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24Causality in complex interventionsMedicine, Health Care and Philosophy 12 (1): 77-90. 2009.In this paper I look at causality in the context of intervention research, and discuss some problems faced in the evaluation of causal hypotheses via interventions. I draw attention to a simple problem for evaluations that employ randomized controlled trials. The common alternative to randomized trials, the observational study, is shown to face problems of a similar nature. I then argue that these problems become especially acute in cases where the intervention is complex (i.e. that involves int…Read more
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15The Birth of String Theory (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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135AdS/CFT duality and the emergence of spacetimeStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 44 (3): 312-320. 2013.The AdS/CFT duality has been a source of several strong conceptual claims in the physics literature that have yet to be explored by philosophers. In this paper I focus on one of these: the extent to which spacetime geometry and locality can be said to emerge from this duality, so that neither is fundamental. I argue: that the kind of emergence in question is relatively weak, involving one kind of spacetime emerging from another kind of spacetime; inasmuch as there is something conceptually inter…Read more
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4Robert C. Bishop, The Philosophy of the Social Sciences: An Introduction Reviewed by (review)Philosophy in Review 28 (3): 169-172. 2008.
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Nothingness For CompositionalistsAnnales Philosophici 1 73-76. 2010.Given that worlds are defined compositionally as maximally spatiotemporally interrelated sums of possible objects, or as recombinations of actual states of affairs: what of empty worlds? It seems that such theories cannot admit such worlds, for nothing cannot come from the fusion or recombination of something. This is generally supposed to rule out metaphysical nihilism, the claim that there might have been nothing. In this brief note, I argue that the two positions can be made compatible by mod…Read more
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61Econophysics for philosophersStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 38 (4): 948-978. 2007.
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83In their modern classic ``What Price Substantivalism? The Hole Story'' Earman and Norton argued that substantivalism about spacetime points implies that general relativity is indeterministic and, for that reason, must be rejected as a candidate ontology for the theory. More recently, Earman has cottoned on to a related argument (in fact, related to a \emph{response} to the hole argument) that arises in the context of canonical general relativity, according to which the enforcing of determinism a…Read more
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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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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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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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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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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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