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37It is plausible that the models of our scientific theories correspond to possibilities. But exactly which models of which scientific theories stand in this correspondence? The answers to this question hinted at so far in the literature are too restrictive: they don't support the idea that the models of many of our best scientific theories correspond to physical possibilities. The paper thus provides a novel proposal for guiding belief about physical possibilities based on physics. The proposal d…Read more
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73Ted Sider : Van Inwagen et la possibilité du gunk (review)RÉPHA, revue étudiante de philosophie analytique 4 77-80. 2011.
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81Présentisme ou éternisme : pas de solution intermédiaireRÉPHA, revue étudiante de philosophie analytique 1 49-54. 2009.La vieille question du statut ontologique du présent refait aujourd’hui surface au travers du débat qui oppose présentisme et éternisme. Les présentistes défendent la thèse selon laquelle seul ce qui est présent existe. Les éternistes soutiennent quant à eux que le présent ne jouit d’aucun privilège ontologique, les choses passées et futures existant tout autant que les choses présentes. Dans cet article nous ne chercherons pas à départager les protagonistes mais à écarter les théories dites « h…Read more
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414The Great Loop: From Conformal Cyclic Cosmology to Aeon MonismJournal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie. 2024.Penrose's conformal cyclic cosmology describes the cosmos as a collection of successive universes, the so-called aeons. The beginning and ending of our universe are directly connected to two other, anterior and posterior, universes. Penrose considers but rules out a different interpretation of conformal cyclic cosmology: that the beginning of our universe is connected to its own end in a cosmic loop. The paper argues that the view, aeon monism, should be regarded as a natural interpretation of c…Read more
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318Metaphysical indeterminacy in Everettian quantum mechanicsEuropean Journal for Philosophy of Science 14 (3): 1-22. 2024.The question of whether Everettian quantum mechanics (EQM) justifies the existence of metaphysical indeterminacy has recently come to the fore. Metaphysical indeterminacy has been argued to emerge from three sources: coherent superpositions, the indefinite number of branches in the quantum multiverse and the nature of these branches. This paper reviews the evidence and concludes that those arguments don’t rely on EQM alone and rest on metaphysical auxiliary assumptions that transcend the physics…Read more
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957Causal Theories of SpacetimeNoûs 58 (1): 202-224. 2024.We develop a new version of the causal theory of spacetime. Whereas traditional versions of the theory seek to identify spatiotemporal relations with causal relations, the version we develop takes causal relations to be the grounds for spatiotemporal relations. Causation is thus distinct from, and more basic than, spacetime. We argue that this non-identity theory, suitably developed, avoids the challenges facing the traditional identity theory.
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316Métaphysique analytique, métaphysique naturalisée et ontologie appliquéeIn Raphaël Künstler (ed.), Métaphysique et Sciences, Nouveaux problèmes, Hermann. 2022.La pertinence de la métaphysique analytique a fait l'objet de critiques : Ladyman et Ross, par exemple, ont suggéré d'abandonner ce domaine. French et McKenzie ont défendu la métaphysique analytique en affirmant qu'elle développe des outils qui pourraient s'avérer utiles pour la philosophie de la physique. Dans cet article, nous montrons dans un premier temps que cette défense heuristique de la métaphysique peut être étendue au domaine scientifique de l'ontologie appliquée, qui utilise des théor…Read more
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765Trouble on the Horizon for PresentismPhilosophers' Imprint 23 (1): 2. 2023.Surface presentism is the combination of a general relativistic physics with a presentist metaphysics. In this paper, we provide an argument against this combination based on black holes. The problem focuses on the notion of an event horizon. We argue that the present locations of event horizons are ontologically dependent on future black hole regions, and that this dependence is incompatible with presentism. We consider five responses to the problem available to the surface presentist, and argu…Read more
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567Spacetime Quietism in Quantum GravityIn Antonio Vassallo (ed.), The Foundations of Spacetime Physics: Philosophical Perspectives, Routledge. pp. 155-175. 2022.The existence and fundamentality of spacetime has been questioned in quantum gravity where spacetime is frequently described as emerging from a more fundamental non-spatiotemporal ontology. This is supposed to lead to various philosophical issues such as the problem of empirical coherence. Yet those issues assume beforehand that we actually understand and agree on the nature of spacetime. Reviewing popular conceptions of spacetime, we find that there is substantial disagreement on this matter, a…Read more
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729Philosophy Beyond Spacetime: IntroductionIn Christian Wüthrich, Baptiste Le Bihan & Nick Huggett (eds.), Philosophy Beyond Spacetime: Implications From Quantum Gravity, Oxford University Press. pp. 1-15. 2021.The present volume collects essays on the philosophical foundations of quantum theories of gravity, such as loop quantum gravity and string theory. Central for philosophical concerns is quantum gravity's suggestion that space and time, or spacetime, may not exist fundamentally, but instead be a derivative entity emerging from non-spatiotemporal degrees of freedom. In the spirit of naturalised metaphysics, contributions to this volume consider the philosophical implications of this suggestion. In…Read more
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48Review of The nature of contingency by Alastair Wilson (review)British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 1. 2021.
