of those who did the work that made vacations possible. Artifacts recovered make clear that it is, indeed, possible to see the labor of leisure in the archaeological record

Dreams and Nightmares in First Nations Fiction

The dissertation describes an Indigenous dream framework that underscores the significance of dreams as a mirror of trauma and a way that leads back to Indigenous knowledges. Significant differences of Western and Indigenous epistemology are exemplified by juxtaposing Western and Indigenous dream discourses. The selected prose fiction allows for a dream categorization that emphasizes the significance and meaning of dreams as a metaphorical as well as narrative device. Nightmares/Anxiety dreams are often the result of the devastating effects of colonization and especially Residential School. Nightmares in the texts are often exact replicas of the abuse suffered in the boarding schools. They are discussed in the context of Robert Arthur Alexie’s novel Porcupines and China Dolls (2001/2009) represents dreams and traumatic nightmares and deals with the fictional Blue People First Nation. The community’s collective intergenerational trauma of Residential School experience keeps them stuck in dysfunctional dynamics dominated by suicides, sexual and physical abuse, drug and sex addictions. Telling dreams, categorized as “instructing dreams,” and “announcing dreams,” teach the dreamer what will happen in the future. They are discussed in the context of Richard Van Camp’s short stories “On the Wings of this Prayer” and “The Fleshing” (Godless but Loyal to Heaven, 2012), which represent the category of the ecological nightmare as well as of telling dreams. Ecological nightmares display environmentally destructive effects of capitalist globalization that have come to “infect” the world. The Windigo figure in the stories serves as a manifestation of resource and in particular petro-capitalism and Western society’s constant need to subjugate nature. Ecological dreams hence call for ecological vigilance and establish Indigenous knowledges as a source of resurgence and restoration. Existential dreams function as decolonizing tools that facilitate liberation. The thesis provides a literary analysis of Richard Wagamese’ novel Ragged Company (2008) and Cherie Dimaline’s short story “room 414” (Red Rooms, 2007) where homelessness is postulated as the manifestation of individual and tribal/communal disjointedness and isolation. Through existential dreaming, the urban lives of most of the characters dwelling in the shadows and margins of society are existentially transformed and healing seems possible. Paternalistic colonial mindsets continue to patronize Indigenous knowledges (as unreliable and unscientific) until Western “discoveries” prove what has been known for decades. The thesis underscores dreams as an essential part of Indigenous Knowledges, i.e. as knowledge sources. Surmounting Western dream perceptions and instead valorizing Indigenous knowledges, the characters in the texts discussed in my thesis, unremittingly follow their dreams’ instruction and eventually achieve reconciliation and healing. In the fictional texts discussed, nightmares represent homelessness, trauma, stagnation, and a disconnection to one’s (Native) background, whereas dreams represent continuity through the restoration of identity, finding home, and a sense of belonging. The notion of a dream reality and a waking reality influencing and informing each other relies on sharing dreams with the community, eventually leading to an enactment of the dream or vision. Dreaming and identity are significantly linked and foster processes of intellectual self-determination. The characters’ inability to externalize their internal wishes, desires, and needs results in further denial and consequential bitterness that feed into the spiral of alcohol and drug abuse as well as metaphorical and literal homelessness. The dreams’ semantic field strongly alludes to ceremonial traditions and provides the prospect of a rooted Indigeneity. At the turning points in the lives of the characters, when dreams and visions start to appear, they are lost in translation. The characters’ own illiteracy towards Native epistemology and spirituality has them trapped in the inability to read and act on their dream messages. Strong (often female) Indigenous presences that go hand in hand with the appearance of dreams provide the protagonists with guidance and lead the way back to the “Old Ways.” Through dreaming, the spiral of colonialism is disrupted and replaced by the circle of reconciliation and relationality.Die Dissertation