-
91Selective Scientific Realism, Constructive Empiricism, and the Unification of TheoriesMidwest Studies in Philosophy 18 (1): 154-165. 1993.
-
35Hilary 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
-
18Tachyon 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.
-
108I ❤️ ♦️ 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
-
2Fred I. Dretske, Knowledge and the Flow of Information Reviewed byPhilosophy in Review 3 (2): 55-58. 1983.
-
11Understanding Space‐Time: The Philosophical Development of Physics from Newton to Einstein (review)Isis 100 136-137. 2009.
-
30Time’s Arrow Today: Recent Physical and Philosophical Work on the Direction of TimePhilosophical Review 106 (4): 627. 1997.One of the questions that is addressed, from various perspectives, is the origin of time-asymmetry. Given the time-symmetry of the dynamical laws, all inferences about the future that are derivable from a dynamical theory are matched by inferences about the past. For Huw Price, who discusses the origins of cosmological time asymmetry, this is reason to treat all time-asymmetric cosmological theories with caution. He dismisses both the inflationary model and Stephen Hawking’s proposal to account …Read more
-
294There’s No Time like the PresentPhilosophy of Science 67 (3): 574. 2000.Mark Hinchliff concludes a recent paper, "The Puzzle of Change," with a section entitled "Is the Presentist Refuted by the Special Theory of Relativity?" His answer is "no." I respond by arguing that presentists face great difficulties in merely stating their position in Minkowski spacetime. I round up some likely candidates for the job and exhibit their deficiencies
-
11IntroductionStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 37 (3): 393. 2006.
-
29The Structure of Scientific Theories, edited and with a critical introduction by Frederick SuppeDialogue 16 (2): 328-345. 1977.This volume is the record of a symposium on the structer of scientific theories held in urbana, Illinois in the spring of 1969. ofSeven main papers, commentaries, discussions, and a postscript form the bulk of the book. The rest is a nearly 240-page monograph-in-the-guise-of-an-introduction by the editor titled “The Search for Philosophic Understanding of Scientific Theories”.
-
31Time and Space Barry Dainton Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2001, xiv + 386 pp., $75.00, $29.95 paper (review)Dialogue 43 (1): 174-. 2004.Barry Dainton wrote Time and Space “to provide an introduction to the contemporary philosophical debate that presupposes little or nothing by way of prior exposure to the subject, but that will also take the interested and determined reader quite a long way”. He has achieved much of what he intended in this difficult enterprise. He covers the major arguments in a fair-minded way, writes clearly, and has found a good illustrator to provide a host of diagrams that his student readers in particular…Read more
-
993Presentism and eternalism in perspectiveIn Dennis Dieks (ed.), The Ontology of Spacetime I, Elsevier. 2006.The distinction between presentism and eternalism is usually sought in some formula like ‘Only presently existing things exist’ or ‘Past, present, and future events are equally real’. I argue that ambiguities in the copula prevent these slogans from distinguishing significant opposed positions. I suggest in addition that one can find a series of significant distinctions if one takes spacetime structure into account. These presentisms and eternalisms are not contradictory. They are complementary …Read more
-
55World Enough and Space-TimeDialogue 31 (4): 701-. 1992.John Earman's new book,World Enough and Space-Time, is a brisk account of the controversy between space-time absolutists and relationists. The book is intended, one is told, to be “appropriate for use in an upper-level undergraduate or beginning graduate course in the philosophy of science”, but Earman's no-holds-barred approach to the mathematics of space-time theories will have bludgeoned most philosophical readers, undergraduate or beyond, into submission long before it is revealed that Piran…Read more
-
139The replacement of timeAustralasian Journal of Philosophy 72 (4). 1994.This Article does not have an abstract
Vancouver, Canada
Areas of Specialization
Metaphysics |
Philosophy of Physical Science |
Areas of Interest
Metaphysics |
Philosophy of Physical Science |