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162Is classical mechanics time reversal invariant?British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 45 (3): 907-913. 1994.
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94Time Travel and BecomingThe Monist 88 (3): 413-422. 2005.I wish to discuss a supposed implication of one sort of time travel. The sort of time travel is time travel into one’s past along a closed timelike curve. The implication is that in spacetimes with CTCs there can be no temporal passage or “flow” of time. I will argue that the implication does not hold.
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8Tachyons and Causal Theories of Space-TimePhilosophie Et Culture: Actes du XVIIe Congrès Mondial de Philosophie 3 155-159. 1988.
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33Palle Yourgrau, Gödel Meets Einstein: Time Travel in the Gödel Universe Reviewed byPhilosophy in Review 21 (3): 229-233. 2001.
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28Wittgenstein’s Early Philosophy of MathematicsPhilosophy Research Archives 5 539-553. 1979.Wittgenstein's remarks in his Tractatus on mathematics are quite obscure. Benacerraf and Putnam wrote, "In his Tractatus Loqico-Philosophicus, Wittgenstein maintained, following Russell and Frege, that mathematics was reducible to logic." On the other hand, Max Black claims, "Wittgenstein does not regard mathematics as reducible to logic, in the manner of Whitehead and Russell." I offer a detailed commentary upon Wittgenstein's remarks, concluding that his views most likely do not follow those o…Read more
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151The Structure and Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics R. I. G. Hughes Cambridge, MA, and London: Harvard University Press, 1989, ix + 369 pp., US$42.50 (review)Dialogue 32 (4): 833-. 1993.
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22Relativity, Locality and TenseIn Mauricio Suárez, Mauro Dorato & Miklós Rédei (eds.), EPSA Philosophical Issues in the Sciences · Launch of the European Philosophy of Science Association, Springer. pp. 211--217. 2009.
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41Epistemological Time AsymmetryPSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1990. 1990.In a recent book, Asymmetries in Time, Paul Horwich presents a systematic account of various temporal asymmetries, including a neo-Reichenbachian account of the (apparent) fact that we know more about the past than the future, the epistemological time asymmetry. I find some obscurities in Horwich's presentation, however, and I argue that when his view is understood in a way that I shall propose, it does represent an advance on Reichenbach's, but it fails to vindicate Horwich's "main point...that…Read more
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52The transient nowsIn Wayne C. Myrvold & Joy Christian (eds.), Quantum Reality, Relativistic Causality, and Closing the Epistemic Circle, Springer. pp. 349--362. 2009.
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23A Dilemma For Causal Reliabilist Theories of KnowledgeCanadian Journal of Philosophy 23 (1): 55-74. 1993.In a ‘Letter from Washington’ in The New Yorker, Elizabeth Drew reported some speculation regarding the mental processes of Ronald Reagan. In Drew’s words:The curious process Drew describes is clearly important in many ways -historically, politically, and perhaps legally. We contend that there is even some epistemological significance to Reagan’s method for the fixation of belief. We shall argue, in particular, that some of those curiously insulated beliefs which Reagan possesses qualify as know…Read more
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92Selective Scientific Realism, Constructive Empiricism, and the Unification of TheoriesMidwest Studies in Philosophy 18 (1): 154-165. 1993.
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36Hilary Putnam argued that the special theory of relativity shows that there can be no temporal becoming. Howard Stein replied by defining a becoming relation in Minkowski spacetime. Clifton and Hogarth extended and sharpened Stein’s results. Game over? To the contrary, it has been argued that the Stein-Clifton-Hogarth theorems actually support Putnam’s contention, in that if an apparently minimal condition is put on the becoming relation, then these theorems entail that the becoming relation mus…Read more
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19Tachyon Signals, Causal Paradoxes, and the Relativity of SimultaneityPSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1982. 1982.Some elementary properties of tachyons are described and then it is argued that the claim that (T) Tachyons exist, is incompatible with the truth of the Special Theory of Relativity (STR). First it is argued that from T, STR, and the negation of the principle that (Pl) Effect never precedes cause, one can derive a paradoxical conclusion, one of the so-called "causal paradoxes". An obvious response is to affirm (Pl), but then it is argued that (Pl) and (T) entail that STR is false.
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145I ❤️ ♦️ SStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 50 19-24. 2015.Richard Arthur and I proposed that the present in Minkowski spacetime should be thought of as a small causal diamond. That is, given two timelike separated events p and q, with p earlier than q, they suggested that the present is the set I+ ∩ I-. Mauro Dorato presents three criticisms of this proposal. I rebut all three and then offer two more plausible criticisms of the Arthur/Savitt proposal. I argue that these criticisms also fail
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Areas of Specialization
Metaphysics |
Philosophy of Physical Science |
Areas of Interest
Metaphysics |
Philosophy of Physical Science |