Kaila's Reception of Hume

In this paper, I discuss Eino Kaila's (1890-1958) understanding of David Hume. Kaila was one of the leading Finnish philosophers of the 20th century and a correspondent of the Vienna Circle. He introduced logical empiricism into Finland and taught Georg Henrik von Wright. Final draf

Kind Instantiation and Kind Change - A Problem for Four-Category Ontology

In Lowe’s Four-Category Ontology, instantiation is a basic formal ontological relation between particulars (objects, modes) and their kinds (kinds, attributes). Therefore, instantiation must be considered as a metaphysically necessary relation, which also rules out the metaphysical possibility of kind change. Nevertheless, according to Lowe, objects obtain their identity conditions in a more general level than specific natural kinds, which allows for kind change. There also seems to be actual examples of kind change. The advocate of Four-Category Ontology is obliged to resolve the tension between these mutually incompatible claims. In this article, we argue that the only viable option for the advocate of Four-Category Ontology is to bite the bullet and stick to the necessity of each of the most specific natural kind to the object instantiating it. As a major drawback, the four-category ontologist does not have any credible means to allow for kind change or determination of the identity conditions in a more general level

Comparisons of relative BV-capacities and Sobolev capacity in metric spaces

We study relations between the variational Sobolev 1-capacity and versions of variational BV-capacity in a complete metric space equipped with a doubling measure and supporting a weak $(1,1)$-Poincar\'e inequality. We prove the equality of 1-modulus and 1-capacity, extending the known results for $1 < p < \infty$ to also cover the more geometric case $p = 1$. Then we give alternative definitions for variational BV-capacities and obtain equivalence results between them. Finally we study relations between total 1-capacity and versions of BV-capacity.Comment: 30 page

Kinds of Tropes without Kinds

In this article, we propose a new trope nominalist conception of determinate and determinable kinds of quantitative tropes. The conception is developed as follows. First, we formulate a new account of tropes falling under the same determinates and determinables in terms of internal relations of proportion and order. Our account is a considerable improvement on the current standard account (Campbell 1990; Maurin 2002; Simons 2003) because it does not rely on primitive internal relations of exact similarity or quantitative distance. The internal relations of proportion and order hold because the related tropes exist; no kinds of tropes need be assumed here. Second, we argue that there are only pluralities of tropes in relations of proportion and order. The tropes mutually connected by the relations of proportion and order form a special type of plurality, tropes belonging to the same kind. Unlike the recent nominalist accounts, we do not identify kinds of tropes with any further entities (e.g. sets) or abstractions from entities (e.g. pluralities of similar tropes)

Quantity Tropes and Internal Relations

In this article, we present a new conception of internal relations between quantity tropes falling under determinates and determinables. We begin by providing a novel characterization of the necessary relations between these tropes as basic internal relations. The core ideas here are that the existence of the relata is sufficient for their being internally related, and that their being related does not require the existence of any specific entities distinct from the relata. We argue that quantity tropes are, as determinate particular natures, internally related by certain relations of proportion and order. By being determined by the nature of tropes, the relations of proportion and order remain invariant in conventional choice of unit for any quantity and give rise to natural divisions among tropes. As a consequence, tropes fall under distinct determinables and determinates. Our conception provides an accurate account of quantitative distances between tropes but avoids commitment to determinable universals. In this important respect, it compares favorably with the standard conception taking exact similarity and quantitative distances as primitive internal relations. Moreover, we argue for the superiority of our approach in comparison with two additional recent accounts of the similarity of quantity tropes

Learning by Making

Peer reviewe

Collaborative Design Practices in Technology Mediated Learning

The present article examines how practices of computersupported collaborative designing may be implemented in an elementary classroom. We present a case study in which 12-year-old students engaged in architectural design under the guidance of their teacher and a professional designer. The students were engaged in all aspects of design processes, such as analysing the design of existing houses, analysing the building site, determining building volume, design facades, and floor plans; they formed seven teams, each of which had its own house to design. The data-analysis relied on the Knowledge Forum database, consisting of students’ notes, pictures, sketches, and photos. The participants’ quantitative contributions to the database were analyzed with Analytic ToolKit which underlies Knowledge Forum. A qualitative content analysis was performed to the KF notes produced by the student teams; a theory and data-driven approach for categorizing the content of the notes was employed. The results revealed that the student teams considered various design constraints and familiarized themselves with their own building site and regulations regarding their permitted building volume. They constructed environmental models and scale models, and made the calculations of gross floor volume; scale drawings were inserted to KF’s Environmental Model view as pictures and texts. The results indicated that parallel working with conceptual (design ideas) and material artefacts (architectural models, prototypes of apartments, figures) supported one another. The intent was that involving students in modeling practices would help them build domain expertise, epistemological understanding, and skills to create and evaluate knowledge. Further, implications for designing technology-mediated collaborative design processes are discussed

Keksivä oppiminen : Teoreettiset perusteet

This chapter introduces a knowledge-creating learning framework that provides the theoretical foundation of invention pedagogy. Invention projects involve the deliberate pursuit of open-ended invention challenges through complex, iterative, and emergent processes. Because the envisioned epistemic objects, specific process stages, relevant knowledge, and final productions are not known at the beginning but are gradually determined through self-organized personal and collaborative efforts, the invention process tends to be nonlinear in nature. Pedagogic guidance, scaffolding, and orchestration of invention pedagogy require that both students and teachers learn to cope productively with uncertainty, improvise to solve open-ended problems, develop novel skills and competencies, and end up with objects and artifacts that may not have been foreseen—or even foreseeable—in the beginning. Teachers and their teams must learn to design and orchestrate invention processes, guide nonlinear pedagogic processes, and cultivate associated professional practices. The chapter examines theoretical background, epistemic objects, epistemic practices, and orchestration processes involved in invention processes.Peer reviewe