Dictionary of Arguments


Philosophical and Scientific Issues in Dispute
 
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The author or concept searched is found in the following 8 entries.
Disputed term/author/ism Author
Entry
Reference
Laws Barrow I 54f
Laws/Natural Laws/Barrow: there is no system of mechanical rules or laws that can be verified other than statistically. - There are always uncertainties, which can be reduced only by repetition. >Repetition, >Laws of nature, >Experiments, >Verification, >Knowledge, >Ignorance.
I 55
A statistical law can never be falsified because the result of observations in the future may always be different. >Falsification, >Rules, cf. >Rule following.
I 186
Universal Law/Laws/Theory of everything/TOE/Great Unifying theory/GUT/Universality/Eugene Wigner: if the universal law of nature should be discovered, invariance principles would only be mathematical transformations that leave the law invariant. >Theory of Everything, >Invariants.
I 187
Relativity/Barrow: when we say that the natural laws match that does not mean that different observers will measure the same quantities. >Observation, >Relativity, >Measurement, >Coordinate systems, >Quantities/Physics.

B I
John D. Barrow
Warum die Welt mathematisch ist Frankfurt/M. 1996

B II
John D. Barrow
The World Within the World, Oxford/New York 1988
German Edition:
Die Natur der Natur: Wissen an den Grenzen von Raum und Zeit Heidelberg 1993

B III
John D. Barrow
Impossibility. The Limits of Science and the Science of Limits, Oxford/New York 1998
German Edition:
Die Entdeckung des Unmöglichen. Forschung an den Grenzen des Wissens Heidelberg 2001

Necessity Genz II 59
Contingent/necessary/understanding/Genz: contingent: the special elliptical shape of the earth's orbit is contingent and necessary. Necessary: it is necessary that planetary orbits are elliptical.
Understanding: the understanding of this necessity is deeper understanding.
>Understanding, >Cognition.
II 60
Natural Laws/Genz: natural laws are necessary characteristics of systems, but this is tautological. >Systems, >Natural laws.
Are the laws of nature themselves necessary or contingent?
Solution/Genz: there is a hierarchy of natural laws.
World Formula/contingent/Genz: if there were a world formula, it would not be necessary itself, because other worlds are possible. Nevertheless, it could be distinguished by properties that other formulas do not possess.
Cf. >Theory of Everything, >Contingency.

Gz I
H. Genz
Gedankenexperimente Weinheim 1999

Gz II
Henning Genz
Wie die Naturgesetze Wirklichkeit schaffen. Über Physik und Realität München 2002