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833Composing SpacetimeJournal of Philosophy 119 (1): 33-54. 2022.According to a number of approaches in theoretical physics, spacetime does not exist fundamentally. Rather, spacetime exists by depending on another, more fundamental, non-spatiotemporal structure. A prevalent opinion in the literature is that this dependence should not be analyzed in terms of composition. We should not say, that is, that spacetime depends on an ontology of non-spatiotemporal entities in virtue of having them as parts. But is that really right? On the contrary, we argue that a m…Read more
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746The Landscape and the Multiverse: What’s the Problem?Synthese 199 (3-4): 7749-7771. 2021.As a candidate theory of quantum gravity, the popularity of string theory has waxed and waned over the past four decades. One current source of scepticism is that the theory can be used to derive, depending upon the input geometrical assumptions that one makes, a vast range of different quantum field theories, giving rise to the so-called landscape problem. One apparent way to address the landscape problem is to posit the existence of a multiverse; this, however, has in turn drawn heightened att…Read more
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877Quantum Gravity and Mereology: Not So SimplePhilosophical Quarterly 72 (1): 19-40. 2022.A number of philosophers have argued in favour of extended simples on the grounds that they are needed by fundamental physics. The arguments typically appeal to theories of quantum gravity. To date, the argument in favour of extended simples has ignored the fact that the very existence of spacetime is put under pressure by quantum gravity. We thus consider the case for extended simples in the context of different views on the existence of spacetime. We show that the case for extended simples bas…Read more
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1715What does the world look like according to superdeterminismBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science 74 (3): 555-572. 2023.The violation of Bell inequalities seems to establish an important fact about the world: that it is non-local. However, this result relies on the assumption of the statistical independence of the measurement settings with respect to potential past events that might have determined them. Superdeterminism refers to the view that a local, and determinist, account of Bell inequalities violations is possible, by rejecting this assumption of statistical independence. We examine and clarify various pro…Read more
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838Théorie des cordes, gravité quantique à boucles et éternalismeIn Alexandre Declos & Claudine Tiercelin (eds.), La Métaphysique du Temps: Perspectives Contemporaines, Collège De France. 2021.L'éternalisme, la thèse selon laquelle les entités que nous catégorisons comme étant passées, présentes et futures existent tout autant, est la meilleure approche ontologique de l'existence temporelle qui soit en accord avec les théories de la relativité restreinte et de la relativité générale. Cependant, les théories de la relativité restreinte et générale ne sont pas fondamentales si bien que plusieurs programmes de recherche tentent de trouver une théorie plus fondamentale de la gravité quant…Read more
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1805String Theory, Loop Quantum Gravity and EternalismEuropean Journal for Philosophy of Science 10 17. 2020.Eternalism, the view that what we regard locally as being located in the past, the present and the future equally exists, is the best ontological account of temporal existence in line with special and general relativity. However, special and general relativity are not fundamental theories and several research programs aim at finding a more fundamental theory of quantum gravity weaving together all we know from relativistic physics and quantum physics. Interestingly, some of these approaches asse…Read more
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935From Spacetime to Space and Time: A Reply to MarkosianAnalysis 80 (3): 456-462. 2020.In a recent article, Ned Markosian gives an argument against four-dimensionalism understood as the view that time is one of four identical dimensions that constitute a single four-dimensional manifold. In this paper, I show that Markosian attacks a straw man as his argument targets a theory known to be false on empirical grounds. Four-dimensionalism rightly conceived in no way entails that time is identical to space. I then address two objections raised by Markosian against four-dimensionalism r…Read more
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1099Spacetime Emergence in Quantum Gravity: Functionalism and the Hard ProblemSynthese 199 (2). 2021.Spacetime functionalism is the view that spacetime is a functional structure implemented by a more fundamental ontology. Lam and Wüthrich have recently argued that spacetime functionalism helps to solve the epistemological problem of empirical coherence in quantum gravity and suggested that it also (dis)solves the hard problem of spacetime, namely the problem of offering a picture consistent with the emergence of spacetime from a non-spatio-temporal structure. First, I will deny that spacetime …Read more
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64Qu'est-ce que le temps ?Vrin. 2019.La philosophie contemporaine du temps voit s’affronter deux conceptions du temps : celle du devenir qui identifie la réalité naturelle à un présent en constant renouvellement et celle de l’univers-bloc qui assimile la réalité naturelle à un espace-temps étendu dans quatre dimensions. Cette dernière approche implique notamment que les événements qui nous semblent passés et futurs sont tout aussi réels que les événements présents et que les êtres humains, bien que mortels, sont des êtres éternels.…Read more
