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174Schrödinger's interpretation of quantum mechanics and the relevance of Bohr's experimental critiqueStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 37 (2): 275-297. 2006.E. Schrödinger's ideas on interpreting quantum mechanics have been recently re-examined by historians and revived by philosophers of quantum mechanics. Such recent re-evaluations have focused on Schrödinger's retention of space–time continuity and his relinquishment of the corpuscularian understanding of microphysical systems. Several of these historical re-examinations claim that Schrödinger refrained from pursuing his 1926 wave-mechanical interpretation of quantum mechanics under pressure from…Read more
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35Legitimizing Scientific Knowledge: An Introduction to Steve Fuller’s Social Epistemology (review)Dialogue 46 (3): 620. 2007.
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50Emergence of complementarity and the Baconian roots of Niels Bohr's methodStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 44 (3): 162-173. 2013.I argue that instead of a rather narrow focus on N. Bohr's account of complementarity as a particular and perhaps obscure metaphysical or epistemological concept (or as being motivated by such a concept), we should consider it to result from pursuing a particular method of studying physical phenomena. More precisely, I identify a strong undercurrent of Baconian method of induction in Bohr's work that likely emerged during his experimental training and practice. When its development is analyzed i…Read more
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165The Modern Synthesis of Darwinism and genetics regards non-genetic factors as merely constraints on the genetic variations that result in the characteristics of organisms. Even though the environment (including social interactions and culture) is as necessary as genes in terms of selection and inheritance, it does not contain the information that controls the development of the traits. S. Oyama’s account of the Parity Thesis, however, states that one cannot conceivably distinguish in a meaningfu…Read more
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54Editors’ IntroductionTheoria: Revista de Teoría, Historia y Fundamentos de la Ciencia 30 (2): 161-162. 2015.
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102The Limitations of Kim’s Reductive Physicalism in Accounting for Living Systems and an Alternative Nonreductionist OntologyActa Biotheoretica 55 (3): 243-267. 2007.Jaegwon Kim’s exclusion argument is a general ontological argument, applicable to any properties deemed supervenient on a microproperty basis, including biological properties. It implies that the causal power of any higher-level property must be reducible to the subset of the causal powers of its lower-level properties. Moreover, as Kim’s recent version of the argument indicates, a higher-level property can be causally efficient only to the extent of the efficiency of its micro-basis. In respons…Read more
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29Missing experimental challenges to the Standard Model of particle physicsStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 42 (1): 32-42. 2011.The success of particle detection in high energy physics colliders critically depends on the criteria for selecting a small number of interactions from an overwhelming number that occur in the detector. It also depends on the selection of the exact data to be analyzed and the techniques of analysis. The introduction of automation into the detection process has traded the direct involvement of the physicist at each stage of selection and analysis for the efficient handling of vast amounts of data…Read more
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16Essay reviewStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 39 (3): 694-699. 2008.
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35Why were Matrix Mechanics and Wave Mechanics considered equivalent?Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 39 (2): 444-461. 2008.A recent rethinking of the early history of Quantum Mechanics deemed the late 1920s agreement on the equivalence of Matrix Mechanics and Wave Mechanics, prompted by Schrödinger's 1926 proof, a myth. Schrödinger supposedly failed to prove isomorphism, or even a weaker equivalence (“Schrödinger-equivalence”) of the mathematical structures of the two theories; developments in the early 1930s, especially the work of mathematician von Neumann provided sound proof of mathematical equivalence. The alle…Read more
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136On Gene’s Action and Reciprocal CausationFoundations of Science 16 (1): 31-46. 2011.Advancing the reductionist conviction that biology must be in agreement with the assumptions of reductive physicalism (the upward hierarchy of causal powers, the upward fixing of facts concerning biological levels) A. Rosenberg argues that downward causation is ontologically incoherent and that it comes into play only when we are ignorant of the details of biological phenomena. Moreover, in his view, a careful look at relevant details of biological explanations will reveal the basic molecular le…Read more