Pieter E. Vermaas - Böcker

This book is about how to understand quantum mechanics by means of a modal interpretation. Modal interpretations provide a general framework within which quantum mechanics can be considered as a theory that describes reality in terms of physical systems possessing definite properties. Quantum mechanics is standardly understood to be a theory about probabilities with which measurements have outcomes. Modal interpretations are relatively new attempts to present quantum mechanics as a theory which, like other physical theories, describes an observer-independent reality. In this book, Pieter Vermaas summarises the results of this work. The book will be of great value to undergraduates, graduate students and researchers in philosophy of science, and physics departments with an interest in learning about modal interpretations of quantum mechanics.

This book is about how to understand quantum mechanics by means of a modal interpretation. Modal interpretations provide a general framework within which quantum mechanics can be considered as a theory that describes reality in terms of physical systems possessing definite properties. Quantum mechanics is standardly understood to be a theory about probabilities with which measurements have outcomes. Modal interpretations are relatively new attempts to present quantum mechanics as a theory which, like other physical theories, describes an observer-independent reality. In this book, Pieter Vermaas summarises the results of this work. The book will be of great value to undergraduates, graduate students and researchers in philosophy of science, and physics departments with an interest in learning about modal interpretations of quantum mechanics.

According to the modal interpretation, the standard mathematical framework of quantum mechanics specifies the physical magnitudes of a system, which have definite values. Probabilities are assigned to the possible values that these magnitudes may adopt. The interpretation is thus concerned with physical properties rather than with measurement results: it is a realistic interpretation (in the sense of scientific realism). One of the notable achievements of this interpretation is that it dissolves the notorious measurement problem. The papers collected here, together with the introduction and concluding critical appraisal, explain the various forms of the modal interpretation, survey its achievements, and discuss those problems that have yet to be solved.

This volume provides the reader with an integrated overview of state-of-the-art research in philosophy and ethics of design in engineering and architecture. It contains twenty-five essays that focus on engineering designing in its traditional sense, on designing in novel engineering domains, including ICT, genetics, and nanotechnology, designing of socio-technical systems, and on architectural and environmental designing. These essays are preceded by an introductory text structuring the field of philosophy and ethics of design in engineering and architecture as one in which a series of similar philosophical, societal and ethical questions are asked. This volume enables the reader to overcome the traditional separation between engineering designing and architectural designing. The emerging discipline of designing socio-technical systems is shown to form an intermediate between engineering and architecture to which the philosophical and ethical analyses of both domains apply. This volume thus announces a challenging cross-fertilization between the philosophy and ethics of engineering and of architecture that will lay down the integrated ground works for the renewed interests in the importance of design in modern society.

With contributions originating from philosophy and design research, and from product design to architecture, it gives a rich spectrum of state of the art research and brings together studies on philosophical topics in which design plays a key role and design research to which philosophy contributes.

The contributions in this volume map out how technologies are used and designed to plan, maintain, govern, demolish, and destroy the city. The volume will thus contribute to the much-needed discussion on technology-enabled urban futures from the perspective of the philosophy of technology.

The contributions in this volume map out how technologies are used and designed to plan, maintain, govern, demolish, and destroy the city. The volume will thus contribute to the much-needed discussion on technology-enabled urban futures from the perspective of the philosophy of technology.

This handbook charts the new engineering paradigm of engineering systems.

This book is concerned with two intimately related topics of metaphysics: the identity of entities and the foundations of classification. What it adds to previous discussions of these topics is that it addresses them with respect to human-made entities, that is, artefacts. As the chapters in the book show, questions of identity and classification require other treatments and lead to other answers for artefacts than for natural entities. These answers are of interest to philosophers not only for their clarification of artefacts as a category of things but also for the new light they may shed on these issue with respect to to natural entities.     This volume is structured in three parts.  The contributions in Part I address basic ontological and metaphysical questions in relation to artefact kinds: How should we conceive of artefact kinds? Are they real kinds? How are identity conditions for artefacts and artefact kinds related? The contributions in Part II address meta-ontological questions: What, exactly, should an ontological account of artefact kinds provide us with? What scope can it aim for? Which ways of approaching the ontology of artefact kinds are there, how promising are they, and how should we assess this? In Part III, the essays offer engineering practice rather than theoretical philosophy as a point of reference. The issues addressed here include: How do engineers classify technical artefacts and on what grounds? What makes specific classes of technical artefacts candidates for ontologically real kinds, and by which criteria?​

This volume features 16 essays on the philosophy of technology that discuss its identity, its position in philosophy in general, and the role of empirical studies in philosophical analyses of engineering ethics and engineering practices. This volume is published about fifteen years after Peter Kroes and Anthonie Meijers published a collection of papers under the title The empirical turn in the philosophy of technology, in which they called for a reorientation toward the practice of engineering, and sketched the likely benefits for philosophy of technology of pursuing its major questions in an empirically informed way.The essays in this volume fall apart in two different kinds. One kind follows up on The empirical turn discussion about what the philosophy of technology is all about. It continues the search for the identity of the philosophy of technology by asking what comes after the empirical turn. The other kind of essays follows the call for an empirical turn in the philosophy of technology by showing how it may be realized with regard to particular topics. Together these essays offer the reader an overview of the state of the art of an empirically informed philosophy of technology and of various views on the empirical turn as a stepping stone into the future of the philosophy of technology.

