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296No place for particles in relativistic quantum theories?Philosophy of Science 69 (1): 1-28. 2002.David Malament (1996) has recently argued that there can be no relativistic quantum theory of (localizable) particles. We consider and rebut several objections that have been made against the soundness of Malament’s argument. We then consider some further objections that might be made against the generality of Malament’s conclusion, and we supply three no‐go theorems to counter these objections. Finally, we dispel potential worries about the counterintuitive nature of these results by showing th…Read more
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238A note on information theoretic characterizations of physical theoriesStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 35 (2): 277-293. 2003.Clifton, Bub, and Halvorson (CBH) have recently argued that quantum theory is characterized by its satisfaction of three fundamental information-theoretic constraints. However, it is not difficult to construct apparent counterexamples to the CBH characterization theorem. In this paper, we discuss the limits of the characterization theorem, and we provide some technical tools for checking whether a theory (specified in terms of the convex structure of its state space) falls within these limits.
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682What Scientific Theories Could Not BePhilosophy of Science 79 (2): 183-206. 2012.According to the semantic view of scientific theories, theories are classes of models. I show that this view -- if taken seriously as a formal explication -- leads to absurdities. In particular, this view equates theories that are truly distinct, and it distinguishes theories that are truly equivalent. Furthermore, the semantic view lacks the resources to explicate interesting theoretical relations, such as embeddability of one theory into another. The untenability of the semantic view -- as cur…Read more
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Princeton UniversityDepartment of Philosophy
Department of MathematicsStuart Professor of Philosophy -
Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Physical Science |
Logic and Philosophy of Logic |
General Philosophy of Science |
PhilPapers Editorships
Philosophy of Physical Science |