| 1. |
|
|
| 2. |
- Solin, Kim
(författare)
-
The Mathematician as Mathematics : Theories of Computation in Light of Wittgenstein's Thought
- 2013
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Theories of computation are considered in light of Wittgenstein's thought. The dissertation is divided into three parts.The first part presents the philosophical approach taken in the dissertation. The approach takes Wittgenstein's philosophy, in particular as it has been understood by Rush Rhees, as a model. Emphasis is put on the difference between technical work and philosophical work. Philosophical work starts in the lifeworld and is akin to anthropology. The descriptions needed in this work can be given by considering our language use and by drawing up objects of comparison. It is nonetheless important not to confuse philosophical problems with problems of a purely intellectual character, since problems in philosophy can be described as bearing similarities to moral problems.In the second part, which is the main part of the dissertation, the classical theories of computation are considered against the background of the first part. The chapter starts by briefly tracing the historical development of the theories back to Hilbert. It is noted that Hilbert was concerned with epistemological questions. After this, it is investigated how well these epistemological questions were dealt with in the theories of computation that followed. In particular, work by Gödel, Church, and Turing is considered. Topics that are discussed are the very idea of mathematically analysing mathematical activity itself, the concept of finite procedure, what is natural in mathematics, and the idea that computations should be described as transitions between states.The third part is about a more recent theory of computation: abstract state machines. It is shown that many of the aspects of the classical theories that were problematic from an epistemological perspective are carried over to the abstract state machines. This includes the notion of state. Other topics are the idea of axiomatising computability, and the use of abstract state machines for proving Church's thesis.
|
|
| 3. |
- Österman, Tove, 1972-
(författare)
-
Rationality and Cultural Understanding
- 2007
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this dissertation I criticize a common conception of rationality prevalent in analytic philosophy. Rationality is here often seen as a purely cognitive, inner phenomenon which is static and universal, detached from any moral or cultural aspects of human life. I attempt to criticize this notion of rationality through reminders of how concepts such as “rational,” “logical,” and “understanding” enter into our lives. This entails a criticism of classical dichotomies such as the distinction between linguistic form and content, mind and body, fact and value, reason and emotion.Through a criticism of among others Donald Davidson and Alasdair MacIntyre, I suggest a different approach to the question of understanding others, based on a broader notion of rationality rooted in our spontaneous emotional responses and our concern for other living beings. This will have an impact on how we conceive of the difficulties of understanding people from other cultures, where I argue that both the rationalist and the relativist positions are based on the same mistake of theorizing the notion of understanding. This also has an impact on how we conceive of the actions and thoughts of animals, and our relation to them. Since the classical notion of rationality is a human-centred, linguistic capacity, it has often been denied animals and non-linguistic humans. On the more substantial notion of rationality that I wish to make room for, this is a mistake. I argue that we can ascribe to animals, as well as to small children, psychological predicates such as thoughts and beliefs, on the same grounds as we ascribe them to adult humans. Lastly, I sketch a picture of how language is grounded in a cultural and social surrounding. I argue that this does not imply relativism, instead, it shows why the notion of rationality, as well as the concept of truth, are so important for us. They are not merely theoretical or epistemological concepts (as is the idea of truth as a property of statements) but normative concepts fundamental for our self-understanding, ultimately grounded in what we take to be a good or a dignified life.
|
|
| 4. |
- Bornemark, Jonna
(författare)
-
Kunskapens gräns, gränsens vetande : En fenomenologisk undersökning av transcendens och kroppslighet
- 2009
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The limit between the proper and the foreign – how this limit is established, but also crossed and dissolved – has remained a crucial issue in phenomenology. Setting these questions in the context of the phenomenology of religion, this thesis develops an analysis of the relation between transcendence and body understood in terms of a certain limit. The introductory part is rooted in Edmund Husserl’s discussions of the concept of transcendence, which is shown to have an essential connection to the analysis of inner time-consciousness. Here we encounter a decisive limit to objectifying knowledge, which also comes across in his investigations of the body and its spatiality. The second part discusses Max Scheler’s critique of Husserl’s excessively objectifying view of knowledge, with a particular focus on Scheler’s understanding of love as a condition of possibility for any knowledge. Scheler is shown to have developed a new concept of transcendence that avoids the pitfalls of objectivism, although in his philosophy of religion he tends to downplay the importance of the body. The third part undertakes a reading of Edith Stein, who develops ideas similar to Scheler’s, though in a phenomenologically more nuanced fashion. Although her philosophy of religion also bypasses the body, Stein provides a more genuine access to the writings of the mystics, the analysis of which forms the core of the fourth and concluding part. Drawing on the work of the 13th century Beguine Mechthild of Magdeburg, this concluding chapter develops a phenomenological understanding of religion with an emphasis on transcendence and limit, while also retaining the centrality of our experience of the body. This means: a phenomenology of the limit is investigated, rather than a limit of phenomenology.
|
|
| 5. |
- Öberg, Anders, 1968-
(författare)
-
Hilary Putnam on Meaning and Necessity
- 2011
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this dissertation on Hilary Putnam's philosophy, I investigate his development regarding meaning and necessity, in particular mathematical necessity. Putnam has been a leading American philosopher since the end of the 1950s, becoming famous in the 1960s within the school of analytic philosophy, associated in particular with the philosophy of science and the philosophy of language. Under the influence of W.V. Quine, Putnam challenged the logical positivism/empiricism that had become strong in America after World War II, with influential exponents such as Rudolf Carnap and Hans Reichenbach. Putnam agreed with Quine that there are no absolute a priori truths. In particular, he was critical of the notion of truth by convention. Instead he developed a notion of relative a priori truth, that is, a notion of necessary truth with respect to a body of knowledge, or a conceptual scheme. Putnam's position on necessity has developed over the years and has always been connected to his important contributions to the philosophy of meaning. I study Hilary Putnam's development through an early phase of scientific realism, a middle phase of internal realism, and his later position of a natural or commonsense realism. I challenge some of Putnam’s ideas on mathematical necessity, although I have largely defended his views against some other contemporary major philosophers; for instance, I defend his conceptual relativism, his conceptual pluralism, as well as his analysis of the realism/anti-realism debate.
|
|
