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Papers by Haines Brown
Social Science Research Network, 2017
Axiomathes, Aug 2, 2013
ABSTRACT The paper assumes that to be of practical interest process must be understood as physica... more ABSTRACT The paper assumes that to be of practical interest process must be understood as physical action that takes place in the world rather than being an idea in the mind. It argues that if an ontology of process is to accommodate actuality, it must be represented in terms of relative probabilities. Folk physics cannot accommodate this, and so the paper appeals to scientific culture because it is an emergent knowledge of the world derived from action in it. Process is represented as a contradictory probability distribution that does not depend on a spatio-temporal frame. An actuality is a probability density that grounds the values of probabilities to constitute their distributions. Because probability is a conserved value, probability distributions are subject to the constraint of symmetry and must be zero-sum. An actuality is locked-in by other actualities to become a zero-sum symmetry of probability values. It is shown that the locking-in of actualities constructs spatio-temporal locality, lends actualities specificity, and makes them a contradiction. Localization is the basis for understanding empirical observation. Because becoming depends on its construction of being, processes exist as trajectories. The historical trajectories of evolution and revolution as well as the non-historical trajectory of strong emergence are how processes are observed to exist.
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2017
The idea of emergence has enjoyed a remarkable resurgence a century after an initial outburst of ... more The idea of emergence has enjoyed a remarkable resurgence a century after an initial outburst of interest, coming not only from the British philosophers Kim mentions, but arguably more widely from people such as Henri Bergson, Friedrich Engels, Friedrich Nietzsche and the American pragmatists. I believe Kim stands on solid ground when he suggests that its intuitive appeal was that it drew needed philosophical attention to what is uplifting, creative and expansive. From a more sociological perspective, the prevailing mechanistic view of the world seemed increasingly inadequate as the contradictions of late 19th and early 20th-century Europe deepened and mainstream philosophers turned their attention to the Romantic and revolutionary undercurrents always present in European culture.
Axiomathes
The paper assumes that to be of practical interest process must be understood as physical action ... more The paper assumes that to be of practical interest process must be understood as physical action that takes place in the world rather than being an idea in the mind. It argues that if an ontology of process is to accommodate actuality, it must be represented in terms of relative probabilities. Folk physics cannot accommodate this, and so the paper appeals to scientific culture because it is an emergent knowledge of the world derived from action in it. Process is represented as a contradictory probability distribution that does not depend on a spatio-temporal frame. An actuality is a probability density that grounds the values of probabilities to constitute their distributions. Because probability is a conserved value, probability distributions are subject to the constraint of symmetry and must be zero-sum. An actuality is locked-in by other actualities to become a zero-sum symmetry of probability values. It is shown that the locking-in of actualities constructs spatio-temporal local...
Publikationsansicht. 4119428. Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims, his youth and preparation for a care... more Publikationsansicht. 4119428. Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims, his youth and preparation for a career / (1965). Brown, Howard Haines. Abstract. Thesis (MA)--Michigan State University. Dept. of History, 1965.. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 118-124). ...
Conference Presentations by Haines Brown
This paper seeks to recover the function of universal history, which was to place particulars int... more This paper seeks to recover the function of universal history, which was to place particulars into relation with universals. By the 20 th century universal history was largely discredited because of an idealism that served to lend epistemic coherence to the overwhelming complexity arising from universal history’s comprehensive scope. Idealism also attempted to account for history’s being “open”—for the human ability to transcend circumstance. The paper attempts to recover these virtues without the idealism by defining universal history not by its scope but rather as a scientific method that provides an understanding of any kind of historical process, be it physical, biological or human. While this method is not new, it is in need of a development that offers a more robust historiography and warrant as a liberating historical consciousness. The first section constructs an ontology of process by defining matter as ontic probabilities rather than as closed entities. This is lent warrant in the next section through an appeal to contemporary physical science. The resulting conceptual frame and method is applied to the physical domain of existents, to the biological domain of social being and finally to the human domain of species being. It is then used to account for the emergence of human history’s initial stage—the Archaic Socio-Economic Formation and for history’ stadial trajectory—its alternation of evolution and revolution.
This paper seeks to recover the function of universal history, which was to place particulars int... more This paper seeks to recover the function of universal history, which was to place particulars into relation with universals. By the 20th century universal history was largely discredited because of an idealism that served to lend epistemic coherence to the overwhelming complexity arising from universal history's comprehensive scope. Idealism also attempted to account for history's being "open"--for the human ability to transcend circumstance. The paper attempts to recover these virtues without the idealism by defining universal history not by its scope but rather as a scientific method that provides an understanding of any kind of historical process, be it physical, biological or human. While this method is not new, it is in need of a development that offers a more robust historiography and warrant as a liberating historical onsciousness. The first section constructs an ontology of process by defining matter as ontic probabilities rather than as closed entities. This is lent warrant in the next section through an appeal to contemporary physical science. The resulting conceptual frame and method is applied to the physical domain of existents, to the biological domain of social being and finally to the human domain of species being. It is then used to account for the emergence of human history's initial stage--the Archaic Socio-Economic Formation and for history' stadial trajectory--its alternation of evolution and revolution.
