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40Typical 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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84Self-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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94On Everett’s Formulation of Quantum MechanicsThe Monist 80 (1): 70-96. 1997.Everett wanted a formulation of quantum mechanics that (i) took the linear dynamics to be a complete and accurate description of the time-evolution of all physical systems and (ii) logically entailed the same subjective appearances predicted by the standard formulation of quantum mechanics. While most everyone would agree with this description of Everett’s project, there is little agreement on exactly how his relative-state formulation was supposed to work. In this paper, I consider two very dif…Read more
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105Approximate Truth and Descriptive NestingErkenntnis 68 (2): 213-224. 2008.There is good reason to suppose that our best physical theories, quantum mechanics and special relativity, are false if taken together and literally. If they are in fact false, then how should they count as providing knowledge of the physical world? One might imagine that, while strictly false, our best physical theories are nevertheless in some sense probably approximately true. This paper presents a notion of local probable approximate truth in terms of descriptive nesting relations between cu…Read more
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20The Quantum Mechanics of Minds and WorldsOxford University Press UK. 1999.Jeffrey Barrett presents the most comprehensive study yet of a problem that has puzzled physicists and philosophers since the 1930s. The standard theory of quantum mechanics is in one sense the most successful physical theory ever, predicting the behaviour of the basic constituents of all physical things; no other theory has ever made such accurate empirical predictions. However, if one tries to understand the theory as providing a complete and accurate framework for the description of the behav…Read more
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Quantum Mechanics Without the Collapse PostulateDissertation, Columbia University. 1992.Because of the measurement problem, the standard theory of quantum mechanics is at best incomplete and at worst logically inconsistent. Everett suggested that the measurement problem could be resolved by taking the linear dynamics to be a complete and accurate description of the time-evolution of every physical system. The purpose of this dissertation is to see what happens when one takes Everett's proposal seriously. This dissertation includes a discussion of the standard theory of quantum mech…Read more
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188Relativistic Quantum Mechanics through Frame‐Dependent ConstructionsPhilosophy of Science 72 (5): 802-813. 2005.This paper is concerned with the possibility and nature of relativistic hidden-variable formulations of quantum mechanics. Both ad hoc teleological constructions of spacetime maps and frame-dependent constructions of spacetime maps are considered. While frame-dependent constructions are clearly preferable, they provide neither mechanical nor causal explanations for local quantum events. Rather, the hiddenvariable dynamics used in such constructions is just a rule that helps to characterize the s…Read more
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53The 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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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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260A Quantum-Mechanical Argument for Mind–Body DualismErkenntnis 65 (1): 97-115. 2006.I argue that a strong mind–body dualism is required of any formulation of quantum mechanics that satisfies a relatively weak set of explanatory constraints. Dropping one or more of these constraints may allow one to avoid the commitment to a mind–body dualism but may also require a commitment to a physical–physical dualism that is at least as objectionable. Ultimately, it is the preferred basis problem that pushes both collapse and no-collapse theories in the direction of a strong dualism in res…Read more
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150Review of Bas C. van Fraassen: Scientific Representation: Paradoxes of Perspective (review)Journal of Philosophy 106 (11): 634-639. 2009.
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20We consider an extension of signaling games to the case of prediction, where one agent perceives the current state of the world and sends a signal. The second agent perceives this signal, and makes a prediction about the next state of the world. We suggest that such games may be the basis of a model for the evolution of successful theorizing about the world.
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59On 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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30Review of Daniel F. Styer: The Strange World of Quantum Mechanics (review)British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 52 (2): 393-396. 2001.
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77Faithful 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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172The preferred-basis problem and the quantum mechanics of everythingBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science 56 (2): 199-220. 2005.argued that there are two options for what he called a realistic solution to the quantum measurement problem: (1) select a preferred set of observables for which definite values are assumed to exist, or (2) attempt to assign definite values to all observables simultaneously (1810–1). While conventional wisdom has it that the second option is ruled out by the Kochen-Specker theorem, Vink nevertheless advocated it. Making every physical quantity determinate in quantum mechanics carries with it sig…Read more
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117Description and the Problem of PriorsErkenntnis 79 (6): 1343-1353. 2014.Belief-revision models of knowledge describe how to update one’s degrees of belief associated with hypotheses as one considers new evidence, but they typically do not say how probabilities become associated with meaningful hypotheses in the first place. Here we consider a variety of Skyrms–Lewis signaling game (Lewis in Convention. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1969; Skyrms in Signals evolution, learning, & information. Oxford University Press, New York, 2010) where simple descriptive lan…Read more
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107The distribution postulate in Bohm's theoryTopoi 14 (1): 45-54. 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 the…Read more
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103Stability and Paradox in Algorithmic LogicJournal of Philosophical Logic 36 (1): 61-95. 2007.There is significant interest in type-free systems that allow flexible self-application. Such systems are of interest in property theory, natural language semantics, the theory of truth, theoretical computer science, the theory of classes, and category theory. While there are a variety of proposed type-free systems, there is a particularly natural type-free system that we believe is prototypical: the logic of recursive algorithms. Algorithmic logic is the study of basic statements concerning alg…Read more
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70Quantum 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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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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25On the Coevolution of Theory and Language and the Nature of Successful InquiryErkenntnis 79 (Suppl 4): 821-834. 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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219The strange world of quantum mechanics Daniel F. styer (review)British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 52 (2): 393-396. 2001.
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30Hugh Everett III's pure wave mechanics is a deterministic physical theory with no probabilities. He nevertheless sought to show how his theory might be understood as making the same statistical predictions as the standard collapse formulation of quantum mechanics. We will consider Everett's argument for pure wave mechanics, how it depends on the notion of branch typicality, and the relationship between the predictions of pure wave mechanics and the standard quantum probabilities.
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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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69We 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
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 |