This thesis is about the conceptualization of persistence of physical, middle-sized objects within the theoretical framework of the revisionary ‘B-theory’ of time. According to the B-theory, time does not flow, but is an extended and inherently directed fourth dimension along which the history of the universe is ‘laid out’ once and for all. It is a widespread view among philosophers that if we accept the B-theory, the commonsensical ‘endurance theory’ of persistence will have to be rejected. The endurance theory says (...) that objects persist through time by being wholly present at distinct times as numerically the same entity. Instead of endurantism, it has been argued, we have to adopt either ‘perdurantism’ or the ‘stage theory’. Perdurantism is the theory that objects are four-dimensional ‘space-time worms’ persisting through time by having distinct temporal parts at distinct times. The stage theory says that objects are instantaneous temporal parts (stages) of space-time worms, persisting by having distinct temporal counterparts at distinct times. In the thesis, it is argued that no good arguments have been provided for the conclusion that we are obliged to drop the endurance theory by acceptance of the B-theory. This conclusion stands even if the endurance theory incorporates the claim that objects endure through intrinsic change. It is also shown that perdurantism and the stage theory come with unwelcome consequences. -/- Paper I demonstrates that the main arguments for the view that objects cannot endure in B-time intrinsically unchanged fail. Papers II and III do the same with respect to the traditional arguments against endurance through intrinsic change in B-time. Paper III also contains a detailed account of the semantics of the tenseless copula, which occurs frequently in the debate. The contention of Paper IV is that four-dimensional space-time worms, as traditionally understood, are not suited to take dispositional predicates. In Paper V, it is shown that the stage theory needs to introduce an overabundance of persistence-concepts, many of which will have to be simultaneously applicable to a single object (qua falling under a single sortal), in order for the theory to be consistent. The final article, Paper VI, investigates the sense in which persistence can, as is sometimes suggested, be a ‘conventional matter’. It also asks whether alleged cases of ‘conventional persistence’ create trouble for the endurance theory. It is argued that conventions can only enter at a trivial semantic level, and that the endurance theory is no more threatened by such conventions than are its rivals. (shrink)

Après un examen des emplois antérieurs du terme « pseudotechnologie », une définition est proposée : « Une pseudotechnologie est une technologie présumée, irrémédiablement dysfonctionnelle pour l’usage auquel elle est destinée, puisqu’elle est basée sur des principes de construction qui ne peuvent pas être mis en œuvre ». La relation entre la pseudotechnologie et la pseudoscience est examinée, tout comme la relation entre la pseudotechnologie et le concept beaucoup plus faible de malfonction technologique. Une explication est proposée de la raison (...) pour laquelle la pseudotechnologie est beaucoup plus rarement mentionnée que la pseudoscience : le dysfonctionnement d’une technologie se manifeste généralement au moment de son utilisation, tandis que le dysfonctionnement d’une science est généralement plus difficile à établir. (shrink)

This book is in honour of Professor Anna-Sofia Maurin on her 50th birthday. It consists of eighteen essays on metaphysical issues written by Swedish and international scholars.

Receiving information about threats to one’s health can contribute to anxiety and depression. In contemporary medical ethics there is considerable consensus that patient autonomy, or the patient’s right to know, in most cases outweighs these negative effects of information. Worry about the detrimental effects of information has, however, been voiced in relation to public health more generally. In particular, information about uncertain threats to public health, from—for example, chemicals—are said to entail social costs that have not been given due consideration. (...) This criticism implies a consequentialist argument for withholding such information from the public in their own best interest. In evaluating the argument for this kind of epistemic paternalism, the consequences of making information available must be compared to the consequences of withholding it. Consequences that should be considered include epistemic effects, psychological effects, effects on private decisions, and effects on political decisions. After giving due consideration to the possible uses of uncertain information and rebutting the claims that uncertainties imply small risks and that they are especially prone to entail misunderstandings and anxiety, it is concluded that there is a strong case against withholding of information about uncertain threats to public health. (shrink)

