Center for Advanced Studies (CAS) Research Focus Reduction and Emergence (LMU)
25 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 9 years ago - ★★★★★ - 1 ratingThrough the reduction of one theory or discipline to another, the results of the reduced theory or discipline can be obtained from the reducing one. In contrast, a theory that describes emergent phenomena is ostensibly autonomous: no other theory can be understood as providing a reducing basis. Questions of emergence and reduction determine how much one discipline can borrow from another, and, to a certain extent, what structures scientific theories in various disciplines can have. Successful reductions increase the epistemological importance of the reducing theories, and arguably their claim to research funding as well. If it is shown that a phenomenon is emergent, on the other hand, the discipline concerned with the emergent phenomenon is unlikely to be replaced by research in other fields, and thus requires its own funding. Furthermore, stronger relationships between the disciplines make it difficult to cast doubt on a small number of selected theories without affecting the rest of the sciences. This is important, for example, in the politically motivated, selective doubt of the theory of evolution, climate research, or genetic technology.
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Episodes
Agent-based Models and Confirmation Theory
December 13, 2014 16:15 - 48 minutes - 743 MB VideoIs it possible to develop a confirmation theory for agent-based models? The are good reasons to be skeptical: Classical confirmation theory explains how empirical evidence bears on the truth of hypotheses and theories, while agent-based models are almost always idealized and hence known to be false. Moreover, classical ideas about confirmation have been developed for relatively simple hypotheses, while even the simplest agent-based models have thousands of variables. Nevertheless, we can draw...
The Structural Evolution of Morality
December 13, 2014 11:20 - 51 minutes - 786 MB VideoOne general problem faced by attempts to explain the origins of morality using traditional rational choice theory is that the demands of rationality and the demands of morality often fail to coincide. This can happen in at least three different ways. Sometimes our moral intuitions recommend actions which are identified as irrational (such as cooperating in the prisoner's dilemma or in the centipede game, or rejecting unfair offers in the ultimatum game). Sometimes our moral intuitions recomme...
Minding Norms. Mechanisms and Dynamics of Social Order in Agent Societies
December 12, 2014 16:15 - 47 minutes - 737 MB VideoDespite ubiquity and universality, norms are still awaiting for a general comprehensive theory. In the presentation, a conceptual, theoretical, and computational framework will be proposed to provide a general account of norms, enabling us to investigate: (a) differences and commonalities among social, moral, and legal norms; (b) norm emergence and change; (c) the individual properties involved or responsible for bringing about norms. The main thesis is that observable conformity is only the ...
The Formation of Epistemic Networks
December 12, 2014 11:20 - 49 minutes - 755 MB VideoOne important area of study for social epistemology is the social structure epistemic groups -- who communicates their knowledge with whom? Significant research has been done on better and worse communication networks, but less has been done on how a group comes to have one network or another. In this talk, I will present a number of results (some recent) from economics and philosophy about how individuals choose with whom to communicate. Understanding how individuals decide where to gain inf...
Collective Accuracy: Agent Based & Emergent vs Statistical and Assumed
December 11, 2014 16:00 - 1 hour - 1.22 GB VideoIn the past two decades, agent-based models (ABMs) have become ubiquitous in philosophy and various sciences. ABMs have been applied, for example, to study the evolution of norms and language, to understand migration patterns of past civilizations, to investigate how population levels change in ecosystems over time, and more. In contrast with classical economic models or population-level models in biology, ABMs are praised for their lack of assumptions and their flexibility. Nonetheless, many...
Chaos beyond the Butterfly Effect
January 10, 2014 19:00 - 56 minutes - 857 MB VideoThe sensitive dependence on initial condition associated with chaotic models, the so-called "Butterfly Effect", imposes limitations on the models’ predictive power. These limitations have been widely recognized and extensively discussed. In this lecture, Roman Frigg will draw attention to an additional so far under-appreciated problem, namely structural model error (SME). If a nonlinear model has only the slightest SME, then its ability to generate useful prediction is lost. This puts us in a...
String Theory and the Scientific Method
December 10, 2013 19:00 - 54 minutes - 838 MB VideoFor the last thirty years, string theory has played a highly influential role in fundamental physics without having found empirical confirmation. The presentation will analyze reasons for the high degree of trust many physicists have developed in a theory that, according to classical standards of theory assessment, would have to be called an unconfirmed speculation. It will be argued that the case of string theory suggests a new perspective on our understanding of theory confirmation in gener...
