Identity philosophies

On identity philosophy see A. Callinicos, Althusser s Marxism (London Pluto Press, 1976), p. 19 and ch. 3 P. Dews, Logics of Disintegration Poststructuralist Thought and the Claims of Critical Theory (London Verso, 1987), ch. 1 and 3. 

Jackson, F. (2002a). From reduction to type-type identity Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 3, 644—7. 

The solution that has been adopted by makers of composite soundboards is to fabricate a sandwich structure where a layer of high-quality cardboard is glued between two identical layers of CFRP (Fig. 28.22). The philosophy of this design modification is to replace some CFRP by a much lighter material in those regions that contribute least to the overall stiffness of the section. 

The homeland, like the discipline as a whole, is a terrain that is recognized for what it is both by its native members and by outsiders. External recognition is an important element of disciplinary identity. Chemistry can be said to have existed as a clearly defined discipline earlier than physics partly because it was a domain clearly recognized by others as a well-defined body of knowledge and of laboratory practice, useful in medicine, agriculture, and industry. Chemistry was of more immediate interest than natural philosophy or physics to civic and entrepreneurial interests. 

In distinguishing physicists and chemists on the basis of the identity criterion of values and problems, it is appropriate to emphasize the molecule as the heart of the chemists problem-solving concerns. Historically, the chemist s molecules have differed from the physicist s objects of study not just in linear scale but in the multifunctionality of the chemical molecule s character and behavior and in its capacity for generating wholly new objects, in addition to moving through space. The natural history tradition of chemistry is just as important as its natural philosophy tradition. 

The most famous work of "chemical philosophy" in the second half of the nineteenth century is Stanislao Cannizzaro, "Sketch of a Course of Chemical Philosophy" (1858 Edinburgh Alembic Club reprint 18, 1947), in which he argues the identity of the chemical and physical atom. 

If chemical "principles" were understood by philosophers to be invisible or visible matter, "cause" was understood to be invisible force. Like so many other chemists in the eighteenth century, Macquer and Baume assumed that the forces of chemical affinity are simply instances of physical forces. 18 They took Newton to be a student of these affinity forces, and they found congenial Peter Shaw s view that "it was by means of chemistry that Sir Isaac Newton has made a great part of his discoveries in natural philosophy." 19 The notion of the identity of chemical and physical force was based in the principle of economy, expressed in the standard form that similar effects "must arise from the same law, if we are not to multiply causes. "20... 

A major part of Taguchi s philosophy centers around the separation of effects caused by noise factors and effects caused by control factors. Control factors are variables that are under the control of the experimenter flow rate, pH, concentration, reactor temperature, etc. In contrast, noise factors are variables that are not under the control of the experimenter ambient temperature, ambient humidity, identity of process operator (Joe or Jane), source of raw material, etc. Control factors are sometimes called process factors noise factors are sometimes called environmental factors. 

The general philosophy is in fact identical to that used for the radial variables. The reader is referred to Ref. 87 for further details of the manner in which the operation of the Hamiltonian operator on the wavepacket is accomplished. 

But the chemists struggle with chemical identity was mostly empirical, and toward philosophy chemists remained indifferent, or more precisely entirely unconscious of it. The chemists pride had long been in their devotion to the laboratory, an emphasis that kept chemistry separate from and independent of the more philosophical traditions of the universities, partially isolating chemical thought from mainstream thought. At best it enabled chemistry to resist the attempted incursions of the mechanical philosophy, and to ignore the species debates of the naturalists as unreal or arbitrary. 

A titah (order) of the king in 1984 already referred to the concept of Melayu Islam Beraja (MIB Malay, Muslim, Monarchy), and it has been particularly emphasised since 1990. In that year the Academy of Brunei Studies was established at the University, and undertook responsibility for teaching the obligatory undergraduate course in MIB. MIB has subsequently been repeatedly enunciated as part of the official philosophy of the state, around which a national identity in the fashion of Anderson s official nationalism might be built. 

There are two other notions in terms of which one may try to provide a criterion for sharing a domain explanation and token-identity. The idea that explanation can do the job comes from the philosophy of science, where it is often said that a new and better theory should explain the successes and failures of its predecessor. The superior theory is expected to make clear why the inferior theory worked in certain cases and why it failed in other cases. One may try to elevate this explanatory relation into a criterion for sharing a domain. So one may say that Aristotelian physics and mechanics intersect because we can account for the successes and failures of Aristotelian physics in terms of mechanics. This solution seems unsuitable for several reasons. One may note that it is theories which explain, not... 

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