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224Quantum Selections, Propensities and the Problem of MeasurementBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science 55 (2): 219-255. 2004.This paper expands on, and provides a qualified defence of, Arthur Fine's selective interactions solution to the measurement problem. Fine's approach must be understood against the background of the insolubility proof of the quantum measurement. I first defend the proof as an appropriate formal representation of the quantum measurement problem. The nature of selective interactions, and more generally selections, is then clarified, and three arguments in their favour are offered. First, selection…Read more
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20Procesos causales, realismo y mecánica cuánticaEnrahonar: Quaderns de Filosofía 37 141-168. 2005.
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149Interventions and Causality in Quantum MechanicsErkenntnis 78 (2): 199-213. 2013.I argue that the Causal Markov Condition (CMC) is in principle applicable to the Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen (EPR) correlations. This is in line with my defence in the past of the applicability of the Principle of Common Cause to quantum mechanics. I first review a contrary claim by Dan Hausman and Jim Woodward, who endeavour to preserve the CMC against a possible counterexample by asserting that the conditions for the application of the CMC are not met in the EPR experiment. In their view the CMC i…Read more
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53Reichenbach’s Common Cause Principle and Indeterminism: A ReviewIn José Luis González Recio (ed.), Philosophical essays on physics and biology, G. Olms. pp. 223-250. 2009.We offer a review of some of the most influential views on the status of Reichenbach’s Principle of the Common Cause (RPCC) for genuinely indeterministic systems. We first argue that the RPCC is properly a conjunction of two distinct claims, one metaphysical and another methodological. Both claims can and have been contested in the literature, but here we simply assume that the metaphysical claim is correct, in order to focus our analysis on the status of the methodological claim. We briefly rev…Read more
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23Epr Robustness and the Causal Markov ConditionCentre of Philosophy of Natural and Social Science. 2007.It is still a matter of controversy whether the Principle of the Common Cause can be used as a basis for sound causal inference. It is thus to be expected that its application to quantum mechanics should be a correspondingly controversial issue. Indeed the early 90’s saw a flurry of papers addressing just this issue in connection with the EPR correlations. Yet, that debate does not seem to have caught up with the most recent literature on causal inference generally, which has moved on to conside…Read more
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198The many Metaphysics within Physics. Essay review of 'The Metaphysics within Physics' by Tim MaudlinStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 40 (3): 273-276. 2009.Essay Review of Tim Maudlin's "The Metaphysics within Physics", Oxford University Press, 2007
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51This volume showcases the best of recent research in the philosophy of science. A compilation of papers presented at the EPSA 13, it explores a broad distribution of topics such as causation, truthlikeness, scientific representation, gender-specific medicine, laws of nature, science funding and the wisdom of crowds. Papers are organised into headings which form the structure of the book. Readers will find that it covers several major fields within the philosophy of science, from general philosop…Read more
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283An inferential conception of scientific representationPhilosophy of Science 71 (5): 767-779. 2004.This paper defends an inferential conception of scientific representation. It approaches the notion of representation in a deflationary spirit, and minimally characterizes the concept as it appears in science by means of two necessary conditions: its essential directionality and its capacity to allow surrogate reasoning and inference. The conception is defended by showing that it successfully meets the objections that make its competitors, such as isomorphism and similarity, untenable. In additi…Read more
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84Representation in ScienceIn Paul Humphreys (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Science, Oxford University Press Usa. pp. 440-459. 2016.This article provides a state of the art review of the philosophical literature on scientific representation. It first argues that the topic emerges historically mainly out of what may be called the modelling tradition. It then introduces a number of helpful analytical distinctions, and goes on to divide contemporary approaches to scientific representation into two distinct kinds, substantive and deflationary. Analogies with related discussions of artistic representation in aesthetics, and of th…Read more
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273Experimental Realism Defended: How Inference to the Most Likely Cause Might Be SoundContingency and Dissent in Science Project, Cpnss, London School of Economics and Political Science. 2005.On a purely epistemic understanding of experimental realism, manipulation affords a particularly robust kind of causal warrant, which is – like any other warrant – defeasible. I defend a version of Nancy Cartwright’s inference to the most likely cause, and I conclude that this minimally epistemic version of experimental realism is a coherent, adequate and plausible epistemology for science.