Cross-Level Linkages in Neurobiology
November 16, 2013 15:55 - 50 minutes - 770 MB Video[Conf.] Reduction and emergence play a central role in the relations of scientific theories and disciplines. Unfortunately, the discussion about reduction and emergence suffers from two uncertainties at once. On the one hand the concepts of reduction and especially emergence are not precisely defined, on the other hand there are few if any uncontentious cases of reduction or emergence in the sciences. This conference will bring together philosophers of science and scientists of different disc...
Emergence and Explanation
November 16, 2013 14:40 - 28 minutes - 446 MB Video[Conf.] Reduction and emergence play a central role in the relations of scientific theories and disciplines. Unfortunately, the discussion about reduction and emergence suffers from two uncertainties at once. On the one hand the concepts of reduction and especially emergence are not precisely defined, on the other hand there are few if any uncontentious cases of reduction or emergence in the sciences. This conference will bring together philosophers of science and scientists of different disc...
Scarecrow’s Brain and Homunculi: Neurobiological Reductionism as Ensoulment-Objectification Process Seen Through Anthropological Lenses
November 16, 2013 13:50 - 33 minutes - 515 MB Video[Conf.] Reduction and emergence play a central role in the relations of scientific theories and disciplines. Unfortunately, the discussion about reduction and emergence suffers from two uncertainties at once. On the one hand the concepts of reduction and especially emergence are not precisely defined, on the other hand there are few if any uncontentious cases of reduction or emergence in the sciences. This conference will bring together philosophers of science and scientists of different disc...
Heterogeneity and Emergence in the Social Sciences
November 16, 2013 11:05 - 30 minutes - 469 MB Video[Conf.] Reduction and emergence play a central role in the relations of scientific theories and disciplines. Unfortunately, the discussion about reduction and emergence suffers from two uncertainties at once. On the one hand the concepts of reduction and especially emergence are not precisely defined, on the other hand there are few if any uncontentious cases of reduction or emergence in the sciences. This conference will bring together philosophers of science and scientists of different disc...
How Can One and the Same Thing be Subject to Different Theories? On the Proper Logic for Non-Reductive Monism
November 16, 2013 09:50 - 40 minutes - 615 MB Video[Conf.] Reduction and emergence play a central role in the relations of scientific theories and disciplines. Unfortunately, the discussion about reduction and emergence suffers from two uncertainties at once. On the one hand the concepts of reduction and especially emergence are not precisely defined, on the other hand there are few if any uncontentious cases of reduction or emergence in the sciences. This conference will bring together philosophers of science and scientists of different disc...
Technical Aspects of Reduction and Multiple Realizability
November 16, 2013 09:00 - 30 minutes - 474 MB Video[Conf.] Reduction and emergence play a central role in the relations of scientific theories and disciplines. Unfortunately, the discussion about reduction and emergence suffers from two uncertainties at once. On the one hand the concepts of reduction and especially emergence are not precisely defined, on the other hand there are few if any uncontentious cases of reduction or emergence in the sciences. This conference will bring together philosophers of science and scientists of different disc...
"Reversed Reduction" in Gibbsian Statistical Mechanics
November 15, 2013 15:55 - 33 minutes - 508 MB Video[Conf.] Reduction and emergence play a central role in the relations of scientific theories and disciplines. Unfortunately, the discussion about reduction and emergence suffers from two uncertainties at once. On the one hand the concepts of reduction and especially emergence are not precisely defined, on the other hand there are few if any uncontentious cases of reduction or emergence in the sciences. This conference will bring together philosophers of science and scientists of different disc...
Holography and the Emergence of Gravity
November 15, 2013 14:40 - 40 minutes - 629 MB Video[Conf.] Reduction and emergence play a central role in the relations of scientific theories and disciplines. Unfortunately, the discussion about reduction and emergence suffers from two uncertainties at once. On the one hand the concepts of reduction and especially emergence are not precisely defined, on the other hand there are few if any uncontentious cases of reduction or emergence in the sciences. This conference will bring together philosophers of science and scientists of different disc...
Novelty and Autonomy as Alternatives to, or Bases for, a Conception of Emergence in Physics
November 15, 2013 13:50 - 26 minutes - 405 MB Video[Conf.] Reduction and emergence play a central role in the relations of scientific theories and disciplines. Unfortunately, the discussion about reduction and emergence suffers from two uncertainties at once. On the one hand the concepts of reduction and especially emergence are not precisely defined, on the other hand there are few if any uncontentious cases of reduction or emergence in the sciences. This conference will bring together philosophers of science and scientists of different disc...
