• Distilling Metaphysics from Quantum Mechanics
    In Michael J. Loux & Dean W. Zimmerman (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Metaphysics, Oxford University Press. 2003.
  •  55
    The irrelevance of incommensurability: Reflections on Torretti's creative understanding
    Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 25 (6): 1005-1012. 1994.
  •  180
    Between The Motion And The Act... A Review of Shadows of the Mind by Roger Penros (review)
    PSYCHE: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Research On Consciousness 2 40-51. 1995.
  •  2
  •  282
    On the impossibility of David Lewis' modal realism
    Australasian Journal of Philosophy 74 (4). 1996.
    This Article does not have an abstract
  •  501
    XIV-Remarks on the Passing of Time
    Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 102 (3): 237-252. 2002.
    This essay is the first act of a two-act play. My ultimate aim is to defend a simple proposition: time passes. To be more precise, I want to defend the claim that the passage of time is an intrinsic asymmetry in the structure of space-time itself, an asymmetry that has no spatial counterpart and is metaphysically independent of the material contents of space-time. It is independent, for example, of the entropy gradient of the universe. This view is part of common-sense, but has been widely attac…Read more
  •  153
    Grading, sorting, and the sorites
    Midwest Studies in Philosophy 32 (1): 141-168. 2008.
    No Abstract
  •  90
    Three roads to objective probability1
    In Claus Beisbart & Stephan Hartmann (eds.), Probabilities in Physics, Oxford University Press. pp. 293. 2011.
  •  21
    Can the world be only wavefunction?
    In Simon Saunders, Jonathan Barrett, Adrian Kent & David Wallace (eds.), Many Worlds?: Everett, Quantum Theory & Reality, Oxford University Press. 2010.
  •  18
    Précis of Truth and Paradox
    Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 73 (3): 696-704. 2007.
    Truth and Paradox largely consists of three connected technical projects together with a more general account of the nature of truth. The first project is the most familiar: providing an account of how logically complex sentences get assigned truth values on the basis of the truth values assigned to the logically atomic sentences. The second is construction of valid, syntactically specifiable inference rules for a language that includes the familiar logical connectives and the truth predicate. T…Read more
  •  50
    Aristotle: The Power of Perception
    Philosophical Review 99 (2): 305. 1990.
  •  54
    Replies (review)
    Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 73 (3): 728-739. 2007.
    Professor Field’s generous comments raise both certain substantial points and opportunities for clarification. I will respond in the order the points appear.
  •  84
    Précis of Truth and Paradox (review)
    Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 73 (3): 696-704. 2007.
    Truth and Paradox largely consists of three connected technical projects together with a more general account of the nature of truth. The first project is the most familiar: providing an account of how logically complex sentences get assigned truth values on the basis of the truth values assigned to the logically atomic sentences. The second is construction of valid, syntactically specifiable inference rules for a language that includes the familiar logical connectives and the truth predicate. T…Read more
  •  35
    The Undivided Universe
    Philosophical Books 36 (4): 281-283. 1995.
  •  237
    Dickson on quantum chance and non-locality (review)
    British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 51 (4): 875-882. 2000.
  •  231
    It has long been a commonplace that there is a problem understanding the role of time when one tries to quantize the General Theory of Relativity (GTR). In his "Thoroughly Modern McTaggart" (Philosophers' Imprint Vol 2, No. 3), John Earman presents several arguments to the conclusion that there is a problem understanding change and the passage of time in the unadorned GTR, quite apart from quantization. His Young McTaggart argues that according to the GTR, no physical magnitude ever changes. A c…Read more
  •  191
    Truth and paradox: solving the riddles
    Oxford University Press. 2004.
    In this ingenious and powerfully argued book Tim Maudlin sets out a novel account of logic and semantics which allows him to deal with certain notorious paradoxes which have bedevilled philosophical theories of truth. All philosophers interested in logic and language will find this a stimulating read.
  •  238
    The message of the quantum?
    with Martin Daumer, Detlef Duerr, Sheldon Goldstein, Roderich Tumulka, and Nino Zanghi
    We criticize speculations to the effect that quantum mechanics is fundamentally about information. We do this by pointing out how unfounded such speculations in fact are. Our analysis focuses on the dubious claims of this kind recently made by Anton Zeilinger.
  • Quantum Non-Locality and Relativity: Metaphysical Intimations of Modern Physics
    Philosophical Quarterly 47 (186): 118-120. 1997.
  •  155
    On the Unification of Physics
    Journal of Philosophy 93 (3): 129-144. 1996.
    There are various senses in which a physical theory may be said to "unify" different forces, with the unification being deeper of more shallow in different cases. This paper discusses some of these distinctions.
  •  143
    Review: Quantum Entanglements: Selected Papers (review)
    Mind 115 (460): 1111-1120. 2006.
  •  182
    Healey on the aharonov-Bohm effect
    Philosophy of Science 65 (2): 361-368. 1998.
    Richard Healey argues that the Aharonov- Bohm effect demands the recognition of either nonlocal or nonseparable physics in much the way that violations of Bell's inequality do. A careful examination of the effect and the arguments, though, shows that Healey's interpretation of the Aharonov- Bohm effect depends critically on his interpretation of gauge theories, and that the analogy with violations of Bell's inequalities fails
  •  840
    Time, topology and physical geometry
    Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 84 (1): 63-78. 2010.
    The standard mathematical account of the sub-metrical geometry of a space employs topology, whose foundational concept is the open set. This proves to be an unhappy choice for discrete spaces, and offers no insight into the physical origin of geometrical structure. I outline an alternative, the Theory of Linear Structures, whose foundational concept is the line. Application to Relativistic space-time reveals that the whole geometry of space-time derives from temporal structure. In this sense, in…Read more
  •  5
    Discussion: Healey and Aharonov–Bohm
    Philosophy of Science 65 (2): 361-368. 1998.
    Richard Healey argues that the Aharonov-Bohm effect demands the recognition of either nonlocal or nonseparable physics in much the way that violations of Bell's inequality do. A careful examination of the effect and the arguments, though, shows that Healey's interpretation of the Aharonov-Bohm effect depends critically on his interpretation of gauge theories, and that the analogy with violations of Bell's inequalities fails.
  •  163
    Time-Travel and Topology
    PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1990. 1990.
    This paper demonstrates that John Wheeler and Richard Feynman's strategy for avoiding causal paradoxes threatened by backward causation and time-travel can be defeated by designing self-interacting mechanisms with a non-simple topological structure. Time-travel therefore requires constraints on the allowable data on space-like hypersurfaces. The nature and significance of these constraints is discussed.
  •  61
    Bell's Inequality, Information Transmission, and Prism Models
    PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1992. 1992.
    Violations of Bell's Inequality can only be reliably produced if some information about the apparatus setting on one wing is available on the other, requiring superluminal information transmission. In this paper I inquire into the minimum amount of information needed to generate quantum statistics for correlated photons. Reflection on informational constraints clarifies the significance of Fine's Prism models, and allows the construction of several models more powerful than Fine's. These models …Read more