This article discusses Sven Ove Hansson’s corpus model for the influence of values (in particular, non-epistemic ones) in the hypothesis acceptance/rejection phase of scientific inquiry. This corpus model is based on Hansson’s concepts of scientific corpus and science ‘in the large sense’. I first present Hansson’s corpus model of value influence with some introductory comments about its origins, a detailed presentation of the model with a new terminology, an analysis of its limits, and an appreciation of its (...) handling of controversial non-epistemic values. I conclude that it is a very good candidate for managing value influence, because contrary to other models in the literature it is fairly simple, it provides a universal and systematic procedure for dealing with values, and it syste- matically preserves the epistemic integrity of science. I then study some difficulties associated with the model’s central feature of taking the maximum level of evidence required by the applications of a claim in order for the latter to enter the scientific corpus: the difficulty to identify this maximum requirement; the non-optimality of this requirement with respect to other less demanding requirements; the potentially detrimental consequences of the preference for false negatives over false positives on which it relies; and the issue of whether there can nevertheless be requirements higher than this maximum. I show that these issues may potentially challenge the corpus model. Finally, I call for empirical work (in particular, an investigation of scientists’ and engineers’ own normative views) in order to better assess these issues. (shrink)

Paper presented at the symposium on the occasion of the retirement of Sven Ove Hansson. The symposium took place on 13-14 December 2019 at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden.

Este resumo é um trabalho baseado no artigo publicado por Ferreira (2021), intitulado "Será a psicanálise uma pseudociência? Reavaliando a doutrina utilizando uma lista de multicritérios". Além de se apoiar nele, coloca uma proposta de expansão sobre as implicações éticas de sua conclusão. O artigo original, publicado na revista Debates em Psiquiatria, busca fazer uma avaliação da doutrina psicanalítica utilizando da proposta de demarcação de Sven Ove Hansson.

Muitos psicólogos ainda pensam que a maior referência para falar sobre a demarcação de ciência/pseudociência é Popper. Entretanto, as discussões sobre o problema da demarcação não se encerraram com o critério da falseabilidade, e a filosofia teve diversos avanços. Este trabalho tem por objetivo atualizar os estudantes e profissionais de psicologia sobre os avanços no campo da filosofia da ciência, com um enfoque na teoria de Hansson. Para isso, foi consultado o livro “Philosophy of Pseudoscience: Reconsidering the Demarcation Problem”, (...) obra que marcou o começo da reviravolta sobre o alegado fim do problema da demarcação, bem como os ensaios de Hansson disponíveis na literatura. Foi possível observar que, após Popper, Laudan foi outro filósofo que teve um importante impacto no debate. Ele tentou decretar o fim da discussão, tratando a demarcação como um pseudoproblema, e afirmando que todas as tentativas de demarcar ciência/pseudociência anteriores haviam fracassado, incluindo a de Popper. Por muito tempo seu decreto vigorou, até que novas teorias foram desenvolvidas e filósofos da ciência começaram um movimento para contrapô-lo. Uma das teorias contemporâneas é a de Hansson, que propõe uma definição ampliada de ciência, não se resumindo às ciências empíricas. Para ele, ciência é a prática que nos fornece as afirmações mais confiáveis que podem ser feitas, em um determinado momento, sobre um objeto de estudos abarcado por uma comunidade de disciplinas de conhecimento. Já a pseudociência, para Hansson, é uma doutrina desviante que se afasta consideravelmente dos critérios de qualidade científicos, enquanto seus maiores proponentes tentam criar a impressão de que ela representa o que há de mais confiável sobre seu objeto de estudos. A proposta de Hansson também apresenta uma lista de multicritérios, que auxiliam a identificar se uma determinada doutrina é pseudocientífica. Ela inclui os seguintes itens: 1) Credo na autoridade, 2) Experimentos não repetíveis, 3) Exemplos escolhidos a dedo, 4) Resistência à testagem, 5) Desdém com informações refutantes, 6) Construída em subterfúgio, e 7) Explicações são abandonadas sem substituição. Ao discutir as propostas contemporâneas para o problema da demarcação, psicólogos e analistas do comportamento terão melhores recursos para diferenciar ciência da pseudociência. (shrink)

