Metaphysics and Science

List of Articles

• On the Difference between Artificial and Human Intelligence and the Ethical Implications of Their Confusion.

  Sarah Spiekermann, le Dec. 16, 2024Professor Sarah Spiekermann chaires the Institute for Information Systems and Society at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Vienna) since 2009. A recognized scientist in the field of digital ethics, in 2016 she founded the Privacy & Sustainable Computing Lab at the University of Vienna (renamed “ Sustainability Computing Lab ” in 2020) and served as vice-chair of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) working group that resulted in the first IEEE Standard Model Process for Addressing Ethical Concerns during System Design: the IEEE Std 7000™-2021 standard.

• Newtonian & Aristotelian Physics

  John Taylor, le Nov. 11, 2024The point here is to show that Newton’s concept of absolute space is not as problematic as once thought, and that the conflict between relationalists and substantivists can be resolved. All we need to do is adopt Wolfgang Smith’s ontological distinction between the corporeal and the physical. This will show that absolute space and relationalism are just two sides of the same coin. As a result, certain questions of mechanics, such as motion, traditionally regarded as physical, are in fact metaphysical and can be explained accordingly.

• BACK TO PYTHAGORAS

  Francis Sanchez, le Oct. 23, 2024The physics of the cosmos presents extravagant anomalies; yet, in three minutes, the elementary physics calculation gives the half radius of the universe, which the latest measurements confirm, eliminating the “expansion of the universe” and replacing the Big Bang by a Permanent Bang in a Cosmos constituted by the sweep of a single particle, the electron. This 1997 calculation is in a sealed envelope that has just been requested to be opened (2024). After the three revolutions in cosmology (Copernican-Galilean, Newtonian and relativistic), we are now announcing the “holico-solanthropic” revolution. The implications for Science are considerable.

• Synchronicity, an illusion?

  Bruno Bérard, le Apr. 3, 2024If synchronicity proves a contrario to be illusory according to statistical science, the hypothesis of an unus mundus appears consistent with the notion of the universe’s unique wave function in quantum physics. It remains to distinguish between interpretation and over-interpretation, especially in the light of metaphysics.

• Umwelt, Welt, Weltanschauung, Überwelt

  Bruno Bérard, le Jan. 23, 2024A summary of worlds, from the Umwelt (proper world) of the living to the Platonic semantic world, via the Weltanschauungen (world views) and the world (Welt) of science. The progression follows the disappearance of the notion of cause in science, and its inevitable distance from reality.

• The Limit of the Formula: “by Chance AND by Necessity”

  Bruno Bérard, le Nov. 26, 2023If chance appears as an admission of ignorance, it’s because it contradicts a scientific approach that has always been formulated as “knowledge through causes”. This paradox, “by chance AND by necessity”, is a coordinating conjunction that sums up the effort of scientific knowledge to transform “chance” into necessity and, in this case, the renunciation of achieving this.

• Philosophy and Science, Epistemic Opening and Closing of the Concept

  Bruno Bérard, le Oct. 6, 2023If there is a fundamental difference between science and philosophy, it lies in the legitimate – and constitutive – reduction of the concept to a calculable logical reason in science, whereas what characterizes philosophy is the epistemic openness of the concept. Philosophy is discovered by distinguishing intelligence from reason, which has always been the case, except for those who were enamoured of Kantianism and overly attached to the illusory comfort of a narrow rationalism.

• Does Time Precede Space?

  Bruno Bérard, le Sep. 2, 2023What is time? What is space? Questions for ever asked and that modern space-time theory has not extinguished. The purpose of this paper is to consider these questions scientifically, philosophically and metaphysically so that to answer the critical question: does time precedes space, which seems to be the case in Christianity.

• Wolfgang Smith: Cosmology in the Face of Gnosis

  Bruno Bérard, le Sep. 2, 2023Our world cannot be known else than through an anthropic realism, which denounces the contradiction of contemporary Weltanschauung. The enigma of “seeing the world” thus denounces the so-called Enlightenment as an obscurantism and the renewed cosmologia perennis appears to be in line with the Indian tribhuvana doctrine.

• Wolfgang Smith on Science and Epistemic Closure of the Concept

  Bruno Bérard, le Sep. 1, 2023Wolfgang Smith’s paper exposes Jean Borella’s philosophical doctrine of “epistemic closure”, followed by a developed application to (modern) science, then to the related scientist contradiction, and finally to contemporary quantum physics.

• Unmasking “AI”

  Bruno Bérard, le Sep. 1, 2023A—perhaps non-accidental—failure to distinguish linguistically between reason (dianoia, ratio) and intelligence (noûs, intellectus) has given rise to the term “artificial intelligence” which consequently engenders misunderstanding if not indeed fear. In keeping with the original meaning of the words in question, the term “artificial intelligence” should de jure be denominated “artificial reason,” a correction which might help to resolve a great deal of confusion and perhaps even forestall disaster.