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The devil in the details : asymptotic reasoning in explanation, reduction, and emergence /

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The author's study of the complexities of universal behaviour, proposes that asymptotic reasoning is essential for explaining universal behaviour. This has important consequences for our understanding of the scientific process as a whole.

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Batterman, Robert W.
Format: eBook
Language:English
Language Notes:English.
Published: Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2002.
Series:Oxford studies in philosophy of science.
Subjects:
Reasoning.
Science > Philosophy.
Science > Methodology.
Sciences > MĂ©thodologie.
SCIENCE > Cognitive Science.
PSYCHOLOGY > Cognitive Psychology.
Reasoning
Science > Methodology
Science > Philosophy
Electronic books.
Online Access:Connect to the full text of this electronic book
Table of Contents:
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Asymptotic Reasoning
  • 2.1. The Euler Strut
  • 2.2. Universality
  • 2.3. Intertheoretic Relations
  • 2.4. Emergence
  • 3. Philosophical Theories of Explanation
  • 3.1. Different Why-Questions
  • 3.2. Hempelian Explanation and Its Successors
  • 4. Asymptotic Explanation
  • 4.1. The Renormalization Group (RG)
  • 4.2. The General Strategy
  • 4.3. "Intermediate Asymptotics"
  • 4.4. Conclusion: The Role of Stability
  • 5. Philosophical Models of Reduction
  • 5.1. Nagelian Reduction
  • 5.2. Multiple Realizability
  • 5.3. Kim's "Functional Model of Reduction"
  • 5.4. A Metaphysical Mystery
  • 5.5. Multiple Realizability as Universality
  • 6. Intertheoretic Relations
  • Optics
  • 6.1. "Reductionâ‚‚"
  • 6.2. Singular Limits
  • 6.3. Wave and Ray Theories
  • 6.4. Universality: Diffraction Catastrophe Scaling Laws
  • 7. Intertheoretic Relations
  • Mechanics
  • 7.1. Classical and Quantum Theories
  • 7.2. The WKB Method
  • 7.3. Semiclassical "Emergents."
  • 8. Emergence
  • 8.1. Emergence and the Philosophy of Mind
  • 8.2. The Rainbow Revisited: An Example of Emergence?
  • 8.3. A New Sense of Emergence
  • 8.4. Tenet 5: Novel Causal Powers?
  • 9. Conclusions.