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82Self-assembling GamesBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science 68 (2): 329-353. 2017.We consider how cue-reading, sensory-manipulation, and signaling games may initially evolve from ritualized decisions and how more complex games may evolve from simpler games by polymerization, template transfer, and modular composition. Modular composition is a process that combines simpler games into more complex games. Template transfer, a process by which a game is appropriated to a context other than the one in which it initially evolved, is one mechanism for modular composition. And polyme…Read more
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79This paper concerns two composite Lewis-Skyrms signaling games. Each consists in a base game that evolves a language descriptive of nature and a metagame that coevolves a language descriptive of the base game and its evolving language. The first composite game shows how a pragmatic notion of truth might coevolve with a simple descriptive language. The second shows how a pragmatic notion of probability might similarly coevolve. Each of these pragmatic notions is characterized by the particular ga…Read more
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77Computer implication and the Curry paradoxJournal of Philosophical Logic 33 (6): 631-637. 2004.There are theoretical limitations to what can be implemented by a computer program. In this paper we are concerned with a limitation on the strength of computer implemented deduction. We use a version of the Curry paradox to arrive at this limitation
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74Faithful description and the incommensurability of evolved languagesPhilosophical Studies 147 (1). 2010.Skyrms-Lewis signaling games illustrate how meaningful language may evolve from initially meaningless random signals (Lewis, Convention 1969; Skyrms 2008). Here we will consider how incommensurable languages might evolve in the context of signaling games. We will also consider the types of incommensurability exhibited between evolved languages in such games. We will find that sequentially evolved languages may be strongly incommensurable while still allowing for increasingly faithful description…Read more
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69The evolution, appropriation, and composition of rulesSynthese 195 (2): 623-636. 2018.This paper concerns how rule-following behavior might evolve in the context of a variety of Skyrms–Lewis signaling game, how such rules might subsequently evolve to be used in new contexts, and how such appropriation allows for the composition of evolved rules. We will also consider how the composition of simpler rules to form more complex rules may be significantly more efficient than evolving the complex rules directly. And we will review an example of rule following by pinyon and scrub jays a…Read more
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69Abstraction in Algorithmic LogicJournal of Philosophical Logic 37 (1): 23-43. 2008.We develop a functional abstraction principle for the type-free algorithmic logic introduced in our earlier work. Our approach is based on the standard combinators but is supplemented by the novel use of evaluation trees. Then we show that the abstraction principle leads to a Curry fixed point, a statement C that asserts C ⇒ A where A is any given statement. When A is false, such a C yields a paradoxical situation. As discussed in our earlier work, this situation leaves one no choice but to rest…Read more
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67Quantum WorldsPrincipia: An International Journal of Epistemology 20 (1): 45-60. 2016.Because of the conceptual difficulties it faces, quantum mechanics provides a salient example of how alternative metaphysical commitments may clarify our understanding of a physical theory and the explanations it provides. Here we will consider how postulating alternative quantum worlds in the context of Hugh Everett III’s pure wave mechanics may serve to explain determinate measurement records and the standard quantum statistics. We will focus on the properties of such worlds, then briefly cons…Read more
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64We consider how cue-reading, sensory-manipulation, and signaling games may initially evolve from ritualized decisions and how more complex games may evolve from simpler games by polymerization, template transfer, and modular composition. Modular composition is a process that combines simpler games into more complex games. Template transfer, a process by which a game is appropriated to a context other than the one in which it initially evolved, is one mechanism for modular composition. And polyme…Read more
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63A Note on the Physical Possibility of Transfinite ComputationBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science 61 (4): 867-874. 2010.In this note, we consider constraints on the physical possibility of transfinite Turing machines that arise from how one models the continuous structure of space and time in one's best physical theories. We conclude by suggesting a version of Church's thesis appropriate as an upper bound for physical computation given how space and time are modeled on our current physical theories
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61Epistemology and the Structure of LanguageErkenntnis 87 (2): 953-967. 2020.We are concerned here with how structural properties of language may come to reflect features of the world in which it evolves. As a concrete example, we will consider how a simple term language might evolve to support the principle of indifference over state descriptions in that language. The point is not that one is justified in applying the principle of indifference to state descriptions in natural language. Instead, it is that one should expect a language that has evolved in the context of f…Read more
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61A resolution of the quantum measurement problem would require one to explain how it is that we end up with determinate records at the end of our measurements. Metaphysical commitments typically do real work in such an explanation. Indeed, one should not be satisfied with one's metaphysical commitments unless one can provide some account of determinate measurement records. I will explain some of the problems in getting determinate records in relativistic quantum field theory and pay particular at…Read more
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60Quantum Randomness and UnderdeterminationPhilosophy of Science 87 (3): 391-408. 2020.We consider the nature of quantum randomness and how one might have empirical evidence for it. We will see why, depending on one’s computational resources, it may be impossible to determine whether...
