Speculative realism is one of the most talked-about movements in recent Continental philosophy. It has been discussed widely amongst the younger generation of Continental philosophers seeking new ...philosophical approaches and promises to form the cornerstone of future debates in the field. This book introduces the contexts out of which speculative realism has emerged and provides an overview of the major contributors and latest developments. It guides the reader through the important questions asked by realism (what can I know? what is reality?), examining philosophy's perennial questions in new ways. The book begins with the speculative realist's critique of 'correlationism', the view that we can never reach what is real beneath our language systems, our means for perception, or our finite manner of being-in- the-world. It goes on to critically review the work of the movement's most important thinkers, including Quentin Meillassoux, Ray Brassier, and Graham Harman, but also other important writers such as Jane Bennett and Catherine Malabou whose writings delineate alternative approaches to the real. It interrogates the crucial questions these thinkers have raised and concludes with a look toward the future of speculative realism, especially as it relates to the reality of time.
El realismo estructural epistémico (REE) afirma que el conocimiento que nos brindan las teorías científicas es acerca de la estructura del mundo inobservable, y no sobre su naturaleza. La objeción ...más importante que esta posición ha enfrentado es el llamado problema de Newman. En el presente trabajo ofrezco una objeción alternativa al REE. Sostengo que su formulación conduce a posiciones escépticas indeseables en dos campos próximos al realismo científico: los debates sobre la modalidad y las leyes de la naturaleza. Muestro además que hay un sentido interesante en el que mi objeción es más fuerte que la formulada por Newman.
According to epistemic structural realism (EER) scientific theories provide us only with knowledge about the structure of the unobservable world, but not about its nature. The most significant objection that this position has faced is the so-called Newman's problem. In this paper I offer an alternative objection to EER. I argue that its formulation leads to undesirable skeptical positions in two fields close to scientific realism: the debates on modality and laws of nature. I also show that there is an interesting sense in which my objection is stronger than the one offered by Newman.
The overall contention of this paper, conducted through an examination of the idea of a ‘critical direct realism’ as this was developed across the twentieth century first in the thought of Roy Wood ...Sellars (1880–1973) and then in a different form by his son Wilfrid Sellars (1912–1989), is that such a view, in both its conceptual and sensory representational dimensions, is plausible as a form of direct realism. However, to the extent that the mediating sensory or qualitative dimension was itself conceived by both thinkers in what I characterize as strongly ‘phenomenal realist’ terms, the resulting philosophical commitments were of a kind that most current direct realists would generally not accept, even in cases where they themselves are phenomenal realists (perhaps naïve realists). The various perceiver-dependent forms of that additional, perhaps detachable commitment of most critical realists is likely responsible for the assessment of William Pepperell Montague (1873–1953) and other ‘neo-realists’ that ‘critical realism’ is not really, as advertised by Roy Wood Sellars, a version of direct realism, but ultimately a retreat to indirect realism. However, I argue that in both of its primary conceptual and sensory representational commitments, ‘critical direct realism’ remains a plausible competitor to direct acquaintance versions of direct realism.
First, I answer the controversial question 'What is scientific realism?' with extensive reference to the varied accounts of the position in the literature. Second, I provide an overview of the key ...developments in the debate concerning scientific realism over the past decade. Third, I provide a summary of the other contributions to this special issue.
Belgian Exceptionalism Caluwaerts, Didier; Reuchamps, Min
2022, 20211124, 2021, 2021-11-24, Letnik:
1
eBook
Odprti dostop
This book takes stock of Belgium’s exceptional and – for some foreign observers –schizophrenic position in the political world and explains its idiosyncrasy to a non-Belgian audience. Offering a ...broad and comprehensive analysis of Belgian politics, the guiding questions throughout each of the chapters of this book are: Is Belgium a political enigma, and why? Along which axes is Belgium "exceptional" compared to other countries? And what insights does a comparative study of Belgian politics have to offer? The book therefore provides a critical assessment of how Belgian politics "stands out" internationally, both in good and bad ways – including consociationalism, federalism, democratic innovations, Euroscepticism, government formation, gender equality, among others – and which factors can explain Belgium’s exceptional position. Based on cutting-edge research findings, the book will be of wide interest to scholars and students of Belgian politics, European Politics and Comparative politics.
