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148A Philosopher Struggles to Understand Quantum Theory: Particle Creation and Wavepacket ReductionIn M. Ferrero & A. van der Merwe (eds.), Fundamental Problems in Quantum Physics, . 1995.Work on the central problems of the philosophy of science has led the author to attempt to create an intelligible version of quantum theory. The basic idea is that probabilistic transitions occur when new stationary or particle states arise as a result of inelastic collisions.
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623Towards a Micro Realistic Version of Quantum Mechanics, Part IIFoundations of Physics 6 (6): 661-676. 1976.In this paper, possible objections to the propensity microrealistic version of quantum mechanics proposed in Part I are answered. This version of quantum mechanics is compared with the statistical, particle microrealistic viewpoint, and a crucial experiment is proposed designed to distinguish between these to microrealistic versions of quantum mechanics.
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729Does orthodox quantum theory undermine, or support, scientific realism?Philosophical Quarterly 44 (171): 139-157. 1994.It is usually taken for granted that orthodox quantum theory poses a serious problem for scientific realism, in that the theory is empirically extraordinarily successful, and yet has instrumentalism built into it. This paper stand this view on its head. I argue that orthodox quantum theory suffers from a number of serious (if not always noticed) defects precisely because of its inbuilt instrumentalism. This defective character of orthdoox quantum theory thus undermines instrumentalism, and su…Read more
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809A scientific theory, in order to be accepted as a part of theoretical scientific knowledge, must satisfy both empirical and non-empirical requirements, the latter having to do with simplicity, unity, explanatory character, symmetry, beauty. No satisfactory, generally accepted account of such non-empirical requirements has so far been given. Here, a proposal is put forward which, it is claimed, makes a contribution towards solving the problem. This proposal concerns unity of physical theory. In o…Read more
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540Philosophy Seminars for Five-Year-Olds,Learning for Democracy 1 (2): 71-77. 2005.We need a revolution in education, from five year olds onwards, so that exploration of problems is at the heart of the enterprise.
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163Zagrożenie nauką bez cywilizacji: od wiedzy do mądrości (Polish translation of "The Menace of Science without Civilization: From Knowledge to Wisdom" (2012))Zagadnienia Naukoznawstwa 47 (189): 269-294. 2011.We are in a state of impending crisis. And the fault lies in part with academia. For two centuries or so, academia has been devoted to the pursuit of knowledge and technological know-how. This has enormously increased our power to act which has, in turn, brought us both all the great benefits of the modern world and the crises we now face. Modern science and technology have made possible modern industry and agriculture, the explosive growth of the world’s population, global warming, modern armam…Read more
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632A Revolution for Science and the Humanities: From Knowledge to WisdomDialogue and Universalism 15 (1-2): 29-57. 2004.At present the basic intellectual aim of academic inquiry is to improve knowledge. Much of the structure, the whole character, of academic inquiry, in universities all over the world, is shaped by the adoption of this as the basic intellectual aim. But, judged from the standpoint of making a contribution to human welfare, academic inquiry of this type is damagingly irrational. Three of four of the most elementary rules of rational problem-solving are violated. A revolution in the aims and method…Read more
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785Art as Its Own InterpretationIn Andreea Ruvoi (ed.), Interpretation and Its Objects: Studies in the Philosophy of Michael Krausz, Rodopi. 2003.In this article I argue that a work of art provides the best interpretation of itself - more faithful than any other scholarly interpretative work
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236Knowledge or wisdom?The Philosophers' Magazine 62 (62): 17-18. 2013.A bad philosophy of inquiry, built into the intellectual/institutional structure of universities round the world, betrays both reason and humanity.
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672How Universities Can Help Humanity Learn How to Resolve the Crises of Our Times - From Knowledge to Wisdom: The University College London ExperienceIn G. Heam Heam, T. Katlelle & D. Rooney (eds.), Handbook on the Knowledge Economy, vol. 2, . 2012.We are in a state of impending crisis. And the fault lies in part with academia. For two centuries or so, academia has been devoted to the pursuit of knowledge and technological know-how. This has enormously increased our power to act which has, in turn, brought us both all the great benefits of the modern world and the crises we now face. Modern science and technology have made possible modern industry and agriculture, the explosive growth of the world’s population, global warming, modern a…Read more
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393Universities: from knowledge to wisdomScientists for Global Responsibility Newsletter (38): 18-20. 2010.Nicholas Maxwell argues that the growth in academic work devoted to policy issues could mark the beginning of a shift from ‘knowledge-inquiry’ to ‘wisdom-inquiry’, leading to importance benefits for society.
