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Actualist fallacies, from fax machines to lunar journeys

Philosophy and Literature 34 (1):pp. 173-187 (2010)

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Shechtman’s three question marks: possibility, impossibility, and quasicrystals. [REVIEW]Amihud Gilead - 2012 - Foundations of Chemistry 15 (2):209-224.details The revolutionary discovery of actual quasicrystals, thanks to Dan Shechtman’s stamina, is a golden opportunity to analyze once again the role that pure (“theoretical”) possibilities and saving them plays in scientific progress. Some theoreticians, primarily Alan Mackay, contributed to saving pure possibilities of quasicrystalline structures and to opening materials science for them. My analysis rests upon an original modal metaphysics—panenmentalism—which I introduced and have been developing since 1999, quite independently of any familiarity with modern crystallography, and which deals with saving (...) Download Export citation Bookmark 6 citations
Pure possibilities and some striking scientific discoveries.Amihud Gilead - 2013 - Foundations of Chemistry 16 (2):149-163.details Regardless or independent of any actuality or actualization and exempt from spatiotemporal and causal conditions, each individual possibility is pure. Actualism excludes the existence of individual pure possibilities, altogether or at least as existing independently of actual reality. In this paper, I demonstrate, on the grounds of my possibilist metaphysics—panenmentalism—how some of the most fascinating scientific discoveries in chemistry could not have been accomplished without relying on pure possibilities and the ways in which they relate to each other . The (...) Download Export citation Bookmark 4 citations
(1 other version)Further light on the philosophical significance of Mackay’s theoretical discovery of crystalline pure possibilities.Amihud Gilead - 2018 - Foundations of Chemistry 21 (3):285-296.details As early as 1981, about 1 year before Shechtman’s discovery of an actual quasicrystal, Alan L. Mackay discussed, in a seminal paper, the first steps for the expansion of crystallography toward its modern phase. In this phase, new possibilities of structures and order, such as the structures of five-fold symmetry, for crystals have been discovered. Medieval Islamic decorators as well as Albrecht Dürer, Johannes Kepler, Roger Penrose, Mackay himself, and other pioneer crystallographers raised important contributions to the theoretical discovery of (...) Download Export citation Bookmark 1 citation
Eka-elements as chemical pure possibilities.Amihud Gilead - 2016 - Foundations of Chemistry 18 (3):183-194.details From Mendeleev’s time on, the Periodic Table has been an attempt to exhaust all the chemical possibilities of the elements and their interactions, whether these elements are known as actual or are not known yet as such. These latter elements are called “eka-elements” and there are still some of them in the current state of the Table. There is no guarantee that they will be eventually discovered, synthesized, or isolated as actual. As long as the actual existence of eka-elements is (...) Download Export citation Bookmark 6 citations
Chain reactions, “impossible” reactions, and panenmentalist possibilities.Amihud Gilead - 2014 - Foundations of Chemistry 16 (3):201-214.details Panenmentalist possibilities are individual pure possibilities existing independently of any mind, actual reality, and possible-world conception. These possibilities are a priori accessible to our intellect and imagination. In this paper, I attempt to shed some panenmentalist light on the discovery of chemical branched chain reactions and its implications on biology and cancer research. I also examine the case of the Belousov–Zhabotinsky reaction which, at first, was believed to be impossible. Finally, I proceed to examine through a panenmentalist lens Szilard’s discovery (...) Download Export citation Bookmark 3 citations

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