Asymptotic Philosophers

A philosophy of science blog

All posts in Philosophy of Science

Who cares about Haag’s theorem?

Posted on Author Chris MitschPosted in Authors' corners, Method Matters, Philosophy of ScienceLeave a Reply
Chris Mitsch
Chris Mitsch
Chris studies the history and philosophy of science and mathematics. He is currently translating several works by Hilbert, Nordheim, and von Neumann as part of a project on the philosophy of mathematics that informed early quantum mechanics formalisms. He is also interested in: historical method and how this should inform general philosophy of science; the cognitive foundations of mathematics; and the construction of identity in (especially American) politics. Chris posts under the banner "Method Matters".
Chris Mitsch
Latest posts by Chris Mitsch (see all)

Just wanted to say a few quick things about Haag’s theorem, now that Marian (Gilton), David (Freeborn), and I have finished our first paper on it (hopefully! it was conditionally accepted prior to this most recent revision). 1 I’ve heard quite a few folks react to our interest in Haag’s theorem as an instance of…

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The Book Report Problem

Posted on Author Chris MitschPosted in Authors' corners, Method Matters, Philosophy of ScienceLeave a Reply
Chris Mitsch
Chris Mitsch
Chris studies the history and philosophy of science and mathematics. He is currently translating several works by Hilbert, Nordheim, and von Neumann as part of a project on the philosophy of mathematics that informed early quantum mechanics formalisms. He is also interested in: historical method and how this should inform general philosophy of science; the cognitive foundations of mathematics; and the construction of identity in (especially American) politics. Chris posts under the banner "Method Matters".
Chris Mitsch
Latest posts by Chris Mitsch (see all)

I’m currently sick and having trouble thinking through actual work, so instead I’m going to scratch an itch I’ve had for a while now. Many philosophers of science take close engagement with the relevant science to be necessary to their work. But, what does (should) this engagement look like?   I’m going to sneak up…

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Advice and causation

Posted on Author KinoPosted in Philosophy of Science, Scattered Plot
Kino
Kino
Kino specializes in the philosophy of statistics and its application in the social sciences. She looks at the methodology of social sciences in general but psychology in particular through the lens of data analysis. Kino posts under the banner "Scattered Plot".
Kino
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“When I get sad, I stop being sad and be awesome instead. True story.” — apparently from How I Met Your Mother, which I’ve never watched. — but I have played League of Legends and heard this from Rakan. In the a post on luck and hard work, I talked about how I’ve been thinking…

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On luck and hard work

Posted on Author KinoPosted in Philosophy of Science, Scattered Plot
Kino
Kino
Kino specializes in the philosophy of statistics and its application in the social sciences. She looks at the methodology of social sciences in general but psychology in particular through the lens of data analysis. Kino posts under the banner "Scattered Plot".
Kino
Latest posts by Kino (see all)

I recently came across an event where a successful woman shares her stories and strategies for being successful. I don’t usually seek out success books, but they are difficult to avoid. Consequently, I have encountered most of what this woman has said, including how “if you help others; they will help you in return” and…

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The genetics of what?

Posted on Author KinoPosted in Philosophy of Science, Scattered Plot
Kino
Kino
Kino specializes in the philosophy of statistics and its application in the social sciences. She looks at the methodology of social sciences in general but psychology in particular through the lens of data analysis. Kino posts under the banner "Scattered Plot".
Kino
Latest posts by Kino (see all)

A while back, I wrote a blog post about a GWAS (Genome-Wide Association Study) on the genetics of educational attainment. I mentioned how it was interesting that it was a GWAS on “educational attainment” rather than “intelligence” because, while the two seem closely connected in many people’s eyes, the latter appears more like the sort of…

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Men and the “Philosophical Society”

Posted on Author KinoPosted in Life in Academia, Philosophy of Science, Scattered Plot
Kino
Kino
Kino specializes in the philosophy of statistics and its application in the social sciences. She looks at the methodology of social sciences in general but psychology in particular through the lens of data analysis. Kino posts under the banner "Scattered Plot".
Kino
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Men are more likely to make misogynistic arguments; so are philosophers. Could this be the explanation of gender disparity within philosophy? Today, Daily Nous published a guest post by Christina Easton titled Women and the “Philosophical Personality”, with the provocative hypothesis: Research suggests that there is a cognitive task on which philosophers tend to perform…

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Genetics of education (it’s not what you think! … no quite, at least)

Posted on Author KinoPosted in Philosophy of Science, Scattered Plot1 Reply
Kino
Kino
Kino specializes in the philosophy of statistics and its application in the social sciences. She looks at the methodology of social sciences in general but psychology in particular through the lens of data analysis. Kino posts under the banner "Scattered Plot".
Kino
Latest posts by Kino (see all)

I have been taking a somewhat long break from blogging. A lot has happened recently. Some good: my partner and I just had a wedding, yay! Some not so good, which I won’t talk about today. Maybe I will at a later time. It turns out that, surprise surprise, stress does kill both creativity and…

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Is data special?

Posted on Author KinoPosted in Philosophy of Science, Scattered Plot
Kino
Kino
Kino specializes in the philosophy of statistics and its application in the social sciences. She looks at the methodology of social sciences in general but psychology in particular through the lens of data analysis. Kino posts under the banner "Scattered Plot".
Kino
Latest posts by Kino (see all)

This post is inspired by a twitter thread on whether you should trust a summary statistic (mean/ standard deviation/ Pearson’s correlation coefficient) without seeing a plot. Most people voted “no”, which seems to be motivated by a sentiment that accepting summary statistics without seeing the plot is trusting too much. See the full thread below.…

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“the fundamental lexical hypothesis”, universal personality traits, and umami

Posted on Author KinoPosted in Philosophy of Science, Scattered Plot
Kino
Kino
Kino specializes in the philosophy of statistics and its application in the social sciences. She looks at the methodology of social sciences in general but psychology in particular through the lens of data analysis. Kino posts under the banner "Scattered Plot".
Kino
Latest posts by Kino (see all)

The universal trait hypothesis Like many other psychology students, I was taught that “the various human traits and characters can be captured by five basic traits: conscientiousness, extroversion, emotional stability, openness-to-experience, agreeableness.” As someone who is not, by nature, very reflective, I never questioned what “can be captured” meant or how this caption was done.…

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Is intelligence a quantity?

Posted on Author KinoPosted in Philosophy of Science, Scattered Plot
Kino
Kino
Kino specializes in the philosophy of statistics and its application in the social sciences. She looks at the methodology of social sciences in general but psychology in particular through the lens of data analysis. Kino posts under the banner "Scattered Plot".
Kino
Latest posts by Kino (see all)

This post is inspired by this book, which I’m currently in the process of reading: What is a quantity? Aristotle, in his Metaphysics, defines two kinds of quantity: multitude and magnitude. A multitude is a collection of discrete objects that can be counted. A magnitude is more interesting. The Aristotelian quote says “A quantity is a…

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