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954What’s Wrong With Aim-Oriented Empiricism?Acta Baltica Historiae Et Philosophiae Scientiarum 3 (2): 5-31. 2015.For four decades it has been argued that we need to adopt a new conception of science called aim-oriented empiricism. This has far-reaching implications and repercussions for science, the philosophy of science, academic inquiry in general, conception of rationality, and how we go about attempting to make progress towards as good a world as possible. Despite these far-reaching repercussions, aim-oriented empiricism has so far received scant attention from philosophers of science. Here, sixteen…Read more
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284How to Create a Better World: Bring about a Revolution in UniversitiesDiscussion Blog. 2013.In order to create a better world we need to bring about a revolution in universities so that they become devoted to helping humanity learn how to make progress towards as good a world as possible.
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Does the Minimal Statistical Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics Resolve the Measurement Problem?Methodology and Science 8 84-101. 1975.It is argued that the so-called minimal statistical interpretation of quantum mechanics does not completely resolve the measurement problem in that this view is unable to show that quantjum mechanics can dispense with classical physics when it comes to a treatment of the measuring interaction. It is suggested that the view that quantum mechanics applies to individual systems should not be too hastily abandoned, in that this view gives perhaps the best hope of leading to a version of quantum mec…Read more
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543The Menace of Science without Civilization: From Knowledge to WisdomDialogue and Universalism 22 (3): 39-63. 2012.We are in a state of impending crisis. And the fault lies in part with academia. For two centuries or so, academia has been devoted to the pursuit of knowledge and technological know-how. This has enormously increased our power to act which has, in turn, brought us both all the great benefits of the modern world and the crises we now face. Modern science and technology have made possible modern industry and agriculture, the explosive growth of the world’s population, global warming, modern a…Read more
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435Wanted: a new way of thinkingNew Scientist (14 May 1987): 63. 1987.Our world is beset with appalling problems. To solve these urgent, intractable global problems it is not new scientific knowledge and technology that we need so much as new actions: new policies, new international relations, new institutions and social arrangements, new ways of living. The mere provision of scientific know-ledge and technological know-how cannot help much: indeed, all too often it actually makes matters worse. The dreadful truth is that science has played a crucial role, often …Read more
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26Beyond Fapp: Three Approaches to Improving Orthodox Quantum Theory and An Experimental TestIn A. van der Merwe, F. Selleri & G. Tarozzi (eds.), Bell's Theorem and the Foundations of Modern Physics, World Scientific. 1993.Because it fails to solve the wave-particle problem, orthodox quantum theory is obliged to be about observables and not quantum beables. As a result the theory is imprecise, ambiguous, ad hoc, lacking in explanatory power, restricted in scope and resistant to unification. A new version of quantum theory is needed that is about quantum beables.
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487Scientific metaphysicsPhilsci Archive. 2004.In this paper I argue that physics makes metaphysical presuppositions concerning the physical comprehensibility, the dynamic unity, of the universe. I argue that rigour requires that these metaphysical presuppositions be made explicit as an integral part of theoretical knowledge in physics. An account of what it means to assert of a theory that it is unified is developed, which provides the means for partially ordering dynamical physical theories with respect to their degrees of unity. This in t…Read more
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669Two Great Problems of LearningTeaching in Higher Education, 8 (January): 129-134. 2003.Two great problems of learning confront humanity: learning about the universe, and learning how to live wisely. The first problem was solved with the creation of modern science, but the second problem has not been solved. This combination puts humanity into a situation of unprecedented danger. In order to solve the second problem we need to learn from our solution to the first problem. This requires that we bring about a revolution in the overall aims and methods of academic inquiry, so that…Read more
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891Does probabilism solve the great quantum mystery?Theoria: Revista de Teoría, Historia y Fundamentos de la Ciencia 19 (3): 321-336. 2010.I put forward a micro realistic, probabilistic version of quantum theory, which specifies the precise nature of quantum entities thus solving the quantum wave/particle dilemma, and which both reproduces the empirical success of orthodox quantum theory, and yields predictions that differ from orthodox quantum theory for as yet unperformed experiments.