Straightening the current ‘value-laden turn’ (VLT) in the philosophical literature on values in science, and reviving the legacy of the value-free ideal of science (VFI), this paper argues that the influence of extra-scientific values should be minimised—not excluded—in the core phase of scientific inquiry where claims are accepted or rejected. Noting that the original arguments for the VFI (ensuring the truth of scientific knowledge, respecting the autonomy of science results users, preserving public trust in science) have not been satisfactorily addressed (...) by proponents of the VLT, it proposes four prerequisites which any model for values in the acceptance/rejection phase of scientific inquiry should respect, coming from the fundamental requirement to distinguish between facts and values: (1) the truth of scientific knowledge must be ensured; (2) the uncertainties associated with scientific claims must be stated clearly; (3) claims accepted into the scientific corpus must be distinguished from claims taken as a basis for action. An additional prerequisite of (4) simplicity and systematicity is desirable, if the model is to be applicable. Methodological documents from international institutions and regulation agencies are used to illustrate the prerequisites. A model combining Betz’s conception (stating uncertainties associated with scientific claims) and Hansson’s corpus model (ensuring the truth of the scientific corpus and distinguishing it from other claims taken as a basis for action) is proposed. Additional prerequisites are finally suggested for future research, stemming from the requirement for philosophy of science to self-reflect on its own values: (5) any model for values in science must be descriptively and normatively relevant; and (6) its consequences must be thoroughly assessed. (shrink)

Two systems of belief change based on paraconsistent logics are introduced in this article by means of AGM-like postulates. The first one, AGMp, is defined over any paraconsistent logic which extends classical logic such that the law of excluded middle holds w.r.t. the paraconsistent negation. The second one, AGMo , is specifically designed for paraconsistent logics known as Logics of Formal Inconsistency (LFIs), which have a formal consistency operator that allows to recover all the classical inferences. Besides the three usual (...) operations over belief sets, namely expansion, contraction and revision (which is obtained from contraction by the Levi identity), the underlying paraconsistent logic allows us to define additional operations involving (non-explosive) contradictions. Thus, it is defined external revision (which is obtained from contraction by the reverse Levi identity), consolidation and semi-revision, all of them over belief sets. It is worth noting that the latter operations, introduced by S. Hansson, involve the temporary acceptance of contradictory beliefs, and so they were originally defined only for belief bases. Unlike to previous proposals in the literature, only defined for specific paraconsistent logics, the present approach can be applied to a general class of paraconsistent logics which are supraclassical, thus preserving the spirit of AGM. Moreover, representation theorems w.r.t. constructions based on selection functions are obtained for all the operations. (shrink)

Many healthcare practices expose people to risks of harmful outcomes. However, the major theories of moral philosophy struggle to assess whether, when and why it is ethically justifiable to expose individuals to risks, as opposed to actually harming them. Sven Ove Hansson has proposed an approach to the ethical assessment of risk imposition that encourages attention to factors including questions of justice in the distribution of advantage and risk, people’s acceptance or otherwise of risks, and the scope individuals have (...) to influence the practices that generate risk. This paper investigates the ethical justifiability of preventive healthcare practices that expose people to risks including overdiagnosis. We applied Hansson’s framework to three such practices: an ‘ideal’ breast screening service, a commercial personal genome testing service, and a guideline that lowers the diagnostic threshold for hypertension. The framework was challenging to apply, not least because healthcare has unclear boundaries and involves highly complex practices. Nonetheless, the framework encouraged attention to issues that would be widely recognised as morally pertinent. Our assessment supports the view that at least some preventive healthcare practices that impose risks including that of overdiagnosis are not ethically justifiable. Further work is however needed to develop and/or test refined assessment criteria and guidance for applying them. (shrink)

The philosophy of superdeterminism is based on a single scientific fact about the universe, namely that cause and effect in physics are not real. In 2020, accomplished Swedish theoretical physicist, Dr. Johan Hansson published a physics proof using Albert Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity that our universe is superdeterministic meaning a predetermined static block universe without cause and effect in physics. Because of this new scientific understanding of our universe, the nature of miracles must be predetermined events that occur (...) within our static block universe. The predetermined static nature of our universe lends itself to the predetermined occurrence of miracles without the necessity of any intervention in time or interference with the laws of physics. Moreover, the new philosophy of superdeterminism supports the existence of a Creator God capable of predetermining the occurrence of miracles in human events. (shrink)

The new philosophy of superdeterminism is a specific approach to answering fundamental questions about existence, knowledge, and morality based on a single scientific fact about the universe, namely that cause and effect in physics are not real. In 2020, Swedish theoretical physicist, Dr. Johan Hansson published a physics proof that our universe is superdeterministic meaning a predetermined static block universe without cause and effect in physics. A new philosophy of superdeterminism based on this scientific discovery that cause and effect (...) are not real has many important implications for human beings, but one especially important implication is a disproof of existentialism. The major tenets of existentialism cannot be true in the absence of cause and effect in physics, such as the existence of free will or freedom of choice, the lack of predetermined human behavior, the absurdity of life in the face of the inevitability of death, and the meaninglessness of existence, life and the universe. (shrink)

