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30Beyond Spacetime: The Foundations of Quantum Gravity (edited book)Cambridge University Press.. 2020.A collection of essays discussing the philosophy and foundations of quantum gravity. Written by leading philosophers and physicists in the field, chapters cover the important conceptual questions in the search for a quantum theory of gravity, and the current state of understanding among philosophers and physicists.
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26Critical review: Paul Teller's interpretive introduction to quantum field theoryPhilosophy of Science 63 (2): 302. 1996.Paul Teller's new book, “An Interpretive Introduction to Quantum Field Theory”, is a pioneering work. To the best of our knowledge it is the first book by a philosopher devoted not only to explaining what quantum field theory is, but to clarifying the conceptual issues and puzzles to which the theory gives rise. As such it is an important book, which we hope will greatly stimulate work in the area as other philosophers and physicists react to it.
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25Quentin Smith and L. Nathan Oaklander, Time, Change and Freedom: Introduction to Metaphysics Reviewed byPhilosophy in Review 16 (4): 297-298. 1996.
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19Essay Review-HARVEY R. BROWN: Physical Relativity: Space-Time Structure from a Dynamical PerspectivePhilosophy of Science 76 (3): 404. 2009.The two books discussed here make important contributions to our understanding of the role of spacetime concepts in physical theories and how that understanding has changed during the evolution of physics. Both emphasize what can be called a ‘dynamical’ account, according to which geometric structures should be understood in terms of their roles in the laws governing matter and force. I explore how the books contribute to such a project; while generally sympathetic, I offer criticisms of some hi…Read more
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16Gauge fields, gravity and Bohm's theoryIn Tian Yu Cao (ed.), Conceptual Foundations of Quantum Field Theory, Cambridge University Press. pp. 287-297. 1999.
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15Physics Meets Philosophy at the Planck Scale: Contemporary Theories in Quantum GravityCambridge University Press. 2001.Was the first book to examine the exciting area of overlap between philosophy and quantum mechanics with chapters by leading experts from around the world.
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14A popular-level discussion of the mutual significance of physics and philosophy over the ages.
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13Exposing the Machinery of Infinite RenormalizationPhilosophy of Science 63 (5). 1996.We explicate recent results that shed light on the obscure and troubling problem of renormalization in Quantum Field Theory. We review how divergent predictions arise in perturbative QFT, and how they are renormalized into finite quantities. Commentators have worried that there is no foundation for renormalization, and hence that QFTs are not logically coherent. We dispute this by describing the physics behind liquid diffusion, in which exactly analogous divergences are found and renormalized. B…Read more
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11Time in Quantum GravityIn Heather Dyke & Adrian Bardon (eds.), A Companion to the Philosophy of Time, Wiley. 2013.Physical time plays a different role in general relativity than in quantum mechanics and the particle physics based on it. The first section of this chapter provides a brief survey of the main approaches to quantum gravity and then proceeds to consider the lessons that can be drawn from two distinct strategies for discovering a theory of quantum gravity. In the next section, the chapter first explicates the fate of time in approaches to quantum gravity that start with general relativity (GR) and…Read more
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10Understanding Scientific Theories: An Assessment of Developments, 1969–1998 (review)Philosophy of Science 67 (3). 2000.The positivistic Received View construed scientific theories syntactically as axiomatic calculi where theoretical terms were given a partial semantic interpretation via correspondence rules connecting them to observation statements. This paper assesses what, with hindsight, seem the most important defects in the Received View; surveys the main proposed successor analyses to the Received View—various Semantic Conception versions and the Structuralist Analysis; evaluates how well they avoid those …Read more
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7Recently, Simon Saunders has applied Quine's account of discernibility to the theory of identical particles, ultimately to argue that quanta can be weakly discernible. I want to expand on this work along two axes. First, to explain how the results apply to higher kinds of statistics -- 'quarticles'. Second, to dispute the claim that quanta are weakly discernible: I question whether the operators used to discern the particles do not represent the properties that they are claimed to.
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4Learning through original texts can be a powerful heuristic tool. This book collects a dozen classic readings that are generally accepted as the most significant contributions to the philosophy of space. The readings have been selected both on the basis of their relevance to recent debates on the nature of space and on the extent to which they carry premonitions of contemporary physics. In his detailed commentaries, Nick Huggett weaves together the readings and links them to our modern understan…Read more
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1Physics Meets Philosophy at the Planck Scale, Contemporary Theories in Quantum GravityStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 35 (3): 531-537. 2001.
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1Space from Zeno to Einstein. Classic Readings with a Contemporary CommentaryTijdschrift Voor Filosofie 62 (4): 781-782. 2000.
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The Philosophy of Fields and Particles in Classical and Quantum Mechanics, Including the Problem of RenormalisationDissertation, Rutgers the State University of New Jersey - New Brunswick. 1995.This work first explicates the philosophy of classical and quantum fields and particles. I am interested in determining how science can have a metaphysical dimension, and then with the claim that the quantum revolution has an important metaphysical component. I argue that the metaphysical implications of a theory are properties of its models, as classical mechanics determines properties of atomic diversity and temporal continuity with its representations of distinct, continuous trajectories. ;It…Read more
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This is a chapter of the planned monograph "Out of Nowhere: The Emergence of Spacetime in Quantum Theories of Gravity", co-authored by Nick Huggett and Christian Wüthrich and under contract with Oxford University Press. (More information at www<dot>beyondspacetime<dot>net.) This chapter sketches how spacetime emerges in causal set theory and demonstrates how this question is deeply entangled with genuinely philosophical concerns.
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IntroductionIn Craig Callender & Nick Huggett (eds.), Physics Meets Philosophy at the Panck Scale, Cambridge University Press. 2001.
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Philosophical Foundations of Quantum Field TheoryIn Peter Clark & Katherine Hawley (eds.), Philosophy of science today, Oxford University Press Uk. 2003.
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