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21Later Wittgenstein on the Logicist Definition of NumberIn Sorin Costreie (ed.), Early Analytic Philosophy – New Perspectives on the Tradition, Springer Verlag. pp. 233-257. 2016.The paper focuses on the lectures on the philosophy of mathematics delivered by Wittgenstein in Cambridge in 1939. Only a relatively small number of lectures are discussed, the emphasis falling on understanding Wittgenstein’s views on the most important element of the logicist legacy of Frege and Russell, the definition of number in terms of classes—and, more specifically, by employing the notion of one-to-one correspondence. Since it is clear that Wittgenstein was not satisfied with this defini…Read more
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19Neither Weak, Nor Strong? Emergence and Functional ReductionIn Brigitte Falkenburg & Margaret Morrison (eds.), Why More is Different: Philosophical Issues in Condensed Matter Physics and Complex Systems, Springer. pp. 253-266. 2015.The paper argues that the phenomenon of first-order phase transitions (e.g., freezing) has features that make it a candidate to be classified as 'emergent'. However, it cannot be described either as 'weakly emergent' or 'strongly emergent'; hence it escapes categorization in terms employed in the current literature on the metaphysics of science.
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18Scientific Progress, Understanding and UnificationIn Alexandru Manafu (ed.), The Prospects for Fusion Emergence, Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, Vol. 313. 2015.The paper argues that scientific progress is best characterized as an increase in scientists' understanding of the world. It also connects this idea with the claim that scientific understanding and explanation are captured in terms of unification.
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18Wittgenstein on Proof and Concept-FormationPhilosophical Quarterly. forthcoming.In his Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics, Wittgenstein claims, puzzlingly, that ‘the proof creates a new concept’ (RFM III-41). This paper aims to contribute to clarifying this idea, and to showing how it marks a major break with the traditional conception of proof. Moreover, since the most natural way to understand his claim is open to criticism, a secondary goal of what follows is to offer an interpretation of it that neutralizes the objection. The discussion proceeds by analysing a we…Read more
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16SymmetryIn Batterman (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Physics, Oxford Univ Press. 2013.A survey of the main themes and arguments concerning symmetry and invariance in physics and philosophy of physics.
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15Representation and Productive Ambiguity in Mathematics and the Sciences (review)Isis 100 137-139. 2009.
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14Wynn’s Experiments and the Later Wittgenstein’s Philosophy of MathematicsIyyun 61 219-240. 2012.This paper explores the connections between K. Wynn's well-known experiments in cognitive psychology and later Wittgenstein's views on the philosophy of mathematics.
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10Mind the gap: noncausal explanations of dual propertiesPhilosophical Studies 181 (4): 789-809. 2024.I identify and characterize a type of noncausal explanation in physics. I first introduce a distinction, between the physical properties of a system, and the representational properties of the mathematical expressions of the system’s physical properties. Then I introduce a novel kind of property, which I shall call a dual property. This is a special kind of representational property, one for which there is an interpretation as a physical property. It is these dual properties that, I claim, are a…Read more
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9Finite-size scaling theory: Quantitative and qualitative approaches to critical phenomenaStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 100 (C): 99-106. 2023.
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Probability Assignments and the Principle of Indifference. An Examination of Two Eliminative StrategiesIn Mauricio Suárez (ed.), Probabilities, Causes and Propensities in Physics, Springer. pp. 61-76. 2010.A discussion of the way to assign probabilities via the principle of indifference.
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