In his book Intuitionism, David Kaspar is after the truth. That is to say, on his view, “philosophy is the search for the whole truth” (p. 7). Intuitionism, then, “reflects that standpoint” (p. 7). My comments are meant to reflect the same standpoint. More explicitly, my aim in these comments is to evaluate the arguments for intuitionism, as I understand them from reading Kaspar’s book. In what follows, I focus on three arguments in particular, which can be found (...) in Chapters 1, 2, and 3 of Intuitionism: an inference to the best explanation, an argument from the analogy between mathematical knowledge and moral knowledge, and an argument from the epistemic preferability of the intuitive principles. I will discuss them in this order. (shrink)

An emerging field operating at the intersection of artificial intelligence, materials science, physical chemistry, and nanotechnology targets the creation of intelligent matter. However, despite demonstration of a range of interesting behaviours in molecular systems and soft materials, the goal of producing truly intelligent matter remains elusive. To aid the research effort, Kaspar and colleagues have elaborated a theoretical framework which purports to guide and evaluate progress towards the goal. In this paper, I address foundational conceptual issues with this intelligent (...) matter framework. In particular, I argue that the absence of a normative criterion by which to assess the behaviour of proto-intelligent material systems prevents the framework from adequately serving its guiding and evaluative functions. Without a clear specification of what kinds of behaviours count as intelligent in the first place, researchers are unlikely to develop material systems that exhibit them. I propose to augment the IMF with a normative criterion requiring that purportedly intelligent systems implement concrete behaviours which contribute towards higher-order goals in virtue of the coordinated activity of their functional elements. (shrink)