Realismus als Theorie und Heuristik Driedger, Jonas J
Zeitschrift für internationale Beziehungen,
01/2023, Letnik:
30, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Für große Teile der deutschen Politik und Politikwissenschaft kam der russische Angriff auf die Ukraine am 24. Februar 2022 als ein unerwarteter Schock. Gleichzeitig schien der Krieg realistische ...Kernaussagen zu bestätigen, beispielsweise durch Russlands erklärtes Ziel, gewaltsam eine zukünftige NATO-Mitgliedschaft der Ukraine zu verhindern. Infolgedessen beklagten prominente Kommentator*innen Vorurteile gegenüber dem Realismus in Deutschland. In der Tat ist im internationalen Vergleich der Realismus in der deutschen IB-Forschung unterrepräsentiert. Der Artikel argumentiert, dass eine idealtypische Unterscheidung zwischen realistischer Theorie und realistischer Heuristik weite Bereiche dieser Realismuskontroverse löst. Hierfür zeigt der Artikel beispielhaft auf, dass auch minimalistische Modelle realistischer Theorie für Kernfragen der ukrainisch-russisch-deutschen Sicherheitsbeziehungen wichtige Erklärungsbeiträge liefern können. Auch demonstriert der Artikel, inwiefern atheoretische realistische Heuristiken zu empirisch falschen, nur vermeintlich autoritativen und politisch problematischen Annahmen über die ukrainisch-russisch-deutschen Beziehungen führen können.
Chuck Chuck Baby Coman, Sherry
The journal of religion and film,
10/2023, Letnik:
27, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Somehow life has dealt her hard turns: she is sharing a home with her ex-husband, his new partner and their baby. The film's story articulates this through the decline of Gwen, who increasingly and ...urgently wants Helen to be happy. Because Gwen can sense Helen's longing for Joanne, we sense that Gwen's commitment to Helen will move beyond her own death. There is an unexpected quality of magic realism to Chuck Chuck Baby, especially in a moment when all of the women climb to the top of a nearby mountain and find unusual rainbow-colored poppy-like flowers in the meadow which seem out of place within the Welsh landscape, and perhaps right off the side of a 1960s Volkswagen bug.
In this paper, we introduce a two‐layered approach addressing the problem of creating believable mesh‐based skin deformation. For each frame, the skin is first deformed with a classic linear blend ...skinning approach, which usually leads to unsightly artefacts such as the well‐known candy‐wrapper effect and volume loss. Then we enforce some geometric constraints which displace the positions of the vertices to mimic the behaviour of the skin and achieve effects like volume preservation and jiggling. We allow the artist to control the amount of jiggling and the area of the skin affected by it. The geometric constraints are solved using a position‐based dynamics (PBDs) schema. We employ a graph colouring algorithm for parallelizing the computation of the constraints. Being based on PBDs guarantees efficiency and real‐time performances while enduring robustness and unconditional stability. We demonstrate the visual quality and the performance of our approach with a variety of skeleton‐driven soft body characters.
In this paper, we introduce a two‐layered approach addressing the problem of creating believable mesh‐based skin deformation. For each frame, the skin is first deformed with a classic linear blend skinning approach, which usually leads to unsightly artefacts such as the well‐known candy‐wrapper effect and volume loss. Then we enforce some geometric constraints which displace the positions of the vertices to mimic the behaviour of the skin and achieve effects like volume preservation and jiggling. We allow the artist to control the amount of jiggling and the area of the skin affected by it. The geometric constraints are solved using a position‐based dynamics (PBDs) schema. We employ a graph colouring algorithm for parallelizing the computation of the constraints. Being based on PBDs guarantees efficiency and real‐time performances while enduring robustness and unconditional stability.
My aim in this thesis is to investigate the nature of the relationship between Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and heterodox economics in general and then to explore the potential for MMT to contribute ...to an alternative heterodox paradigm. First, I examine the key principles and antecedents of MMT and compare its explanatory power with that of mainstream macroeconomic theory under different exchange rate systems. Second, I consider the most influential literature in relation to the methodology of economics and analyse the methodology employed by mainstream economists and their attitude towards academic freedom in order to establish the reasons why mainstream economics was apparently able to retain its hegemonic status in the aftermath of the global financial crisis (GFC). This is despite its inability to predict its occurrence or provide an adequate explanation for it. Such an analysis is a critical pre-cursor to the specification of an alternative paradigm. Third, I assess the applicability of critical realism both to the study of economics and to the behaviour of the economics profession itself. Following on from this, I utilise a qualitative primary research programme, explicitly based upon critical realism, to examine the possibility of constructing a methodologically-based heterodox paradigm. The nature of such a paradigm and the potential role for Modern Monetary Theory as a key contributor are then evaluated. Finally, I consider whether such a structure might be considered as a feasible alternative to the mainstream or, alternatively, should the advocates of MMT operate primarily as stand-alone school.