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8Musical NotationErgo: An Open Access Journal of Philosophy 11. 2024.The main goal of this essay is to propose and make plausible a framework for developing a philosophical account of musical notation. The proposed framework countenances four elements of notation: symbols (abstract objects that collectively constitute the backbone of a ‘system’ of notation), their characteristic ‘forms’ (for example, shapes, understood abstractly), the concrete instances, or ‘engravings’, of those forms, and the meanings of the symbols. It is argued that these elements are distin…Read more
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138Discourse on a New Method: Reinvigorating the Marriage of History and Philosophy of Science (edited book)Open Court. 2010.Addressing a wide range of topics, from Newton to Post-Kuhnian philosophy of science, these essays critically examine themes that have been central to the influential work of philosopher Michael Friedman.
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191. From the New Editor From the New Editor (p. iii)Philosophy of Science 72 (2): 334-341. 2005.Since the fundamental challenge that I laid at the doorstep of the pluralists was to defend, with nonderivative models, a strong notion of genic cause, it is fatal that Waters has failed to meet that challenge. Waters agrees with me that there is only a single cause operating in these models, but he argues for a notion of causal ‘parsing’ to sustain the viability of some form of pluralism. Waters and his colleagues have some very interesting and important ideas about the sciences, involving plur…Read more
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10The Imago Dei and the Imago MundiIn Steve Donaldson & Ron Cole-Turner (eds.), Christian Perspectives on Transhumanism and the Church: Chips in the Brain, Immortality, and the World of Tomorrow, Springer Verlag. pp. 97-115. 2018.This chapter reflects on transhumanism from a Christian perspective, specifically with reference to the Biblical teaching that human beings are made in the “image” and “likeness” of God. It considers a version of that teaching that is seemingly as permissive as could be about “transhumanist technologies,” and concludes that even that version places significant limits on the pursuit and adoption of such technologies. Those limits are far more restrictive than the limits acknowledged by prominent …Read more
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121Intuition in MetaphysicsPhilosophical Topics 35 (1-2): 43-65. 2007.‘Seeing is believing’ perhaps means that some visual experience provides good evidence for some claims that go beyond the content of the experience. Intuition—intellectual ‘seeming’—does not provide similarly good evidence, at least not for metaphysical claims, or so I shall argue. In §2, I sketch the conception of ‘metaphysics’ that is in use here, a conception that leads naturally to a problem about what counts as evidence in metaphysics. Some have suggested that intuition counts. In §3 I rais…Read more
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9Review of Jeremy Butterfield and Constantine Pagonis: From Physics to Philosophy (review)British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 52 (2): 397-399. 2001.
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133Michael Dickson, Review of Quantum Non-Locality and Relativity: Metaphysical Intimations of Modern Physics by Tim Maudlin (review)Philosophy of Science 64 (3): 516-517. 1997.
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42Stapp's theorem without counterfactual commitments: Why it fails nonethelessStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 24 (5): 791-814. 1993.Stapp's attempt to derive Bell's Inequality from a weak locality condition while retaining indeterminism, requires careful scrutiny to ensure unambiguous definitions and valid reasoning. Such scrutiny reveals that the argument is fallacious. This result is obtained without commitment to any particular formal analysis of truth conditions for counterfactuals nor to conditions for world similarity.
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24Reply to H. Stapp's commentStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 25 (6): 965-966. 1994.
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Discourse on a new method, or a manifesto for a synthetic approach to history and philosophy of scienceIn Michael Friedman, Mary Domski & Michael Dickson (eds.), Discourse on a New Method: Reinvigorating the Marriage of History and Philosophy of Science, Open Court. 2010.
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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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92The light at the end of the tunneling: Observation and underdeterminationPhilosophy of Science 66 (3): 58. 1999.If observation is 'theory-laden', how can there be 'observationally equivalent theories'? How can the observations 'laden' by one theory be 'the same as' those 'laden' by another? The answer might lie in the expressibility of observationally equivalent theories in a common mathematical formalism
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22Quantum Logic Is Alive ∧Philosophy of Science 68 (3): 274-287. 2001.Is the quantum-logic interpretation dead? Its near total absence from current discussions about the interpretation of quantum theory suggests so. While mathematical work on quantum logic continues largely unabated, interest in the quantum-logic interpretation seems to be almost nil, at least in Anglo-American philosophy of physics. This paper has the immodest purpose of changing that fact. I shall argue that while the quantum-logic interpretation faces challenges, it remains a live option. The u…Read more
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52From physics to philosophy Jeremy Butterfield, Constantine PagonisBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science 52 (2): 397-399. 2001.