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513Contingencies within SpacetimeDissertation, University of Rennes 1. 2015.I begin by giving reasons to accept the block-universe view, the strongly supported by physics view that we live in a four-dimensional world. According to it, the past and the future are as real as the present. As a result, it seems that the future is determined in the sense that what will be the case will necessarily be the case. In the dissertation, I examine whether we have to accept this consequence. I show that we do not have to bite the bullet: the future might be both real and contingent…Read more
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1604Space Emergence in Contemporary Physics: Why We Do Not Need Fundamentality, Layers of Reality and EmergenceDisputatio 10 (49): 71-95. 2018.‘Space does not exist fundamentally: it emerges from a more fundamental non-spatial structure.’ This intriguing claim appears in various research programs in contemporary physics. Philosophers of physics tend to believe that this claim entails either that spacetime does not exist, or that it is derivatively real. In this article, I introduce and defend a third metaphysical interpretation of the claim: reductionism about space. I argue that, as a result, there is no need to subscribe to fundament…Read more
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29TempsL'encyclopédie Philosophique. 2016.Le temps est une notion associée aux changements, qu’ils soient futiles ou existentiels. Il permet ainsi l’organisation moderne de nos sociétés à travers les agendas, la planification du travail ou les rendez-vous galants. Il rythme les saisons et nous expérimentons chaque année les couleurs chatoyantes de l’automne et les nuages sombres de l’hiver. Notre corps évolue constamment et vieillit sans cesse entre notre naissance passée et notre mort future. Toutes ces descriptions font intervenir le …Read more
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2516Analytic Metaphysics versus Naturalized Metaphysics: The Relevance of Applied OntologyErkenntnis 86 (1): 21-37. 2021.The relevance of analytic metaphysics has come under criticism: Ladyman & Ross, for instance, have suggested do discontinue the field. French & McKenzie have argued in defense of analytic metaphysics that it develops tools that could turn out to be useful for philosophy of physics. In this article, we show first that this heuristic defense of metaphysics can be extended to the scientific field of applied ontology, which uses constructs from analytic metaphysics. Second, we elaborate on a paralle…Read more
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2329L’éternité sans le tempsRevue Philosophique De Louvain 116 (3): 441-462. 2018.L'éternalisme implique une forme exotique d'éternité : toute entité, aussi éphémère soit-elle et quelle que soit sa localisation dans le temps, existe relativement à toute autre localisation temporelle. Cet essai vise, premièrement, à défendre l'éternalisme en exhibant les difficultés rédhibitoires du présentisme et du non-futurisme, et deuxièmement à examiner de quelle manière l'éternalisme pourrait être amendé à l'aune d'une affirmation que l'on trouve sous la plume de certains physiciens, à s…Read more
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1578Have we Lost Spacetime on the Way? Narrowing the Gap between General Relativity and Quantum GravityStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 65 (C): 112-121. 2019.Important features of space and time are taken to be missing in quantum gravity, allegedly requiring an explanation of the emergence of spacetime from non-spatio-temporal theories. In this paper, we argue that the explanatory gap between general relativity and non-spatio- temporal quantum gravity theories might significantly be reduced with two moves. First, we point out that spacetime is already partially missing in the context of general relativity when understood from a dynamical perspective.…Read more
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131Philosophy Beyond Spacetime: Implications From Quantum Gravity (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2021.Philosophy Beyond Spacetime assesses the state of play in the philosophy of quantum gravity. Research in this field aims at a unified theory in which quantum matter is related dynamically to relativistic spacetime. This volume highlights the conceptual questions involved, showing how physics and metaphysics can illuminate each other.
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490Teaching & Learning Guide for: Duality and OntologyPhilosophy Compass 13 (12). 2018.Dualities are a pervasive phenomenon in contemporary physics, in which two physical theories are empirically equivalent, yet prima facie make different ontological claims about the world (potentially very different claims—differing in e.g. the number and radius of dimensions of the universe). Dualities thus present a particular instantiation of the well-known notion of underdetermination of theory by evidence. Many different philosophical proposals have been made for how such putative underdeter…Read more
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1517Duality and ontologyPhilosophy Compass 13 (12). 2018.A ‘duality’ is a formal mapping between the spaces of solutions of two empirically equivalent theories. In recent times, dualities have been found to be pervasive in string theory and quantum field theory. Naïvely interpreted, duality-related theories appear to make very different ontological claims about the world—differing in e.g. space-time structure, fundamental ontology, and mereological structure. In light of this, duality-related theories raise questions familiar from discussions of under…Read more
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1988Aspects in Dual‐Aspect Monism and Panpsychism: A Rejoinder to BenovskyPhilosophical Investigations 42 (2): 186-201. 2019.Neutral monism aims at solving the hard problem of consciousness by positing entities that are neither mental nor physical. Benovsky has recently argued for the slightly different account that, rather than being neutral, natural entities are both mental and physical by having different aspects, and then argued in favour of an anti-realist interpretation of those aspects. In this essay, operating under the assumption of dual-aspect monism, I argue to the contrary in favour of a realist interpreta…Read more
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