This book is concerned with two intimately related topics of metaphysics: the identity of entities and the foundations of classification. What it adds to previous discussions of these topics is that it addresses them with respect to human-made entities, that is, artefacts. As the chapters in the book show, questions of identity and classification require other treatments and lead to other answers for artefacts than for natural entities. These answers are of interest to philosophers not only for their clarification of artefacts as a category of things but also for the new light they may shed on these issue with respect to to natural entities.     This volume is structured in three parts.  The contributions in Part I address basic ontological and metaphysical questions in relation to artefact kinds: How should we conceive of artefact kinds? Are they real kinds? How are identity conditions for artefacts and artefact kinds related? The contributions in Part II address meta-ontological questions: What, exactly, should an ontological account of artefact kinds provide us with? What scope can it aim for? Which ways of approaching the ontology of artefact kinds are there, how promising are they, and how should we assess this? In Part III, the essays offer engineering practice rather than theoretical philosophy as a point of reference. The issues addressed here include: How do engineers classify technical artefacts and on what grounds? What makes specific classes of technical artefacts candidates for ontologically real kinds, and by which criteria?​

This volume presents 25 essays on the philosophy of design. With contributions originating from philosophy and design research, and from product design to architecture, it gives a rich spectrum of state of the art research and brings together studies on philosophical topics in which design plays a key role and design research to which philosophy contributes. Coverage zooms in on specific and more well-known design disciplines but also includes less-studied disciplines, such as graphic design, interior architecture and exhibition design. In addition, contributors take up traditional philosophical issues, such as epistemology, politics, phenomenology and philosophy of science. Some essays cover philosophical issues that emerge in design, for instance what design can do in addressing societal problems, while other essays analyze main-stream philosophical issues in which design is part of the argument, as for instance abduction and aesthetics.  Readers will discovernew research with insightful analyses of design research, design thinking and the specificity of design. Overall, this comprehensive overview of an emerging topic in philosophy will be of great interest to researchers and students.

This volume features 16 essays on the philosophy of technology that discuss its identity, its position in philosophy in general, and the role of empirical studies in philosophical analyses of engineering ethics and engineering practices.

This volume provides the reader with an integrated overview of state-of-the-art research in philosophy and ethics of design in engineering and architecture. It contains twenty-five essays that focus on engineering designing in its traditional sense, on designing in novel engineering domains, including ICT, genetics, and nanotechnology, designing of socio-technical systems, and on architectural and environmental designing. These essays are preceded by an introductory text structuring the field of philosophy and ethics of design in engineering and architecture as one in which a series of similar philosophical, societal and ethical questions are asked. This volume enables the reader to overcome the traditional separation between engineering designing and architectural designing. The emerging discipline of designing socio-technical systems is shown to form an intermediate between engineering and architecture to which the philosophical and ethical analyses of both domains apply. This volume thus announces a challenging cross-fertilization between the philosophy and ethics of engineering and of architecture that will lay down the integrated ground works for the renewed interests in the importance of design in modern society.

This book is about the functions of technical artefacts, material objects made to serve practical purposes; As we shall show, however, such intentionalist accounts face staunch opposition from other accounts, such as those that focus on long-term reproduction of artefacts.

This book is about the functions of technical artefacts, material objects made to serve practical purposes; objects ranging from tablets of Aspirin to Concorde, from wooden clogs to nuclear submarines. More precisely, the book is about usinganddesigningartefacts, aboutwhatitmeanstoascribefunctionstothem, and about the relations between using, designing and ascribing functions. In the following pages, we present a detailed account that shows how strong these relations are. Technical functions cannot be properly analysed without taking into regard the beliefs and actions of human beings, we contend. This account stays deceptively close to common sense. After all, who would deny that artefacts are for whatever purpose they are designed or used? As we shall show, however, such intentionalist accounts face staunch opposition from other accounts, such as those that focus on long-term reproduction of artefacts. These accounts are partly right and mostly wrong — and although we do take a common-sense position in the end, it is only after sophisticated analysis. F- thermore, the results of this analysis reveal that technical functions depend on a larger and more structured set of beliefs and actions than is typically s- posed. Much work in the succeeding pages goes into developing an appropriate action-theoretical account, and forging a connection with function ascriptions.

This handbook enumerates every aspect of incorporating moral and societal values into technology design, reflects the fact that the latter has moved on from strict functionality to become sensitive to moral and social values such as sustainability and accountability.