beschreibt einen Rahmen indigener Traumkonzeptionen, der die Bedeutung von Träumen als Spiegel des Traumas unterstreicht und einen Weg aufzeigt, der auf indigenes Wissen zurückführt. Signifikante Unterschiede zwischen westlicher und indigener Epistemologie werden durch die Gegenüberstellung westlicher und indigener Traumdiskurse verdeutlicht. Die ausgewählten Prosawerke ermöglichen eine Traumkategorisierung, welche die Bedeutung von Träumen als metaphorisches sowie narratives Mittel betont. Albträume/Angstträume sind dabei oft Resultat der verheerenden Auswirkungen der Kolonisation und der Residential Schools. Robert Arthur Alexie’s Roman Porcupines and China Dolls (2001/2009) repräsentiert Träume sowie traumatische Albträume und handelt von der fiktiven Blue People First Nation. Das kollektive intergenerationelle Trauma der „community“ hält sie in einer dysfunktionalen Dynamik gefangen, die von Selbstmorden, sexuellem und körperlichem Missbrauch, Drogen- und Sexsucht dominiert wird. Die Kategorie der „telling dreams“ und ihre Unterkategorien der „instructing dreams“ und „announcing dreams“ lehren den Träumer, was in der Zukunft geschehen wird. Richard Van Camp’s Kurzgeschichten “On the Wings of this Prayer” und “The Fleshing” (Godless but Loyal to Heaven, 2012) repräsentieren die Kategorie des „ecological nightmares“ sowie des „telling dreams.“ „Ecological nightmares“ zeigen ökologisch destruktive Auswirkungen der kapitalistischen Globalisierung, die die Welt "infizieren". Die Windigo-Figur in den Geschichten dient als Manifestation der Ressourcenerschöpfung, insbesondere des Petrokapitalismus’ und des ständigen Bedürfnisses der westlichen Gesellschaft, die Natur zu unterwerfen. „Ecological dreams“ rufen daher zu ökologischer Wachsamkeit auf und etablieren indigenes Wissen als Quelle des indigenen Wiederauflebens und der Wiederherstellung indigener Episteme. „Existential dreams“ fungieren als dekolonisierende Werkzeuge, die zu einer Befreiung von kolonial gestützter Systeme und Strukturen führen. Die Dissertation liefert eine literarische Analyse von Richard Wagamese’ Roman Ragged Company (2008) und Cherie Dimaline’s Kurzgeschichte "room 414" (Red Rooms, 2007), in denen Obdachlosigkeit als Manifestation individueller und „tribal“/kommunaler Zerrissenheit und Isolation postuliert wird. Durch „existential dreaming“ wird das urbane Leben der meisten Charaktere, die im Schatten und am Rande der Gesellschaft leben, existentiell transformiert und Heilung scheint erstmals möglich. Paternalistische koloniale Denkweisen marginalisieren weiterhin indigenes Wissen (als unzuverlässig und unwissenschaftlich), bis westliche "Entdeckungen" beweisen, was seit Jahrzehnten bekannt ist. Die Dissertation unterstreicht Träume als wesentlichen Bestandteil indigenen Wissens, d.h. als Wissensquellen. Die Charaktere in den Texten folgen unablässig den Anweisungen ihrer Träume und erreichen schließlich Versöhnung und Heilung. In den diskutierten fiktionalen Texten stehen Alpträume für Obdachlosigkeit, Trauma, Stagnation und die Isolation von einem indigenen Hintergrund, während Träume für Kontinuität durch die Wiederherstellung von Identität, Heimatfindung und Zugehörigkeitsgefühl stehen. Die Vorstellung von einer Traumrealität und einer „Wachrealität,“ die sich gegenseitig beeinflussen und informieren, beruht darauf, Träume mit der Gemeinschaft/„community“ zu teilen, was letztendlich zu einer Verwirklichung des Traums oder der Vision führt. Träume und Identität sind signifikant miteinander verknüpft und fördern Prozesse der intellektuellen Selbstbestimmung. Die Unfähigkeit der Protagonisten, ihre inneren Wünsche und Bedürfnisse zu externalisieren, führt zu weiterer Verdrängung und daraus resultierender Bitterkeit, die sich in die Spirale von Alkohol- und Drogenmissbrauch sowie metaphorischer und buchstäblicher Obdachlosigkeit einfügt. Das semantische Feld der Träume spielt stark auf zeremonielle Traditionen an und bietet die Aussicht auf eine verwurzelte Indigenität. An den Wendepunkten im Leben der Charaktere, wenn zeitgleich Träume und Visionen auftauchen, gehen diese oft in der Übersetzung westlicher und indigener Epistemologien verloren. Das Unwissen der Charaktere über indigene Epistemologien und Spiritualität hält sie in der Unfähigkeit gefangen, ihre Traumbotschaften zu lesen und umzusetzen. Starke (oft weibliche) indigene Charaktere, die mit dem Erscheinen von Träumen einhergehen, geben den Protagonisten Orientierung und weisen den Weg zurück zu den „Old Ways“. Durch das Träumen wird die Spirale des Kolonialismus durchbrochen und durch den Kreis der Versöhnung und der Relationalität ersetzt