The philosophy of superdeterminism is based on a single scientific fact about the universe, namely that cause and effect in physics are not real. In 2020, accomplished Swedish theoretical physicist, Dr. Johan Hansson published a physics proof using Albert Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity that our universe is superdeterministic meaning a predetermined static block universe without cause and effect in physics. Consequently, all your future behaviors and thoughts must also be predetermined and already exist in a future portion of (...) the static dimension of time in our block universe. Because consciousness must be an aspect of physical reality, then the physical reality of the brain must be capable of producing your subjective experience of the world. Our conscious subjective experience of ourselves and the world around us is a construct of our own brain’s neural network containing ideas and concepts representing the physical reality of the world and ourselves. Moreover, our conscious minds must exist at all points in our existence within our block universe whether our past, present or future selves, because our block universe always exists because nothing within physics can cause our universe not to exist in the absence of cause and effect in physics. One should be concerned with every moment of your conscious life to guard against conscious experiences you would not want endlessly repeated in our block universe. (shrink)

The philosophy of superdeterminism is based on a single scientific fact about the universe, namely that cause and effect in physics are not real. In 2020, accomplished Swedish theoretical physicist, Dr. Johan Hansson published a physics proof using Albert Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity that our universe is superdeterministic meaning a predetermined static block universe without cause and effect in physics. This new scientific understanding of the nature of our universe largely comports with Catholic doctrine. The new philosophy of (...) superdeterminism supports Catholic doctrines, such as original sin, the Trinity, the divine attributes of God, the incarnation, the resurrection of Jesus, the authority of the Roman Catholic Church, the existence of an afterlife in Heaven, Hell or Purgatory, miracles and spiritual experiences. The philosophy of superdeterminism supports Catholicism albeit under a new scientific way of thinking about our universe as a predetermined static block reality without cause and effect in physics. (shrink)

The philosophy of superdeterminism is based on a single scientific fact about the universe, namely that cause and effect in physics are not real. In 2020, accomplished Swedish theoretical physicist, Dr. Johan Hansson published a physics proof using Albert Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity that our universe is superdeterministic meaning a predetermined static block universe without cause and effect in physics. So, what impact does living in a predetermined static block universe without cause and effect in physic have on (...) living your life? The single most important impact is the strong scientific evidence supporting the existence of God. The second most important impact is that you can infer that God endorsed Christianity and the Catholic Church, because one would expect God to communicate with humanity by predetermining His will to be the predominant religion and Church on Earth. The third most important impact is the realization that your life is endlessly repeated in our block universe. The philosophy of superdeterminism has many other significant impacts on our understanding of God, the universe and meaning in life. (shrink)

The philosophy of superdeterminism is based on a single scientific fact about the universe, namely that cause and effect in physics are not real. In 2020, accomplished Swedish theoretical physicist, Dr. Johan Hansson published a physics proof using Albert Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity that our universe is superdeterministic meaning a predetermined static block universe without cause and effect in physics. In the absence of cause and effect in physics, past, present and future events must all exist equally in (...) logical relationship. Our experience of time must be an illusion, because our experience of change in our world is not actually caused in time. Rather, the change we experience in our world is caused by the changing appearances in our static block universe in the static fourth dimension of time. We should think of time as a distance in the fourth dimension of time from our present position in the dimension of time to another position either towards or away from the beginning of the universe. Because physical reality is not actually caused to change in our static block universe, then static physical reality is actually timeless. But, because very good evidence supports the creation of timeless physical reality, then non-temporal causation of timeless physical reality outside of time is real. (shrink)