Theory Reduction in Physics: A Model-Based, Dynamical Systems Approach
November 15, 2013 11:55 - 33 minutes - 514 MB Video[Conf.] Reduction and emergence play a central role in the relations of scientific theories and disciplines. Unfortunately, the discussion about reduction and emergence suffers from two uncertainties at once. On the one hand the concepts of reduction and especially emergence are not precisely defined, on the other hand there are few if any uncontentious cases of reduction or emergence in the sciences. This conference will bring together philosophers of science and scientists of different disc...
The Topology of Intertheoretic Reduction
November 15, 2013 11:05 - 28 minutes - 437 MB Video[Conf.] Reduction and emergence play a central role in the relations of scientific theories and disciplines. Unfortunately, the discussion about reduction and emergence suffers from two uncertainties at once. On the one hand the concepts of reduction and especially emergence are not precisely defined, on the other hand there are few if any uncontentious cases of reduction or emergence in the sciences. This conference will bring together philosophers of science and scientists of different disc...
Inter-theoretic Relations: the Brønsted-Lowry Theory of Acids and Microphysics
November 15, 2013 09:50 - 32 minutes - 498 MB Video[Conf.] Reduction and emergence play a central role in the relations of scientific theories and disciplines. Unfortunately, the discussion about reduction and emergence suffers from two uncertainties at once. On the one hand the concepts of reduction and especially emergence are not precisely defined, on the other hand there are few if any uncontentious cases of reduction or emergence in the sciences. This conference will bring together philosophers of science and scientists of different disc...
An Explication of Emergence
November 15, 2013 09:00 - 27 minutes - 427 MB Video[Conf.] Reduction and emergence play a central role in the relations of scientific theories and disciplines. Unfortunately, the discussion about reduction and emergence suffers from two uncertainties at once. On the one hand the concepts of reduction and especially emergence are not precisely defined, on the other hand there are few if any uncontentious cases of reduction or emergence in the sciences. This conference will bring together philosophers of science and scientists of different disc...
Reductionism in Economics: Causality and Intentionality in the Microfoundations of Macroeconomics
November 14, 2013 16:45 - 58 minutes - 885 MB Video[Conf.] Reduction and emergence play a central role in the relations of scientific theories and disciplines. Unfortunately, the discussion about reduction and emergence suffers from two uncertainties at once. On the one hand the concepts of reduction and especially emergence are not precisely defined, on the other hand there are few if any uncontentious cases of reduction or emergence in the sciences. This conference will bring together philosophers of science and scientists of different disc...
Agent-based models as mixed-level: lessons from E.coli
November 14, 2013 14:40 - 27 minutes - 428 MB Video[Conf.] Reduction and emergence play a central role in the relations of scientific theories and disciplines. Unfortunately, the discussion about reduction and emergence suffers from two uncertainties at once. On the one hand the concepts of reduction and especially emergence are not precisely defined, on the other hand there are few if any uncontentious cases of reduction or emergence in the sciences. This conference will bring together philosophers of science and scientists of different disc...
From Dressed Electrons to Quasiparticles: The Emergence of Emergent Entities in Quantum Field Theory
November 14, 2013 11:55 - 32 minutes - 502 MB Video[Conf.] Reduction and emergence play a central role in the relations of scientific theories and disciplines. Unfortunately, the discussion about reduction and emergence suffers from two uncertainties at once. On the one hand the concepts of reduction and especially emergence are not precisely defined, on the other hand there are few if any uncontentious cases of reduction or emergence in the sciences. This conference will bring together philosophers of science and scientists of different disc...
The Physics of Ontological Emergence
November 14, 2013 10:00 - 51 minutes - 782 MB Video[Conf.] Reduction and emergence play a central role in the relations of scientific theories and disciplines. Unfortunately, the discussion about reduction and emergence suffers from two uncertainties at once. On the one hand the concepts of reduction and especially emergence are not precisely defined, on the other hand there are few if any uncontentious cases of reduction or emergence in the sciences. This conference will bring together philosophers of science and scientists of different disc...
Reduction and Emergence in Physics
November 13, 2013 19:00 - 44 minutes - 678 MB Video[Lect.] Matter is composed of small elementary particles whose behavior is predicted very accurately by modern physics. This has led to the suggestion that the fundamental theories of physics are ‘theories of everything’, since in principle they describe the evolution of all matter in the universe. But does the behavior of molecules, magnets and proteins really reduce to that of quarks, gluons and electrons? It often rather seems that the phenomena that occur at larger scales and with more co...