Intuitions and Experimental Philosophy

This thesis aims to defend the use of intuitions and intuition-based philosophy in light of the recent negative conclusions from the field of experimental philosophy. First, an account of intuitions and intuition-based philosophy will be given that is continuous with four questions from past conceptions of intuitions regarding their features and uses. The four questions are drawn from analyses of intuitions in Kant and in Aristotle (Chapter 2). The questions are concerned with whether intuition is best understood as (1) a special faculty, or a product of some faculty or capacity; (2) an immediate and noncognitive episode, or a more mediate and reflected-upon episode of understanding and competence; (3) a particular judgment only, or a generalizable judgment; (4) only correct in light of an appropriate level of expertise, or with a minimal level of competence. Following this, analogies will be made to the sciences and scientific method (Chapter 3), and to linguistic intuitions (Chapter 4), which will bring the four previous questions into contemporary understanding of intuitions and intuition use in standard philosophical methodology. Chapter 3 will focus more on the third and fourth points, while Chapter 4 will focus more on the first and second points. The science analogy will benefit from a more recent account of philosophical intuitions provided by George Bealer (1998), as well as from considerations of reflective equilibrium’s role in the third point, and a discussion on moral and more general expertise in light of the fourth point. Chapter 4 will then focus on a contemporary account of philosophical intuitions by Jaakko Hintikka (1999), drawing on the analogy with linguistics and providing a negative foil from which to argue against. Chapter 4 will also benefit from discussion on experimental psychology’s insights and confusions in their subject of 'intuitional thinking', which will be contrasted with a more philosophical account of intuitions and reflective thinking drawing from Robert Audi (1996). Both chapters 3 and 4 will end with a recapitulation of the two-part features of each of the four questions from Chapter 2 in light of the contemporary discussions and respective analogies. Chapter 5 will introduce thought experiments as one of the best tools of intuition-based philosophy that makes use of a four-model taxonomy from Roy Sorensen (1992). The tripartite movement of experimental philosophy will be then be introduced, with a review of one of the first papers of the movement: Jonathan Weinberg, Shaun Nichols and Stephen Stich’s (2001) 'Normativity and Epistemic Intuitions.' Criticisms and response will follow, based on the preliminary conclusions drawn by the divergences in intuitions across cultural and socio-economic divisions, as well as a criticism of the survey methodology employed by most experimental philosophers. Finally, the expertise defense from the armchairists will be made, in light of question 4 from Chapter 2, that also faces criticisms from the Experimental Restrictivists who attack intuition-based philosophy. With a broadened understanding of the prevalence of intuition in contemporary philosophy as provided in chapters 3 and 4, the attack will be seen as either premature, or as still allowing for progressive philosophical inquiry in the other camps of Experimental Descriptivism and Analysis

The Quantum Measurement Spintronic Engine: Using Entanglement to Harvest Vacuum Fluctuations

Several experimental reports have described electrical power output by electronic devices that channel spin-polarized currents across paramagnetic centers. Phononic radiation have been proposed as the source of the engine's energy, though other hypotheses, such as quantum vacuum fluctuations, should also be examined. This paper is the first of a series which will address these hypotheses. Herein, we investigate the more basic hypothesis that quantum vacuum fluctuations power a quantum engine that converts entanglement energy into useful electrical work. The system under review is composed of two atom-level quantum dots that are tunnel-coupled and exhibit a magnetic exchange interaction. This working substance is connected in series with two ferromagnetic electrodes. The engine cycle comprises two strokes. The thermalizing stroke puts the system into equilibrium with the electrode baths, leading to a release of electrical energy into the leads and to an increase in the system entropy due to entanglement. Then the measurement stroke breaks the entanglement between the two quantum dots, thereby reducing its entropy while energizing it on average. Using a perturbative master equation approach, we analytically demonstrate the efficiency of the engine, and we study the cycle numerically to gain insight into the relevant parameters to maximize power. Although the possibility of harvesting energy from the quantum vacuum fluctuations and the interactions with the baths is proven on paper and confirmed by numerical experiments, the efficiency remains low and is unstable. Our results indicate that quantum vacuum fluctuations alone are unlikely to be the energy source in the the quantum spintronic engine experiments that have been reported thus far

Probing the braneworld hypothesis with a neutron-shining-through-a-wall experiment

The possibility for our visible world to be a 3-brane embedded in a multidimensional bulk is at the heart of many theoretical edifices in high-energy physics. Probing the braneworld hypothesis is thus a major experimental challenge. Following recent theoretical works showing that matter swapping between braneworlds can occur, we propose a neutron-shining-through-a-wall experiment. We first show that an intense neutron source such as a nuclear reactor core can induce a hidden neutron flux in an adjacent hidden braneworld. We then describe how a low-background detector can detect neutrons arising from the hidden world and quantify the expected sensitivity to the swapping probability. As a proof of concept, a constraint is derived from previous experiments.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, final version published in Physical Review

EAS radio detection at large impact parameter: the inverse problem and the design of a giant array

Contribution to the 30th ICRC, July 2007, Merida, MexicoInternational audienceExtensive air shower radio electric fields can be evaluated at large impact parameter with analytical expressions. Such a theoretical tool is most valuable in the present phase where the capabilities of the radio detection of extensive air shower are under investigations. It can help shaping strategies for the analysis of radio detection data. It can also be used to perform non trivial test of much more detailed numerical approaches which are currently under development. The approximation leading to such a formulation will be presented and two applications will be discussed: the "inverse" problem of how to go from a sampling of the radio electric field on a few antennas to the main characteristics of the extensive air shower, and the question of the antenna spacing of a giant array for ultra high energy cosmic rays

Radioelectric fields from cosmic-ray air showers at large impact parameters

International audienceWe discuss electric fields generated by cosmic-ray air showers at large impact parameters b. An approximation relevant to this situation is given. The formulation makes explicit the relationship between the shower profile and the radio pulse shapes at large b, putting forward one important observational consequence, namely the decrease of the high-frequency cutoff νc∝1/b when the impact parameter increases. The approximation is also used to give a detailed comparison between two emission models, the geosynchrotron model and the transverse current model