Piketty Formula Sinn Piketty formula/SinnVsPiketty/Sinn(1): Piketty’s formula states that interest in the form of the average return on capital, r, is persistently higher than the growth rate of the economy, g. The consequence, according to Piketty, is that the wealth of an economy accumulates faster than the growth in economic output.
Neoclassics: In fact, the formula has been known for quite a long time now; it denotes a fundamental implication of the neoclassical theory of economic growth. Indeed, over the long run, the rate of return to capital usually lies above the growth rate of the economy, as Piketty asserts. If that were not the case, land prices would be infinite, there would be excessive consumption, and growth would eventually end.
>Neoclassical Economics.
Interest rates/Piketty formula/Sinn: But the formula does not imply that wealth grows faster than economic output. Such a conclusion would only be warranted if the savings of an economy could be set equal to the economy’s capital income, so that the rate of economic growth is the same as the interest rate. But that is not the case.
>Interest rates.
Savings: Rather, savings are consistently smaller than the sum of all capital income. The wealthy consume substantial parts of their income, and the savings from labor income usually is small. Thus, the growth rate of wealth lies significantly below the interest rate; the fact that the interest rate exceeds the rate of economic growth in no way implies that wealth grows faster than the economy.
>Saving, >Savings rate.
Economic growth/growth theories: Indeed, a central finding of economic growth theory states that the interest rate of an economy, dependent on the savings rate, settles over the long term at a level in which the growth of capital equals the growth rate of output. The consequence is the longterm persistence of the ratio of wealth to economic output. The long-term constancy of the ratio is a basic ingredient of all growth theories. Behind the long-term persistence of this ratio stands a simple mathematical law.
Savings/national income: If an economy saves a given portion of its income, the wealth resulting from the accumulation of those savings will increase in the long run at the same rate at which national income grows.
>Growth, >Growth theory.
Ratio of wealth to income: Thus, the ratio of wealth to income cannot increase permanently. The law is based on the fact that every increasing quantity can grow over the long run only at the rate at which its accretion grows.
Example: An example is the heaping of earth into a mound. Assume that in every period, a further spade of earth is added, and that the size of the spade itself grows at a given rate from one period to the next. The growth rate of the amount of earth in the mound converges toward tire growth rate of the spade size. If we substitute the current savings of an economy for the amount of earth in the spade and wealth for the size of the mound, we obtain the long-run constancy of the ratio of wealth to income when a fixed share of income is saved.
H.-W. Sinn per Piketty: It must be stressed that this law applies over the long run, over several decades. Wealth can well grow faster than the economy at given times. Piketty could then have a point.
Distribution/SinnVsPiketty: But even when such is the case, there is hardly any reason for apprehension. When it comes to distributional issues, the important element is less the ratio of wealth to national income than the ratio of capital income to wage income, that is, the proportion of capital and wages in national income. The distributional shares of national income, as first observed by the left-leaning economist Joan Robinson in her 1942 book(2), An Essay on Marxian Economics, have remained fairly stable over time and follow no discernible trend.
>Distribution theory.
Wages/capital income: Much more important than Piketty’s theory of everything is the question of how many people share in the wage and capital income. If the number of wage earners increases faster than the number of wealth owners, a less desirable distributional pattern could emerge despite the constancy of the ratio of capital to wage income. That could be the case in the United States, with its large number of immigrants, and could be the reason for the current dissatisfaction among the populace. But there is no evidence to support this as a general law.
>Piketty’s Laws, >Wages, >Income.
Solution/Sinn: And if the risk should indeed exist that the number of people sharing the capital income grows too slowly compared with the number of people sharing the labor income, the best medicine is to improve the chances of upward mobility. The more people share the wealth and capital income, the smaller the distributional problem. It helps for this reason if the rich have more children than the poor, since their wealth will eventually become spread among their heirs, solving the distributional problem at a stroke.
Policy measures: A family income splitting system such as France’s is one of the policy measures that a society might consider if it fears an undesirable concentration of wealth. Regardless, a progressive taxation system is needed to check the growth in net income among the upper income echelons.
Inequality: Even in the absence of a fundamental trend toward greater inequality owing to the theory formulated by Piketty, inequality within the wealthy group can increase because some dynasties accumulate ever more wealth at the expense of other dynasties.
Taxation: Whether action is needed in this regard in Europe is open to debate, since progressive taxation is already present it will be hard to make the case for even more of it. My conclusion is that Piketty, like Marx, caters to a longing, simmering among the people, but that he tries to underpin his policy proposals with a theory that does not substantiate what he asserts.(1)
>Taxation.

Hans-Werner Sinn. 2017. Piketty’s World Formula. https://www.hanswernersinn.de/en/AP_22062017 (30.01.2025)
2. Joan Robinson. 1942. An Essay on Marxian Economics. London. Macmillan.

Sinn I
Hans-Werner Sinn
The Green Paradox: A Supply-Side Approach to Global Warming (Mit Press) Cambridge, MA 2012

Prediction Kauffman I 32
Explanation/forecasts/theory/Kauffman: Difference: a tide table predicts events, but does not explain them. >Explanation, >Causal explanation, >Levels/order.
Newton's theory predicts and explains events.
Darwin: in the opinion of many, his theory has little predictive value.
GUT/Great Unifying Theory: our final theory of physics should provide explanations, but also no predictions.
>Great Unifying Theory, >Theory of everything.

Kau II
Stuart Kauffman
At Home in the Universe: The Search for the Laws of Self-Organization and Complexity New York 1995

Kauffman I
St. Kauffman
At Home in the Universe, New York 1995
German Edition:
Der Öltropfen im Wasser. Chaos, Komplexität, Selbstorganisation in Natur und Gesellschaft München 1998

Symmetries Barrow I 89
Symmetry/Barrow: A "TEO": "Theory of everything" searches for the all-embracing symmetry. The computer image is completely different, it neither refers to symmetry as the primary assumption, nor does it make the assumption of continuity, but on the contrary: One gives a discontinuous structure to the world with the bits. Discontinuous worlds are not only more complicated than continuous worlds, they are even infinitely more complicated. (Number of transformations).
>Theory of Everything, >Analog/digital, >Complexity, >Simplicity.
I 309f
Symmetry/Barrow: nature uses it to make natural laws independent of motion and shape of objects and observation. >Conservatrion laws.
Two approaches:
a) totalitarian: what is not forbidden by the demand for symmetry must be a necessary condition of natural laws
b) liberal: everything is forbidden that is not necessary to maintain symmetry.
I 345
Topology influences the role that symmetry can play in nature.
I 412
Symmetry/Reversibility/Arithmetic/Barrow: in arithmetics there is certainly no clear reversibility - e.g. the sum 2+2=4 has no clear inverse. The sum can be decomposed in several ways, but there is only one sum. Edward Fredkin: a logical circuit is possible whose operation is reversible, and which in principle can convey information without entropy gain and generation of waste heat.
Fredkin-Gate: three inputs and three outputs, the left one remains unchanged, the other two can cross, depending on whether the value of the first one is 1 or 0. This circuit does not convey any information and is its own inverse.

