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8Space-time as a physical quantityIn P. Achinstein & R. Kagon (eds.), Kelvin’s Baltimore Lectures and Modern Theoretical Physics, Mit Press. pp. 425--448. 1987.
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1026In practice theoretical terms are open-ended in not being attached to anything completely specific. This raises a problem for scientific realism: If there is no one completely specific kind of thing that might be in the extension of “atom”, what is it to claim that atoms exist? A realist’s solution is to say that in theoretical contexts of mature atom-theories there are things that play the role of atoms as characterized in that theory-context. The paper closes with a laundry list of problems th…Read more
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170Quantum mechanics and the nature of continuous physical quantitiesJournal of Philosophy 76 (7): 345-361. 1979.
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161Modeling TruthPhilosophia 45 (1): 143-161. 2017.Many in philosophy understand truth in terms of precise semantic values, true propositions. Following Braun and Sider, I say that in this sense almost nothing we say is, literally, true. I take the stand that this account of truth nonetheless constitutes a vitally useful idealization in understanding many features of the structure of language. The Fregean problem discussed by Braun and Sider concerns issues about application of language to the world. In understanding these issues I propose an al…Read more
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183From Physics to MetaphysicsPhilosophical Review 106 (2): 272. 1997.The book is drawn from the Tarner lectures, delivered in Cambridge in 1993. It is concerned with the ultimate nature of reality, and how this is revealed by modern physical theories such as relativity and quantum theory. The objectivity and rationality of science are defended against the views of relativists and social constructionists. It is claimed that modern physics gives us a tentative and fallible, but nevertheless rational, approach to the nature of physical reality. The role of subjectiv…Read more
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435Particle labels and the theory of indistinguishable particles in quantum mechanicsBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science 43 (2): 201-218. 1992.We extend the work of French and Redhead [1988] further examining the relation of quantum statistics to the assumption that quantum entities have the sort of identity generally assumed for physical objects, more specifically an identity which makes them susceptible to being thought of as conceptually individuatable and labelable even though they cannot be experimentally distinguished. We also further examine the relation of such hypothesized identity of quantum entities to the Principle of the I…Read more
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ReductionIn Robert Audi (ed.), The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, Cambridge University Press. pp. 679--80. 1995.
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233Infinite renormalizationPhilosophy of Science 56 (2): 238-257. 1989.In quantum field theory divergent expressions are "discarded", leaving finite expressions which provide the best predictions anywhere in science. In fact, this "renormalization procedure" involves no mystery or illegitimate operations. This paper explains, in terms accessible to non-experts, how the procedure really works and explores some different ways in which physicists have suggested that one understand it
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131Critical Study: Nancy Cartwright's The Dappled World: A Study of the Boundaries of ScienceNoûs 36 (4): 699-725. 2002.
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151The projection postulate: A new perspectivePhilosophy of Science 51 (3): 369-395. 1984.Previous work has shown that the problem of measurement in quantum mechanics is not correctly seen as one of understanding some allegedly univocal process of measurement in nature which corresponds to the projection postulate. The present paper introduces a new perspective by showing that how we are to understand the nature of the change of quantum mechanical state on measurement depends very sensitively on the interpretation of the state function, and by showing how attention to this dependence…Read more
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44Sentence logicPrentice-Hall. 1989.Table of Contents Volume I Preface to Volumes I and II: A Guide to the Primer Chapter 1, Basic Ideas and Tools Chapter 2, Transcription between English and Sentence Logic Chapter 3, Logical Equivalence, Logical Truths, and Contradictions Chapter 4, Validity and Conditionals Chapter 5, Natural Deduction for Sentence Logic: Fundamentals Chapter 6, Natural Deduction for Sentence Logic: Strategies Chapter 7, Natural Deduction for Sentence Logic: Derived Rules and Derivations without Premises Chapter…Read more
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303Substance, relations, and arguments about the nature of space-timePhilosophical Review 100 (3): 363-397. 1991.
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65Concepts of Science: A Philosophical Analysis (review)Philosophical Review 82 (1): 110-114. 1973.
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3Quantum mechanics and haecceitiesIn Elena Castellani (ed.), Interpreting Bodies: Classical and Quantum Objects in Modern Physics, Princeton University Press. pp. 114--141. 1998.
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193Modeling, Truth, and PhilosophyMetaphilosophy 43 (3): 257-274. 2012.Knowledge requires truth, and truth, we suppose, involves unflawed representation. Science does not provide knowledge in this sense but rather provides models, representations that are limited in their accuracy, precision, or, most often, both. Truth as we usually think of it is an idealization, one that serves wonderfully in most ordinary applications, but one that can terribly mislead for certain issues in philosophy. This article sketches how this happens for five important issues, thereby sh…Read more
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252How we dapple the worldPhilosophy of Science 71 (4): 425-447. 2004.This essay endorses the conclusion of Sklar’s “Dappled Theories in a Uniform World” that he announces in his abstract, that notwithstanding recent attacks foundational theories are universal in their scope. But Sklar’s rejection of a “pluralist ontology” is questioned. It is concluded that so called “foundational” and “phenomenological” theories are on a much more equal footing as sources of knowledge than Sklar would allow, that “giving an ontology” generally involves dealing in idealizations, …Read more
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96Truth Probability and Paradox: Studies in Philosophical LogicPhilosophical Review 84 (2): 276. 1975.
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124Particles, particle labels, and quanta: The toll of unacknowledged metaphysics (review)Foundations of Physics 21 (1): 43-62. 1991.The practice of describing multiparticle quantum systems in terms of labeled particles indicates that we think of quantum entities as individuatable. The labels, together with particle indistinguishability, create the need for symmetrization or antisymmetrization (or, in principle, higher-order symmetries), which in turn results in “surplus formal structure” in the formalism, formal structure which corresponds to nothing in the real world. We argue that these facts show quanta to be unindividuat…Read more
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863This paper challenges “traditional measurement-accuracy realism”, according to which there are in nature quantities of which concrete systems have definite values. An accurate measurement outcome is one that is close to the value for the quantity measured. For a measurement of the temperature of some water to be accurate in this sense requires that there be this temperature. But there isn’t. Not because there are no quantities “out there in nature” but because the term ‘the temperature of thi…Read more
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1041Conventional scientific realism is just the doctrine that our theoretical terms refer. Conventional antirealism denies, for various reasons, theoretical reference and takes theory to give us only information about the word of the perceptual where reference, it would appear, is secure. But reference fails for the perceptual every bit as much for the perceptual as for the theoretical, and for the same reason: the world is too complicated for us to succeed in attaching specific referents to our ter…Read more
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163Essential properties: Some problems and conjecturesJournal of Philosophy 72 (9): 233-248. 1975.
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53The Projection Postulate and Bohr's Interpretation of Quantum MechanicsPSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1980 201-223. 1980.This article explains why Bohr does not need to discuss the projection postulate or the "problem of measurement". Beginning with a thumbnail sketch of Bohr 's general views, it is argued that Bohr interprets the state function as giving a statistical summary of experimental outcomes. Against the objection that Bohr was too much a microrealist to endorse such an instrumentalist statistical interpretation it is suggested that he rejected the issue of microrealism as not well formed. It is shown th…Read more
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98A metaphysics for contemporary field theoriesStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 28 (4): 507-522. 1997.