Social Science Research Network, 2017
Axiomathes, Aug 2, 2013
ABSTRACT The paper assumes that to be of practical interest process must be understood as physica... more ABSTRACT The paper assumes that to be of practical interest process must be understood as physical action that takes place in the world rather than being an idea in the mind. It argues that if an ontology of process is to accommodate actuality, it must be represented in terms of relative probabilities. Folk physics cannot accommodate this, and so the paper appeals to scientific culture because it is an emergent knowledge of the world derived from action in it. Process is represented as a contradictory probability distribution that does not depend on a spatio-temporal frame. An actuality is a probability density that grounds the values of probabilities to constitute their distributions. Because probability is a conserved value, probability distributions are subject to the constraint of symmetry and must be zero-sum. An actuality is locked-in by other actualities to become a zero-sum symmetry of probability values. It is shown that the locking-in of actualities constructs spatio-temporal locality, lends actualities specificity, and makes them a contradiction. Localization is the basis for understanding empirical observation. Because becoming depends on its construction of being, processes exist as trajectories. The historical trajectories of evolution and revolution as well as the non-historical trajectory of strong emergence are how processes are observed to exist.
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2017
The idea of emergence has enjoyed a remarkable resurgence a century after an initial outburst of ... more The idea of emergence has enjoyed a remarkable resurgence a century after an initial outburst of interest, coming not only from the British philosophers Kim mentions, but arguably more widely from people such as Henri Bergson, Friedrich Engels, Friedrich Nietzsche and the American pragmatists. I believe Kim stands on solid ground when he suggests that its intuitive appeal was that it drew needed philosophical attention to what is uplifting, creative and expansive. From a more sociological perspective, the prevailing mechanistic view of the world seemed increasingly inadequate as the contradictions of late 19th and early 20th-century Europe deepened and mainstream philosophers turned their attention to the Romantic and revolutionary undercurrents always present in European culture.
Axiomathes
The paper assumes that to be of practical interest process must be understood as physical action ... more The paper assumes that to be of practical interest process must be understood as physical action that takes place in the world rather than being an idea in the mind. It argues that if an ontology of process is to accommodate actuality, it must be represented in terms of relative probabilities. Folk physics cannot accommodate this, and so the paper appeals to scientific culture because it is an emergent knowledge of the world derived from action in it. Process is represented as a contradictory probability distribution that does not depend on a spatio-temporal frame. An actuality is a probability density that grounds the values of probabilities to constitute their distributions. Because probability is a conserved value, probability distributions are subject to the constraint of symmetry and must be zero-sum. An actuality is locked-in by other actualities to become a zero-sum symmetry of probability values. It is shown that the locking-in of actualities constructs spatio-temporal local...
Publikationsansicht. 4119428. Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims, his youth and preparation for a care... more Publikationsansicht. 4119428. Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims, his youth and preparation for a career / (1965). Brown, Howard Haines. Abstract. Thesis (MA)--Michigan State University. Dept. of History, 1965.. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 118-124). ...
This paper seeks to recover the function of universal history, which was to place particulars int... more This paper seeks to recover the function of universal history, which was to place particulars into relation with universals. By the 20 th century universal history was largely discredited because of an idealism that served to lend epistemic coherence to the overwhelming complexity arising from universal history’s comprehensive scope. Idealism also attempted to account for history’s being “open”—for the human ability to transcend circumstance. The paper attempts to recover these virtues without the idealism by defining universal history not by its scope but rather as a scientific method that provides an understanding of any kind of historical process, be it physical, biological or human. While this method is not new, it is in need of a development that offers a more robust historiography and warrant as a liberating historical consciousness. The first section constructs an ontology of process by defining matter as ontic probabilities rather than as closed entities. This is lent warrant in the next section through an appeal to contemporary physical science. The resulting conceptual frame and method is applied to the physical domain of existents, to the biological domain of social being and finally to the human domain of species being. It is then used to account for the emergence of human history’s initial stage—the Archaic Socio-Economic Formation and for history’ stadial trajectory—its alternation of evolution and revolution.
This paper seeks to recover the function of universal history, which was to place particulars int... more This paper seeks to recover the function of universal history, which was to place particulars into relation with universals. By the 20th century universal history was largely discredited because of an idealism that served to lend epistemic coherence to the overwhelming complexity arising from universal history's comprehensive scope. Idealism also attempted to account for history's being "open"--for the human ability to transcend circumstance. The paper attempts to recover these virtues without the idealism by defining universal history not by its scope but rather as a scientific method that provides an understanding of any kind of historical process, be it physical, biological or human. While this method is not new, it is in need of a development that offers a more robust historiography and warrant as a liberating historical onsciousness. The first section constructs an ontology of process by defining matter as ontic probabilities rather than as closed entities. This is lent warrant in the next section through an appeal to contemporary physical science. The resulting conceptual frame and method is applied to the physical domain of existents, to the biological domain of social being and finally to the human domain of species being. It is then used to account for the emergence of human history's initial stage--the Archaic Socio-Economic Formation and for history' stadial trajectory--its alternation of evolution and revolution.