Obiter Dicta

"Stitched together over five years of journaling, Obiter Dicta is a commonplace book of freewheeling explorations representing the transcription of a dozen notebooks, since painstakingly reimagined for publication. Organized after Theodor Adorno’s Minima Moralia, this unschooled exercise in aesthetic thought—gleefully dilettantish, oftentimes dangerously close to the epigrammatic—interrogates an array of subject matter (although inescapably circling back to the curiously resemblant histories of Western visual art and instrumental music) through the lens of drive-by speculation. Erick Verran’s approach to philosophical inquiry follows the brute-force literary technique of Jacques Derrida to exhaustively favor the material grammar of a signifier over hand-me-down meaning, juxtaposing outer semblances with their buried systems and our etched-in-stone intuitions about color and illusion, shape and value, with lessons stolen from seemingly unrelatable disciplines. Interlarded with extracts of Ludwig Wittgenstein but also Wallace Stevens, Cormac McCarthy as well as Roland Barthes, this cache of incidental remarks eschews what’s granular for the biggest picture available, leaving below the hyper-specialized fields of academia for a bird’s-eye view of their crop circles. Obiter Dicta is an unapologetic experiment in intellectual dot-connecting that challenges much long-standing wisdom about everything from illuminated manuscripts to Minecraft and the evolution of European music with lyrical brevity; that is, before jumping to the next topic.

‘Stories, senses and the charismatic relation’: a reflexive exploration of Christian experience

This thesis considers the world of Christian faith, as expressed by a particular social group of which I have been a part since 1998, as an alternative knowledge system. Focusing upon the lives of a number of key agents, including myself, I argue that at the heart of this knowledge system is a charismatic relationship, in the Weberian sense, with a divine Other. This relationship is freely entered into, is conceived as involving movement into or towards an embodied experiential and relational knowledge of God, and is often expressed by participants through such metaphors as a ‘journey’, ‘adventure’ or ‘quest’. My original contribution to knowledge is in taking a sociological concept, Weber’s notion of the charismatic relation, and innovatively applying this framework to the relation between humans and a transcendent or disembodied ‘Other’. My work responds to a) recent ‘ontological’ challenges within anthropology to ‘take seriously’ other worlds, b) invitations to those with strong religious convictions to practise anthropology without feeling that they need to lose those convictions, and c) recent debates within the anthropology of Christianity concerning how to deal with the agential characteristics of non-human/spiritual beings within ethnographic work. Through a reflexive exploration of experience, I examine how certain Christian people constitute their lives, observing how charismatic devotion to a divine Other implies both a sensorium that extends beyond the corporeal senses, as well as the ‘planting’ of various conceptual seeds that, by providing concrete metaphors of what life is, shape the lives of those willing to ‘receive’ them. As social actors seek to maintain ‘openness’ to this divine Other, a transformational journey results, in which human perception and conception are continually open to renewal. As a reflexive ethnographic account from within such an alternative knowledge system, this thesis makes an original contribution to phenomenological and sensory studies, as well as contributing to anthropological work on Christianity

Materiality and making in experiential ecologies

PhD Thesi