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93Antidote or Theory?Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 27 (2): 229-238. 1996.
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18Review of Partha Ghose: Testing Quantum Mechanics on New Ground (review)British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 52 (1): 207-209. 2001.
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125Review of Tomasz F. Bigaj, Non-Locality and Possible Worlds: A Counterfactual Perspective on Quantum Entanglement (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2007 (7). 2007.
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27Quantum dialogue: The making of a revolution - Mara beller; the university of chicago press, chicago, 1999, XV + 365 pp., US $35.00, ISBN 0-226-04181- (review)Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 33 (3): 565-569. 2002.
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50Logical foundations for modal interpretations of quantum mechanicsPhilosophy of Science 63 (3): 329. 1996.This paper proposes a logic, motivated by modal interpretations, in which every quantum mechanics propositions has a truth-value. This logic is completely classical, hence violates the conditions of the Kochen-Specker theorem. It is shown how the violation occurs, and it is argued that this violation is a natural and acceptable consequence of modal interpretations. It is shown that despite its classicality, the proposed logic is empirically indistinguishable from quantum logic
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149A view from nowhere: quantum reference frames and uncertaintyStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 35 (2): 195-220. 2004.
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75An empirical reply to empiricism: Protective measurement opens the door for quantum realismPhilosophy of Science 62 (1): 122-140. 1995.Quantum mechanics has sometimes been taken to be an empiricist (vs. realist) theory. I state the empiricist's argument, then outline a recently noticed type of measurement--protective measurement--that affords a good reply for the realist. This paper is a reply to scientific empiricism (about quantum mechanics), but is neither a refutation of that position, nor an argument in favor of scientific realism. Rather, my aim is to place realism and empiricism on an even score in regards to quantum the…Read more
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126Quantum reference frames in the context of EPRPhilosophy of Science 71 (5): 655-668. 2004.Taking a cue from Bohr’s use of the notion of a reference frame in his reply to EPR’s argument against the completeness (and consistency) of standard quantum theory, this paper presents an analysis ofthe role of reference frames in the situation considered by EPR, using a quantum‐theoretical account of physical reference frames based on the work of Mackey, and Aharonov and Kaufherr. That analysis appears to justify at least some crucial aspects of a Bohrian reply to EPR.
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20Miklós Rédei and Michael Stölzner, : John von Neumann and the Foundations of Physics (review)Philosophy of Science 70 (4): 855-859. 2003.
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44Antidote or Theory?: David Bohm and Basil J. Hiley, The Undivided Universe: An Ontological Interpretation of Quantum Theory (London: Routledge, 1993), xii+ 397 pp. ISBN 0-415-06588-7. Peter R. Holland, The Quantum Theory of Motion: An Account of the de Broglie-Bohm Causal Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993 hardback, 1995 paperback), xx+ 598 pp. ISBN 0-521-35404-8 Hardback; 0-521-48543-6 Paperback (review)Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 27 (2): 229-238. 1996.
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102Decoherence in unorthodox formulations of quantum mechanicsSynthese 102 (1). 1995.The conceptual structure of orthodox quantum mechanics has not provided a fully satisfactory and coherent description of natural phenomena. With particular attention to the measurement problem, we review and investigate two unorthodox formulations. First, there is the model advanced by GRWP, a stochastic modification of the standard Schrödinger dynamics admitting statevector reduction as a real physical process. Second, there is the ontological interpretation of Bohm, a causal reformulation of t…Read more
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35The EPR Experiment: A Prelude to Bohr’s Reply to EPRVienna Circle Institute Yearbook 9 263-275. 2002.Bohr’s reply to Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen’s argument for the incompleteness of quantum theory is notoriously difficult to unravel. It is so diffcult, in fact, that over 60 years later, there remains important work to be done understanding it. Work by Fine , Beller and Fine , and Beller goes a long way towards correcting earlier misunderstandings of Bohr’s reply. This essay is intended as a contribution to the program of getting to the truth of the matter, both historically and philosophicall…Read more
Columbia, South Carolina, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Music |
Aesthetic Representation |
Areas of Interest
Medieval Philosophy: Topics |