The philosophy of superdeterminism is based on a single scientific fact about the universe, namely that cause and effect in physics are not real. In 2020, accomplished Swedish theoretical physicist, Dr. Johan Hansson published a physics proof using Albert Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity that our universe is superdeterministic meaning a predetermined static block universe without cause and effect in physics. Scientists have observed purely random behavior at the quantum level, which has led some physicists to claim that our (...) universe started out as a purely random quantum fluctuation. While quantum randomness makes a real appearance in our static block universe, such predetermined quantum randomness does not prove a random cause for our universe. With good scientific evidence supporting the belief that our universe was created despite the absence of cause and effect in physics, one can infer that a non-temporal non-physical cause was responsible for the creation of our universe. However, this non-temporal cause would logically have to know of and understand everything about the universe it was creating before it created our universe. Consequently, this creator would have had to already know about the appearance of quantum randomness in our universe in order to create our universe to exhibit that quantum randomness in our static block universe. The philosophy of superdeterminism supports the existence of such a Creator God, who created our static block universe outside of time without the use of any natural causal forces to exhibit predetermined quantum randomness disproving any random cause for our universe. (shrink)

The philosophy of superdeterminism is based on a single scientific fact about the universe, namely that cause and effect in physics are not real. In 2020, accomplished Swedish theoretical physicist, Dr. Johan Hansson published a physics proof using Albert Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity that our universe is superdeterministic meaning a predetermined static block universe without cause and effect in physics. Some believe that the lack of cause and effect in physics would cripple science, but this is an absurd (...) notion given the fact that science has already been enormously successful in the absence of cause and effect in physics. Because the philosophy of superdeterminism is founded on a single scientific fact, then any of the implications of this philosophy are also rooted in science. The role of science under the philosophy of superdeterminism is the same as it has always been namely to understand the universe and offer technological solutions to the world’s problems. The philosophy of superdeterminism offers a means of harmonizing the belief in God and science for over half the world’s population by supporting the existence of God and the notion of bodily resurrection in the afterlife through inferences based on the science of physics. (shrink)

The new philosophy of superdeterminism is a specific approach to answering fundamental questions about existence, knowledge, and morality based on a single scientific fact about the universe, namely that cause and effect in physics are not real. Although the notion that cause and effect are not real has a long history in philosophy, recently a Swedish theoretical physicist, Dr. Johan Hansson published a physics proof that our universe is superdeterministic meaning a predetermined static block universe without cause and effect (...) in physics. A new philosophy of superdeterminism based on this scientific discovery that cause and effect are not real has many important implications for human beings, but three especially important implications are a disproof of libertarian free will, existentialism and moral evolution. Libertarian free will is impossible in the absence of cause and effect in physics. Existentialism is impossible in a predetermined universe. And one can infer that a Creator God endorsed objective Christian morality for all time disproving moral evolution. (shrink)

Introduction: In the past, psychoanalysis was classified as a pseudoscience. Karl Popper was one of those who objected to the idea that psychoanalysis is a science, using falsifiability. However, falsifiability cannot be considered sufficient anymore, since it carries major weaknesses and better alternatives to address the issue are available. Objective: This article intends to evaluate the scientific status of psychoanalysis concerning the demarcation problem. Method: In order to do so, Sven Ove Hansson’s criteria were used. His proposal consists of (...) a set of sufficient and necessary conditions which is complemented by a multicriteria list that helps identifying pseudosciences. It was analyzed how much psychoanalysis fits each of Hansson's seven items, besides proposing the addition of an eighth. Results: The results showed that psychoanalysis was compatible with all eight demarcation of pseudoscience’s items. Conclusion: In the end, the conclusion was that even if falsifiability was to be dismissed, the evidence suggests that there are still enough reasons to affirm that psychoanalysis is a pseudoscience, since it significantly deviates from scientific quality standards. (shrink)

In 2020, Swedish theoretical physicist, Dr. Johan Hansson published a physics proof that our universe is superdeterministic meaning a predetermined static block universe without cause and effect in physics. This physics proof that cause and effect in physics are not real provides a new avenue of insight useful in the philosophy of religion. For example, superdeterminism provides circumstantial scientific evidence of the existence of God and our own immortality in our static block universe. The implications of superdeterminism also include (...) disproof of existentialism, nihilism. deism, pantheism, transphysical beings, pagan gods, and the Copenhagen and Many Worlds Interpretations of quantum mechanics. The philosophy of superdeterminism also conceives of the soul as an information packet appearing in spacetime rather than a transphysical being. However, the philosophy of superdeterminism also supports the truth of Christianity and the resurrection of the body and brain after death in special other universes we call Heaven and Hell. But, the philosophy of superdeterminism disproves other religions besides the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. (shrink)