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Steven Gimbel and Anke Walz, eds., Defending Einstein: Hans Reichenbach's Writings on Space, Time, and MotionPhilosophy in Review 27 (3): 177. 2007.
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2Book review (review)Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 44 (4): 524-526. 2013.
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126‘Quantum Gravity’ does not denote any existing theory: the field of quantum gravity is very much a ‘work in progress’. As you will see in this chapter, there are multiple lines of attack each with the same core goal: to find a theory that unifies, in some sense, general relativity (Einstein’s classical field theory of gravitation) and quantum field theory (the theoretical framework through which we understand the behaviour of particles in non-gravitational fields). Quantum field theory and gener…Read more
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1Martin R. Jones and Nancy Cartwight, eds., Idealization XII: Correcting the Model. Idealization and Abstraction in the Sciences Reviewed by (review)Philosophy in Review 26 (5): 362-364. 2006.
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78Just one damn thing after another: Ari Ben-Menahem: Historical encyclopedia of the natural and mathematical sciences. Dordrecht: Springer, 2009, xxvii+5988pp, €2,245.50 HB (review)Metascience 20 (2): 407-412. 2010.Just one damn thing after another Content Type Journal Article DOI 10.1007/s11016-010-9485-1 Authors Dean Rickles, Unit for History and Philosophy of Science, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia Journal Metascience Online ISSN 1467-9981 Print ISSN 0815-0796
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118Many of the advances in string theory have been generated by the discovery of new duality symmetries connecting what were once thought to be distinct theories, solu- tions, processes, backgrounds, and more. Indeed, duality has played an enormously important role in the creation and development of numerous theories in physics and numerous fields of mathematics. Dualities often lie at those fruitful intersections at which mathematics and physics are especially strongly intertwined. In this paper I…Read more
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27David Clarke and Eric Clarke, eds. , Music and Consciousness: Philosophical, Psychological, and Cultural Perspectives . Reviewed by (review)Philosophy in Review 32 (4): 253-258. 2012.
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48Richard Dawid string theory and the scientific method (review)British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 67 (3): 925-929. 2016.
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101A philosopher looks at string dualitiesStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 42 (1): 54-67. 2011.
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77Public healthIn Fred Gifford (ed.), Philosophy of Medicine, Elsevier. 2011.Public health involves the application of a wide variety of scientific and non-scientific disciplines to the very practical problems of improving population health and preventing disease. Public health has received surprisingly little attention from philosophers of science. In this chapter we consider some neglected but important philosophical aspects of the science of public health.
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47Introduction to special issue on dualitiesStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 59 1-5. 2017.
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17Huw Price and Richard Corry, eds. Causation, Physics, and the Constitution of Reality: Russell's Republic Revisited Reviewed by (review)Philosophy in Review 30 (2): 127-131. 2010.
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93In this paper I examine the connection between symmetry and modality from the perspective of `reduction' methods in geometric mechanics. I begin by setting the problem up as a choice between two opposing views: reduction and non-reduction. I then discern four views on the matter in the literature; they are distinguished by their advocation of distinct geometric spaces as representing `reality'. I come down in favour of non-reductive methods.
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2Book Review (review)Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 41 (2): 160-162. 2010.
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422Quantum gravity meets structuralism: Interweaving relations in the foundations of physicsIn Dean Rickles, Steven French & Juha T. Saatsi (eds.), The Structural Foundations of Quantum Gravity, Oxford University Press. pp. 1--39. 2006.
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2Structure, Objects and Causality, , Western Ontario Series in Philosophy of Science, vol. 77 (edited book)Springer. 2011.
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154Mirror Symmetry and Other Miracles in Superstring TheoryFoundations of Physics 43 (1): 54-80. 2013.The dominance of string theory in the research landscape of quantum gravity physics (despite any direct experimental evidence) can, I think, be justified in a variety of ways. Here I focus on an argument from mathematical fertility, broadly similar to Hilary Putnam’s ‘no miracles argument’ that, I argue, many string theorists in fact espouse in some form or other. String theory has generated many surprising, useful, and well-confirmed mathematical ‘predictions’—here I focus on mirror symmetry an…Read more
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14Julian Savulescu and Nick Bostrom, eds. , Human Enhancement . Reviewed by (review)Philosophy in Review 31 (1): 64-66. 2011.
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83Dual theories: ‘Same but different’ or ‘different but same’?Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 59 62-67. 2017.I argue that, under the glitz, dual theories are examples of theoretically equivalent descriptions of the same underlying physical content: I distinguish them from cases of genuine underdetermination on the grounds that there is no real incompatibility involved between the descriptions. The incompatibility is at the level of unphysical structure. I argue that dual pairs are in fact very strongly analogous to gauge- related solutions even for dual pairs that look the most radically distinct, such…Read more
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40In this chapter I consider what recent work on background independent physics can do for structuralism, and what structuralism can do for background independent physics. I focus on the problems of time and observables in gravitational physics. The ‘frozen’ character of the observables of general relativity is usually considered to constitute a serious problem for the theory. I argue that by invoking correlations between physical quantities we can provide a natural explanation of the appear- ance…Read more
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70Review of M. Gasperini, & J. Maharana (Eds.) (2008). String theory and fundamental interactions. Gabriele Veneziano and theoretical physics: Historical and contemporary perspectives (pp. xviii + 974, hardback, €99.95). Springer, ISBN 978-3-540-74232- (review)Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 41 (2): 160-162. 2010.
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1Alexander R. Pruss, The Principle of Sufficient Reason: A ReassessmentPhilosophy in Review 27 (5): 370. 2007.
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8Peter Machamer and Gereon Wolters, eds. Thinking About Causes: From Greek Philosophy to Modern Physics Reviewed by (review)Philosophy in Review 30 (2): 127-131. 2010.
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122Review: Physical Relativity: Space-time Structure from a Dynamical Perspective (review)Mind 116 (463): 736-740. 2007.
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41Interpreting quantum gravityStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 36 (4): 691-715. 2005.This is an essay review of two textbooks on quantum gravity by Carlo Rovelli and Claus Kiefer.
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85The Ashgate Companion to Contemporary Philosophy of Physics (edited book)Ashgate. 2008."Introducing the reader to the very latest developments in the philosophical foundations of physics, this book covers advanced material at a level suitable for ...
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105Bringing the hole argument back in the loop: A response to PooleyStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 37 (2): 381-387. 2006.
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