233 research outputs found
Beyond Kuhn: Methodological Contextualism and Partial Paradigms
Kuhnâs view of science is as follows. Science involves two key phases: normal and extraordinary. In normal science, disciplinary matrices (DMs) are large and pervasive. DMs
involve âbeliefs, values, techniques, and so on shared by the members of a given communityâ
(Kuhn 1996, 175). âAnd so onâ is regrettably vague, but Kuhn (1977, 1996) mentions three
other key elements: symbolic generalizations (such as F=dp/dt), models (such as Bohrâs
atomic model), and exemplars. These components of DMs overlap somewhat. For instance, symbolic generalizations may feature in techniques and beliefs, and models may exhibit values.
To be a (genuine) scientist, in the normal science phase, is to puzzle solve within the
boundaries of the DM. It is to buy into the ruling dogma (Kuhn 1963) and to accept that
âfailure to achieve a solution discredits only the scientist ... âIt is a poor carpenter who blames
his toolsââ (Kuhn 1996, 80). Puzzle solving involves a wide variety of activities, includin
'In Between Believing' and Degrees of Belief
Schwitzgebel (2001) â henceforth 'S' â offers three examples in order to convince us that there are situations in which individuals are neither accurately describable as believing that p or failing to so believe, but are rather in 'in-between states of belief'. He then argues that there are no 'Bayesian' or representational strategies for explicating these, and proposes a dispositional account.
I do not have any fundamental objection to the idea that there might be 'in-between states of belief'. What I shall argue, rather, is that: (I) S does not provide a convincing argument that there really are such states; (II) S does not show, as he claims, that 'in-between states of belief' could not be accounted for in terms of degrees of belief; (III) Sâs dispositional account of 'in-between states of belief' is more problematic than the 'degree of belief' alternative
Bertrand's Paradox and the Maximum Entropy Principle
An important suggestion of objective Bayesians is that the maximum entropy principle can replace a principle which is known to get into paradoxical difficulties: the principle of indifference. No one has previously determined whether the maximum entropy principle is better able to solve Bertrandâs chord paradox than the principle of indifference. In this paper I show that it is not. Additionally, the course of the analysis brings to light a new paradox, a revenge paradox of the chords, that is unique to the maximum entropy principle
Graph Neural Networks as Gradient Flows: understanding graph convolutions via energy
Gradient flows are differential equations that minimize an energy functional
and constitute the main descriptors of physical systems. We apply this
formalism to Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) to develop new frameworks for
learning on graphs as well as provide a better theoretical understanding of
existing ones. We derive GNNs as a gradient flow equation of a parametric
energy that provides a physics-inspired interpretation of GNNs as learning
particle dynamics in the feature space. In particular, we show that in graph
convolutional models (GCN), the positive/negative eigenvalues of the channel
mixing matrix correspond to attractive/repulsive forces between adjacent
features. We rigorously prove how the channel-mixing can learn to steer the
dynamics towards low or high frequencies, which allows to deal with
heterophilic graphs. We show that the same class of energies is decreasing
along a larger family of GNNs; albeit not gradient flows, they retain their
inductive bias. We experimentally evaluate an instance of the gradient flow
framework that is principled, more efficient than GCN, and achieves competitive
performance on graph datasets of varying homophily often outperforming recent
baselines specifically designed to target heterophily.Comment: First two authors equal contribution; 39 page
Does Scientific Progress Consist in Increasing Knowledge or Understanding?
Bird argues that scientific progress consists in increasing knowledge. DellsĂ©n objects that increasing knowledge is neither necessary nor sufficient for scientific progress, and argues that scientific progress rather consists in increasing understanding. DellsĂ©n also contends that unlike Birdâs view, his view can account for the scientific practices of using idealizations and of choosing simple theories over complex ones. I argue that DellsĂ©nâs criticisms against Birdâs view fail, and that increasing understanding cannot account for scientific progress, if acceptance, as opposed to belief, is required for scientific understanding
What is theoretical progress of science?
The epistemic conception of scientific progress equates progress with accumulation of scientific knowledge. I argue that the epistemic conception fails to fully capture scientific progress: theoretical progress, in particular, can transcend scientific knowledge in important ways. Sometimes theoretical progress can be a matter of new theories âlatching better onto unobservable realityâ in a way that need not be a matter of new knowledge. Recognising this further dimension of theoretical progress is particularly significant for understanding scientific realism, since realism is naturally construed as the claim that science makes theoretical progress. Some prominent realist positions (regarding fundamental physics, in particular) are best understood in terms of commitment to theoretical progress that cannot be equated with accumulation of scientific knowledge
'Word from the street' : when non-electoral representative claims meet electoral representation in the United Kingdom
Taking the specific case of street protests in the UK â the âword from the streetââ this article examines recent (re)conceptualizations of political representation, most particularly Sawardâs notion of ârepresentative claimâ. The specific example of nonelectoral claims articulated by protestors and demonstrators in the UK is used to illustrate: the processes of making, constituting, evaluating and accepting claims for and by constituencies and audiences; and the continuing distinctiveness of claims based upon electoral representation. Two basic questions structure the analysis: first, why would the political representative claims of elected representatives trump the nonelectoral claims of mass demonstrators and, second, in what ways does the âperceived legitimacyâ of the former differ from the latter
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