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842A New Look at the Quantum Mechanical Problem of MeasurementAmerican Journal of Physics 40. 1972.According to orthodox quantum mechanics, state vectors change in two incompatible ways: "deterministically" in accordance with Schroedinger's time-dependent equation, and probabilistically if and only if a measurement is made. It is argued here that the problem of measurement arises because the precise mutually exclusive conditions for these two types of transitions to occur are not specified within orthodox quantum mechanics. Fundamentally, this is due to an inevitable ambiguity in the notio…Read more
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454Practical certainty and cosmological conjecturesIn Michael Rahnfeld (ed.), Is there Certain Knowledge?, Leipziger Universitätsverlag. 2005.We ordinarily assume that we have reliable knowledge of our immediate surroundings, so much so that almost all the time we entrust our lives to the truth of what we take ourselves to know, without a moment’s thought. But if, as Karl Popper and others have maintained, all our knowledge is conjectural, then this habitual assumption that our common sense knowledge of our environment is secure and trustworthy would seem to be an illusion. Popper’s philosophy of science, in particular, fails to do ju…Read more
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578Science, Knowledge, Wisdom and the Public GoodScientists for Global Responsibility Newsletter 1 (26 February 2003): 7-9. 2003.What kind of science – or, more generally, what kind of academic inquiry – can best contribute to the public good? Two answers are considered: knowledge-inquiry and wisdom-inquiry. The former is what we have at present. It is, however, damagingly irrational. The latter is more rigorous and, potentially, of greater value in human and intellectual terms. It arises as a result of putting the Enlightenment Programme properly into practice. We urgently need to bring about a revolution in academ…Read more
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476Comprehensibility rather than beautyPhilsci Archive. 2001.Most scientists and philosophers of science recognize that, when it comes to accepting and rejecting theories in science, considerations that have to do with simplicity, unity, symmetry, elegance, beauty or explanatory power have an important role to play, in addition to empirical considerations. Until recently, however, no one has been able to give a satisfactory account of what simplicity (etc.) is, or how giving preference to simple theories is to be justified. But in the last few years, two …Read more
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965Learning to Live a Life of ValueIn Jason A. Merchey (ed.), Living a Life of Value, Values of the Wise Press. pp. 383--395. 2006.Much of my working life has been devoted to trying to get across the point that we urgently need to bring about a revolution in the aims and methods of academic inquiry, so that the basic aim becomes to seek and promote wisdom rather than just acquire knowledge.
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1020Must Science Make Cosmological Assumptions if it is to be Rational?In T. Kelly (ed.), The Philosophy of Science: Proceedings of the Irish Philosophical Society Spring Conference, Irish Philosophical Society. 1997.Cosmological speculation about the ultimate nature of the universe, being necessary for science to be possible at all, must be regarded as a part of scientific knowledge itself, however epistemologically unsound it may be in other respects. The best such speculation available is that the universe is comprehensible in some way or other and, more specifically, in the light of the immense apparent success of modern natural science, that it is physically comprehensible. But both these speculations…Read more
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520Weinert's review of ‘the comprehensibility of the universe’Philosophy 76 (2): 297-303. 2001.In my book The Comprehensibility of the Universe (OUP, 1998), I argue for a new conception of science that construes science as adopting a hierarchy of increasingly contentless cosmological assumptions about the comprehensibility and knowability of the universe. This view, I argue, solves outstanding problems about science, such as problems of induction, simplicity and verisimilitude. In his essay review of my book (Philosophy 75, 2000, 296–309) Friedel Weinert criticizes me for defending a numb…Read more
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1351Are probabilism and special relativity incompatible?Philosophy of Science 52 (1): 23-43. 1985.In this paper I expound an argument which seems to establish that probabilism and special relativity are incompatible. I examine the argument critically, and consider its implications for interpretative problems of quantum theory, and for theoretical physics as a whole.
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386In Defense of Seeking WisdomMetaphilosophy 35 (5): 733-743. 2004.Steven Yates has criticized my claim that we need to bring about a revolution in the aims and methods of academic inquiry, so that the aim becomes to promote wisdom rather than just acquire knowledge. Yates's main criticism is that the proposed revolution does not have a clear strategy for its implementation, and is, in any case, Utopian, unrealizable and undesirable. It is argued, here, that Yates has misconstrued what the proposed revolution amounts to; in fact it is realizable, urgently neede…Read more
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