Wuppuluri S. Doria F.A. (Eds.) The Map and the Territory: Exploring the Foundations of Science, Thought and Reality

Springer International Publishing AG, 2018. — 638 p. — (The Frontiers Collection). — ISBN: 978-3-319-72477-5.This volume presents essays by pioneering thinkers including Tyler Burge, Gregory Chaitin, Daniel Dennett, Barry Mazur, Nicholas Humphrey, John Searle and Ian Stewart. Together they illuminate the Map/Territory Distinction that underlies at the foundation of the scientific method, thought and the very reality itself.
It is imperative to distinguish Map from the Territory while analyzing any subject but we often mistake map for the territory. Meaning for the Reference. Computational tool for what it computes. Representations are handy and tempting that we often end up committing the category error of over-marrying the representation with what is represented, so much so that the distinction between the former and the latter is lost. This error that has its roots in the pedagogy often generates a plethora of paradoxes/confusions which hinder the proper understanding of the subject. What are wave functions? Fields? Forces? Numbers? Sets? Classes? Operators? Functions? Alphabets and Sentences? Are they a part of our map (theory/representation)? Or do they actually belong to the territory (Reality)? Researcher, like a cartographer, clothes (or creates?) the reality by stitching multitudes of maps that simultaneously co-exist. A simple apple, for example, can be analyzed from several viewpoints beginning with evolution and biology, all the way down its microscopic quantum mechanical components. Is there a reality (or a real apple) out there apart from these maps? How do these various maps interact/intermingle with each other to produce a coherent reality that we interact with? Or do they not?Philosophy
Maps and Territories in Scientific Investigation
On the Ontology/Epistemology Distinction
*Intuition* in Classical Indian Philosophy: Laying the Foundation for a Cross-Cultural Study
The Map and the Territory
Iconic Representation: Maps, Pictures, and Perception
Scientific Realism in the Post-Kuhnian Times
Quantum Mechanics, the Manifestation of the Territory, and the Evolution of Maps
Theoretical Physics
How We Make Sense of the World: Information,
Map-Making, and the Scientific Narrative
Theories of Knowledge and Theories of Everything
Substantivalism and Relationism as Bad Cartography: Why Spatial Ontology Needs a Better Map
Force in Physics and in Metaphysics: A Brief History
Map and Territory in Physics: The Role of an Analogy in Black Hole Physics
Topological Foundations of Physics
Quantum Physics and Time from Inconsistent Marginals
Quantum Non-individuality: Background Concepts and Possibilities
Quantum Mechanics as a Semantic Problem
Mapping Quantum Reality: What to Do When the Territory Does Not Make Sense?
Mathematics/Computer Science
Mathematics, Maps, and Models
A View from Space: The Foundations of Mathematics
Reconciling the Realist/Anti Realist Dichotomy in the Philosophy of Mathematics
To the Edge of the Map
El Aleph, Or a Monster Lurks in the Belly of Computer Science
Two Algorithms for NP-Complete Problems and Their Relevance to Economics
Building the World Out of Information and Computation: Is God a Programmer, Not a Mathematician?
Biology/Cognitive Science
The Invention of Consciousness
The Fantasy of First-Person Science
Rethinking Life
Genome Regulation Is All Non-local: Maps and Functions
A Philosophical Perspective on a Metatheory of Biological Evolution
On How Epistemology and Ontology Converge Through Evolution: The Applied Evolutionary
Epistemological Approach Quantum Perspectives on Evolution.
In the Deserts of Cartography: Building, Dwelling, Mapping
Territory, Geographic Information, and the Map