B I
John D. Barrow
Warum die Welt mathematisch ist Frankfurt/M. 1996

B II
John D. Barrow
The World Within the World, Oxford/New York 1988
German Edition:
Die Natur der Natur: Wissen an den Grenzen von Raum und Zeit Heidelberg 1993

B III
John D. Barrow
Impossibility. The Limits of Science and the Science of Limits, Oxford/New York 1998
German Edition:
Die Entdeckung des Unmöglichen. Forschung an den Grenzen des Wissens Heidelberg 2001

Theories Barrow I 285ff
Gauge Theories/Barrow: modern theories of elementary particles and their interaction. The first gauge theory was Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism. Such theories are entirely based on symmetries. - The descriptions of gravitation, electromagnetism, strong and weak nuclear force are all gauge theories. >Symmetries.
The new additional symmetries are called inner symmetries. They correspond to invariants in renaming particle identity.
>Invariants.
For example, when the identity of all protons in the world is swapped with that of neutrons.
The gauge age systematically reduced the laws of the microworld to symmetries. - We are not dependent on observation then.
>Proofs, >Provability, >Observation, >Unobservables.
Gauge symmetries can also be the key to generating new laws of nature. They describe what kind of particles is allowed, but not how many variants each allowed particle has. It tells us that certain quantities are proportional to others, but it does not determine the values of the proportionality factors. Therefore, gauge theories are not the ultimate descriptions of nature.
>Proportions, >Objectivity, cf. >Theory of Everything.
I 290
The solutions of symmetric equations do not need to have symmetry! It follows that the true symmetries are hidden, they determine the laws, not their consequences. When a calibration theory is broken in a certain way, the carrier particle necessary to mediate the local calibration invariance assumes a mass. This is probably the origin of the mass. Some calibration theories are not broken (gravitation, electrodynamics) Their carrier particles, graviton and photon, are massless. >Symmetry breaking.

B I
John D. Barrow
Warum die Welt mathematisch ist Frankfurt/M. 1996

B II
John D. Barrow
The World Within the World, Oxford/New York 1988
German Edition:
Die Natur der Natur: Wissen an den Grenzen von Raum und Zeit Heidelberg 1993

B III
John D. Barrow
Impossibility. The Limits of Science and the Science of Limits, Oxford/New York 1998
German Edition:
Die Entdeckung des Unmöglichen. Forschung an den Grenzen des Wissens Heidelberg 2001

Unity Feynman I 116
Unification/Theory of Everything/TOE/Feynman: If one day we find a "universal equation", one of its roots could be this number 1/4,170000000000000.... If we compare the time required by light to travel through a proton to the age of the universe, the answer is 1042. Thus it has the same number of zeros!
So it was suggested that the gravitational constant is connected to the age of the world. But if it is connected, it would have to change over time!
Vs: if that were the case, the world would have been 100° hotter at the time when life on it emerged, because it would have been closer to the sun. Life could not have developed.
>Unification, >Life/Richard Dawkins, >Life/Stuart Kauffman, >Life/Ernst Mayr, >Life/Jacques Monod, cf. >Evolution, >Theory of Everything.

Feynman I
Richard Feynman
The Feynman Lectures on Physics. Vol. I, Mainly Mechanics, Radiation, and Heat, California Institute of Technology 1963
German Edition:
Vorlesungen über Physik I München 2001

Feynman II
R. Feynman
The Character of Physical Law, Cambridge, MA/London 1967
German Edition:
Vom Wesen physikalischer Gesetze München 1993

Unity Putnam II 46f
Unit/theory of everything/Putnam: a theory of the unity of all science is not definable. >Theory of Everything, cf. >Exterior/Interior.