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64PresentationTheoria 15 (1): 5-10. 2000.This monograph section of Theoria is devoted to the notion of causation in modern physics. The four long essays and short epilogue contained in this volume constitute a representative sample of recent work by philosophers of physics on causality. All the contributions to this volume share a healthy respect for science, and what science may be able to tell us about causation: these essays look for a notion of causation that can make sense of modern physical science. And, as is the norm in contemp…Read more
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9This volume defends a novel approach to the philosophy of physics: it is the first book devoted to a comparative study of probability, causality, and propensity, and their various interrelations, within the context of contemporary physics -- particularly quantum and statistical physics. The philosophical debates and distinctions are firmly grounded upon examples from actual physics, thus exemplifying a robustly empiricist approach. The essays, by both prominent scholars in the field and promisin…Read more
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13Epistemology in the face of the strong sociology of knowledge: a reply to MaffieHistory of the Human Sciences 12 (4): 41-48. 1999.James Maffie claims that weak continuity reliabilism is compatible with the principles, as well as the insights, of the Strong Programme in the Sociology of Knowledge (SPSK). There are three possible readings of weak continuity reliabilism: I argue that the first two are unsound, while the third is actually inconsistent with the principles of SPSK. SPSK is instead compatible with an identicist epistemology, one that does not aim to distinguish scientific epistemology from our everyday epistemic …Read more
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110The Chances of PropensitiesBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science 69 (4): 1155-1177. 2018.This paper argues that if propensities are displayed in objective physical chances then the appropriate representation of these chances is as indexed probability functions. Two alternative formal models, or accounts, for the relation between propensity properties and their chancy or probabilistic manifestations, in terms of conditionals and conditional probability are first reviewed. It is argued that both confront important objections, which are overcome by the account in terms of indexed proba…Read more
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9Causality in Physics: PresentationTheoria: Revista de Teoría, Historia y Fundamentos de la Ciencia 15 (1): 5-10. 2000.This monograph section of Theoria is devoted to the notion of causation in modern physics. The four long essays and short epilogue contained in this volume constitute a representative sample of recent work by philosophers of physics on causality. All the contributions to this volume share a healthy respect for science, and what science may be able to tell us about causation: these essays look for a notion of causation that can make sense of modern physical science. And, as is the norm in contemp…Read more
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300Scientific representationPhilosophy Compass 5 (1): 91-101. 2010.Scientific representation is a currently booming topic, both in analytical philosophy and in history and philosophy of science. The analytical inquiry attempts to come to terms with the relation between theory and world; while historians and philosophers of science aim to develop an account of the practice of model building in the sciences. This article provides a review of recent work within both traditions, and ultimately argues for a practice-based account of the means employed by scientists …Read more
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33Review. Norton M Wise (ed). The values of precisionBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science 47 (3): 483-486. 1996.
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48Propensities in quantum mechanicsCentre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science. 2006.I review five explicit attempts throughout the history of quantum mechanics to invoke dispositional notions in order to solve the quantum paradoxes, namely: Margenau’s latencies, Heisenberg’s potentialities, Popper’s propensity interpretation of probability, Nick Maxwell’s propensitons, and the recent selective propensities interpretation of quantum mechanics. I raise difficulties and challenges for all of them, but conclude that the selective propensities approach nicely encompasses the virtues…Read more
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22Mellor. 2005 Probability: A Philosophical IntroductionTheoria : An International Journal for Theory, History and Fundations of Science 26 (1): 99-103. 2011.
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99Varieties of misrepresentation and homomorphismEuropean Journal for Philosophy of Science 6 (1): 71-90. 2016.This paper is a critical response to Andreas Bartels’ sophisticated defense of a structural account of scientific representation. We show that, contrary to Bartels’ claim, homomorphism fails to account for the phenomenon of misrepresentation. Bartels claims that homomorphism is adequate in two respects. First, it is conceptually adequate, in the sense that it shows how representation differs from misrepresentation and non-representation. Second, if properly weakened, homomorphism is formally ade…Read more
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Experimental realism reconsidered: How inference to the most likely cause might be soundIn Nancy Cartwright, Stephan Hartmann, Carl Hoefer & Luc Bovens (eds.), Nancy Cartwright’s Philosophy of Science, Routledge. pp. 137--63. 2008.
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71The semantic view, empirical adequacy, and applicationCritica 37 (109): 29-63. 2005.It is widely accepted in contemporary philosophy of science that the domain of application of a theory is typically larger than its explanatory covering power: theories can be applied to phenomena that they do not explain. I argue for an analogous thesis regarding the notion of empirical adequacy. A theory’s domain of application is typically larger than its domain of empirical adequacy: theories are often applied to phenomena from which they receive no empirical confirmation.
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London School of EconomicsDepartment of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific MethodAssociate Researcher
Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Areas of Specialization
Science, Logic, and Mathematics |
Areas of Interest
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