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57On the Coevolution of Theory and Language and the Nature of Successful InquiryErkenntnis 79 (S4): 1-14. 2014.Insofar as empirical inquiry involves the coevolution of descriptive language and theoretical commitments, a satisfactory model of empirical knowledge should describe the coordinated evolution of both language and theory. But since we do not know what conceptual resources we might need to express our future theories or to provide our best future faithful descriptions of the world, we do not now know even what the space of future descriptive options might be. One strategy for addressing this shif…Read more
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52IntroductionTopoi 14 (1): 1-6. 1995.On Bohm's formulation of quantum mechanics particles always have determinate positions and follow continuous trajectories. Bohm's theory, however, requires a postulate that says that particles are initially distributed in a special way: particles are randomly distributed so that the probability of their positions being represented by a point in any regionR in configuration space is equal to the square of the wave-function integrated overR. If the distribution postulate were false, then the theor…Read more
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52Rule-Following and the Evolution of Basic ConceptsPhilosophy of Science 81 (5): 829-839. 2014.This article concerns how rule-following behavior might evolve, how an old evolved rule might come to be appropriated to a new context, and how simple concepts might coevolve with rule-following behavior. In particular, we consider how the transitive inferential rule-following behavior exhibited by pinyon and scrub jays might evolve in the context of a variety of the Skyrms-Lewis signaling game, then how such a rule might come to be appropriated to carry out inferences regarding stimuli differen…Read more
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52On the Coevolution of Basic Arithmetic Language and KnowledgeErkenntnis 78 (5): 1025-1036. 2013.Skyrms-Lewis sender-receiver games with invention allow one to model how a simple mathematical language might be invented and become meaningful as its use coevolves with the basic arithmetic competence of primitive mathematical inquirers. Such models provide sufficient conditions for the invention and evolution of a very basic sort of arithmetic language and practice, and, in doing so, provide insight into the nature of a correspondingly basic sort of mathematical knowledge in an evolutionary co…Read more
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50Abstract: C. S. Peirce's psychological analysis of belief, doubt, and inquiry provides insights into the nature of scientific knowledge. These in turn can be used to construct an account of scientific knowledge where the notions of belief, truth, rational justification, and inquiry are determined by the relationships that must hold between these notions. I will describe this account of scientific knowledge and some of the problems it faces. I will also describe the close relationship between pra…Read more
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49The Quantum Mechanics of Minds and WorldsOxford University Press. 1999.Jeffrey Barrett presents the most comprehensive study yet of a problem that has puzzled physicists and philosophers since the 1930s.
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49The Evolution of Simple Rule-FollowingBiological Theory 8 (2): 142-150. 2013.We are concerned here with explaining how successful rule-following behavior might evolve and how an old evolved rule might come to be successfully used in a new context. Such rule-following behavior is illustrated in the transitive judgments of pinyon and scrub-jays (Bond et al., Anim Behav 65:479–487, 2003). We begin by considering how successful transitive rule-following behavior might evolve in the context of Skyrms–Lewis sender–receiver games (Lewis, Convention. Harvard University Press, Ca…Read more
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44Self-Assembling Games and the Evolution of SalienceBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science 74 (1): 75-89. 2023.This article considers how a generalized signalling game may self-assemble as the saliences of the agents evolve by reinforcement on those sources of information that in fact lead to successful action. On the present account, generalized signalling games self-assemble even as the agents co-evolve meaningful representations and successful dispositions for using those representations. We will see how reinforcement on successful information sources also provides a mechanism whereby simpler games mi…Read more
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42Humean learning (how to learn)Philosophical Studies 1-17. forthcoming.David Hume’s skeptical solution to the problem of induction was grounded in his belief that we learn by means of custom. We consider here how a form of reinforcement learning like custom may allow an agent to learn how to learn in other ways as well. Specifically, an agent may learn by simple reinforcement to adopt new forms of learning that work better than simple reinforcement in the context of specific tasks. We will consider how such a bootstrapping process may lead to a system that includes…Read more
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41The Conceptual Foundations of Quantum MechanicsOxford University Press. 2019.This book provides an introduction to the conceptual foundations of quantum mechanics, from classical mechanics and a discussion of the quantum phenomena that undermine our classical intuitions about how the physical world works, to the quantum measurement problem and alternatives to the standard von Neumann-Dirac formulation.
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41Review of I. Ekeland, The Broken Dice, and Other Mathematical Tales of Chance (review)Philosophia Mathematica 3 (3): 310-313. 1995.
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39Typical worldsStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 58 31-40. 2017.
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39Oracles, Aesthetics, and Bayesian ConsensusPhilosophy of Science 63 (Supplement): 273-280. 1996.In order for Bayesian inquiry to count as objective, one might argue that it must lead to a consensus among those who use it and share evidence, but presumably this is not enough. It has been proposed that one should also require that the consensus be reached from very different initial opinions by conditioning only on basic experimental evidence, evidence free from subjective, social, or psychological influence. I will argue here, however, that this notion of objectivity in Bayesian inquiry is …Read more
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38A field-theoretic version of Wigner’s friend (1961) illustrates how the quantum measurement problem arises for field theory. Similarly, considering spacelike separate measurements of entangled fields by observers akin to Wigner’s friend shows the sense in which relativistic constraints make the measurement problem particularly difficult to resolve in the context of a relativistic field theory. We will consider proposals by Wigner (1961), Bloch (1967), Helwig and Kraus (1970), and Bell (1984) for…Read more
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35Daniel J. Velleman. How to prove it. A structured approach. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, New York, and Oakleigh, Victoria, 1994, x + 309 pp (review)Journal of Symbolic Logic 60 (4): 1329-1330. 1995.
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32Review: Daniel J. Velleman, How to prove it. A structed approach (review)Journal of Symbolic Logic 60 (4): 1329-1330. 1995.
Irvine, California, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Epistemology |
Philosophy of Physical Science |
General Philosophy of Science |
Areas of Interest
Logic and Philosophy of Logic |
Philosophy of Mathematics |