Putnam I
Hilary Putnam
Von einem Realistischen Standpunkt
In
Von einem realistischen Standpunkt, Vincent C. Müller Frankfurt 1993

Putnam I (a)
Hilary Putnam
Explanation and Reference, In: Glenn Pearce & Patrick Maynard (eds.), Conceptual Change. D. Reidel. pp. 196--214 (1973)
In
Von einem realistischen Standpunkt, Vincent C. Müller Reinbek 1993

Putnam I (b)
Hilary Putnam
Language and Reality, in: Mind, Language and Reality: Philosophical Papers, Volume 2. Cambridge University Press. pp. 272-90 (1995
In
Von einem realistischen Standpunkt, Vincent C. Müller Reinbek 1993

Putnam I (c)
Hilary Putnam
What is Realism? in: Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 76 (1975):pp. 177 - 194.
In
Von einem realistischen Standpunkt, Vincent C. Müller Reinbek 1993

Putnam I (d)
Hilary Putnam
Models and Reality, Journal of Symbolic Logic 45 (3), 1980:pp. 464-482.
In
Von einem realistischen Standpunkt, Vincent C. Müller Reinbek 1993

Putnam I (e)
Hilary Putnam
Reference and Truth
In
Von einem realistischen Standpunkt, Vincent C. Müller Reinbek 1993

Putnam I (f)
Hilary Putnam
How to Be an Internal Realist and a Transcendental Idealist (at the Same Time) in: R. Haller/W. Grassl (eds): Sprache, Logik und Philosophie, Akten des 4. Internationalen Wittgenstein-Symposiums, 1979
In
Von einem realistischen Standpunkt, Vincent C. Müller Reinbek 1993

Putnam I (g)
Hilary Putnam
Why there isn’t a ready-made world, Synthese 51 (2):205--228 (1982)
In
Von einem realistischen Standpunkt, Vincent C. Müller Reinbek 1993

Putnam I (h)
Hilary Putnam
Pourqui les Philosophes? in: A: Jacob (ed.) L’Encyclopédie PHilosophieque Universelle, Paris 1986
In
Von einem realistischen Standpunkt, Vincent C. Müller Reinbek 1993

Putnam I (i)
Hilary Putnam
Realism with a Human Face, Cambridge/MA 1990
In
Von einem realistischen Standpunkt, Vincent C. Müller Reinbek 1993

Putnam I (k)
Hilary Putnam
"Irrealism and Deconstruction", 6. Giford Lecture, St. Andrews 1990, in: H. Putnam, Renewing Philosophy (The Gifford Lectures), Cambridge/MA 1992, pp. 108-133
In
Von einem realistischen Standpunkt, Vincent C. Müller Reinbek 1993

Putnam II
Hilary Putnam
Representation and Reality, Cambridge/MA 1988
German Edition:
Repräsentation und Realität Frankfurt 1999

Putnam III
Hilary Putnam
Renewing Philosophy (The Gifford Lectures), Cambridge/MA 1992
German Edition:
Für eine Erneuerung der Philosophie Stuttgart 1997

Putnam IV
Hilary Putnam
"Minds and Machines", in: Sidney Hook (ed.) Dimensions of Mind, New York 1960, pp. 138-164
In
Künstliche Intelligenz, Walther Ch. Zimmerli/Stefan Wolf Stuttgart 1994

Putnam V
Hilary Putnam
Reason, Truth and History, Cambridge/MA 1981
German Edition:
Vernunft, Wahrheit und Geschichte Frankfurt 1990

Putnam VI
Hilary Putnam
"Realism and Reason", Proceedings of the American Philosophical Association (1976) pp. 483-98
In
Truth and Meaning, Paul Horwich Aldershot 1994

Putnam VII
Hilary Putnam
"A Defense of Internal Realism" in: James Conant (ed.)Realism with a Human Face, Cambridge/MA 1990 pp. 30-43
In
Theories of Truth, Paul Horwich Aldershot 1994

SocPut I
Robert D. Putnam
Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community New York 2000


The author or concept searched is found in the following controversies.
Disputed term/author/ism Author Vs Author
Entry
Reference
Various Authors Deutsch Vs Various Authors DeutschVsinduction.
I 36
Deutsch: induction needs no understanding, you could just explore all the character strings sequentially and randomly find a proper proof. ((s) but not randomly recognize it as correct! In addition, the evidence would not just happen to be right.)   Deutsch: Hilbert’s rules could tell us almost nothing about reality. They would all be predicted, but not explained. Just like the "theory of everything". (DeutschVsTOE)
I 220
Hilbert: "On the Infinite": scoffed at the idea that the demand for a "finite number of steps" was essential. DeutschVsHilbert: he was wrong. I 236 What is a "step" and what is "finite"?

Deutsch I
D. Deutsch
Fabric of Reality, Harmondsworth 1997
German Edition:
Die Physik der Welterkenntnis München 2000