Wenceslao J Gonzalez – författare

From the perspective of the philosophy of science, this book analyzes the Internet conceived in a broad sense. It includes three layers that require philosophical attention: (1) the technological infrastructure, (2) the Web, and (3) cloud computing, along with apps and mobile Internet. The study focuses on the network of networks from the viewpoint of complexity, both structural and dynamic. In addition to the scientific side, this volume considers the technological facet and the social dimension of the Internet as a novel design.

There is a clear contribution of the Internet to science: first, the very development of the network of networks requires the creation of new science; second, the Internet empowers scientific disciplines, such as communication sciences; and third, the Internet has fostered a whole new emergent field of data and information. After the opening chapter, which offers a series of keys to the book, there are nine chapters, grouped into four parts: (I) Configuration of the Internet and Its Future, (II) Structural and Dynamic Complexity in the Design of the Internet, (III) Internal and External Contributions of the Internet, and (IV) The Internet and the Sciences.

Following this framework, The Internet and Philosophy of Science will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in philosophy of science, philosophy of technology as well as science and technology studies.

From the perspective of the philosophy of science, this book analyzes the Internet conceived in a broad sense. It includes three layers that require philosophical attention: (1) the technological infrastructure, (2) the Web, and (3) cloud computing, along with apps and mobile Internet. The study focuses on the network of networks from the viewpoint of complexity, both structural and dynamic. In addition to the scientific side, this volume considers the technological facet and the social dimension of the Internet as a novel design.

There is a clear contribution of the Internet to science: first, the very development of the network of networks requires the creation of new science; second, the Internet empowers scientific disciplines, such as communication sciences; and third, the Internet has fostered a whole new emergent field of data and information. After the opening chapter, which offers a series of keys to the book, there are nine chapters, grouped into four parts: (I) Configuration of the Internet and Its Future, (II) Structural and Dynamic Complexity in the Design of the Internet, (III) Internal and External Contributions of the Internet, and (IV) The Internet and the Sciences.

Following this framework, The Internet and Philosophy of Science will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in philosophy of science, philosophy of technology as well as science and technology studies.

This book analyzes the role of language in scientific research and develops the semantics of science from different angles. The philosophical investigation of the volume is divided into four parts, which covers both basic science and applied science: I) The Problem of Reference and Potentialities of the Language in Science; II) Language and Change in Scientific Research: Evolution and Historicity; III) Scientific Language in the Context of Truth and Fiction; and IV) Language in Mathematics and in Empirical Sciences.

This book seeks to provide new perspectives, to broaden the field of philosophy of science, or to renew themes that have had a great impact on the profession. Thus, after an initial chapter to situate the current trends in philosophy of science and the prospective of the near future, it offers contributions in five thematic blocks: I) Philosophy of Medicine and Climate Change; II) Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence and the Internet; III) New Analyses of Probability and the Use of Mathematics in Practice; IV) Scientific Progress Revisited; and V) Scientific Realism and the Instrumentalist Alternative.

Within this framework, the volume addresses such relevant issues as the methodological validity of medical evidence or decision making in situations of uncertainty; recent advances in Artificial Intelligence and the future of the Internet; current forms of empirically based methodological pluralism and new ways of understanding mathematics with scientific practice; and the revision of the approaches to scientific progress based on the experiences accumulated in recent decades.

Now that cinema is offline and online, the capacity of cinema to relate to philosophy and science has increased. In this regard, this book seeks to deepen the relationship between philosophy, science, and cinema in terms of bilaterality. This analysis leads to several successive levels of analysis. First, between philosophy and cinema, where the philosophical perspective bifurcates in several directions, depending on the philosophical branch used. This affects in both directions: from the philosophical orientation to the cinematographic activity and, from cinema, towards the philosophical line used. Second, the relations between science and cinema also go in both directions. Thus, they are modulated by the type of scientific research used and by the film genre employed. Thus, bilaterality is altogether a network of bidirectional relations modulated by various possibilities of analysis.

Contemporary philosophy of science analyzes psychology as a science with special features, because this discipline includes some specific philosophical problems – descriptive and normative, structural and dynamic. Some of these are particularly relevant both theoretically (casual explanation) and practically (the configuration of the psychological subject and its relations with psychiatry).

Two central aspects in this book are the role of causality, especially conceived as intervention or manipulation, and the characterization of the psychological subject. This requires a clarification of scientific explanations in terms of causality in psychology, because characterizations of causality are quite different in epistemological and ontological terms. One of the most influential views is James Woodward’s approach to causality as intervention, which entails an analysis of its characteristics, new elements and limits. This means taking into account the structural and dynamic aspects included in causal cognition and psychological explanations.

Psychology seen as special science also requires us to consider the scientific status of psychology and the psychological subject, which leads to limits of naturalism in psychology.

Contemporary philosophy of science analyzes psychology as a science with special features, because this discipline includes some specific philosophical problems – descriptive and normative, structural and dynamic. Some of these are particularly relevant both theoretically (casual explanation) and practically (the configuration of the psychological subject and its relations with psychiatry).

Two central aspects in this book are the role of causality, especially conceived as intervention or manipulation, and the characterization of the psychological subject. This requires a clarification of scientific explanations in terms of causality in psychology, because characterizations of causality are quite different in epistemological and ontological terms. One of the most influential views is James Woodward’s approach to causality as intervention, which entails an analysis of its characteristics, new elements and limits. This means taking into account the structural and dynamic aspects included in causal cognition and psychological explanations.

Psychology seen as special science also requires us to consider the scientific status of psychology and the psychological subject, which leads to limits of naturalism in psychology.

This book develops a philosophico-methodological analysis of prediction and its role in economics. Prediction plays a key role in economics in various ways. It can be seen as a basic science, as an applied science and in the application of this science. First, it is used by economic theory in order to test the available knowledge. In this regard, prediction has been presented as the scientific test for economics as a science. Second, prediction provides a content regarding the possible future that can be used for prescription in applied economics. Thus, it can be used as a guide for economic policy, i.e., as knowledge concerning the future to be employed for the resolution of specific problems. Third, prediction also has a role in the application of this science in the public arena. This is through the decision-making of the agents — individuals or organizations — in quite different settings, both in the realm of microeconomics and macroeconomics.

Within this context, the research is organized in five parts, which discuss relevant aspects of the role of prediction in economics: I) The problem of prediction as a test for a science; II) The general orientation in methodology of science and the problem of prediction as a scientific test; III) The methodological framework of social sciences and economics: Incidence for prediction as a test; IV) Epistemology and methodology of economic prediction: Rationality and empirical approaches and V) Methodological aspects of economic prediction: From description to prescription. Thus, the book is of interest for philosophers and economists as well as policy-makers seeking to ascertain the roots of their performance. The style used lends itself to a wide audience.