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Quantum Statistical Mechanics and the Ghosts of ModalityDissertation, Northwestern University. 1998.This work is concerned with the question of whether particles, as described by quantum theory, have individual identities. The answer has implications for issues concerning de re necessity; in particular, for the question of whether essentialism, haecceitism, and direct theories of reference can gain any foothold in fundamental physical theory. The question is answered in the negative. Following an introductory chapter, the first part gives an account of the historical and technical development …Read more
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23Biological Information: New PerspectivesWorld Scientific. 2013.Based on a conference on the nature and origin of biological information held at Cornell University in 2011, this edited volume presents new research by experts in information theory, computer science, numerical simulation, thermodynamics, evolutionary theory, whole organism biology, developmental biology, molecular biology, genetics, physics, biophysics, mathematics, and linguistics.
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18Darwinian Evolution and Classical Liberalism: Theories in Tension (edited book)Lexington Books. 2013.Darwinian Evolution and Classical Liberalism brings together a collection of new essays that examine the multifaceted ferment between Darwinian biology and classical liberalism
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25Institutional review board: management and function (edited book)Jones & Bartlett Learning. 2022.The National Institutes of Health (NIH) invests over $37 billion per year in support of research to improve human health. All research funded by NIH that involves human subjects is subject to regulatory oversight, requiring institutions to staff and manage Institutional Review Boards (IRBs). IRB members, chairs, and the many associated human subjects protections oversight professionals who support the work of the IRB must navigate complex federal regulations issued by multiple agencies. This boo…Read more
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28Subject Protection and the Risk–Benefit RelationshipAmerican Journal of Bioethics 5 (5). 2005.This Article does not have an abstract
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9Conflict between research design and minimization of risks in pediatric researchIRB: Ethics & Human Research 22 (3): 1. 2000.
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22Maxwell–Boltzmann Statistics And The Metaphysics Of ModalitySynthese 133 (3): 393-417. 2002.Two arguments have recently been advanced that Maxwell-Boltzmann particles areindistinguishable just like Bose–Einstein and Fermi–Dirac particles. Bringing modalmetaphysics to bear on these arguments shows that ontological indistinguishabilityfor classical (MB) particles does not follow. The first argument, resting on symmetryin the occupation representation for all three cases, fails since peculiar correlationsexist in the quantum (BE and FD) context as harbingers of ontic indistinguishability,…Read more
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81Maxwell–boltzmann statistics and the metaphysics of modalitySynthese 133 (3). 2002.Two arguments have recently been advanced that Maxwell-Boltzmann particles areindistinguishable just like Bose–Einstein and Fermi–Dirac particles. Bringing modalmetaphysics to bear on these arguments shows that ontological indistinguishabilityfor classical (MB) particles does not follow. The first argument, resting on symmetryin the occupation representation for all three cases, fails since peculiar correlationsexist in the quantum (BE and FD) context as harbingers of ontic indistinguishability,…Read more
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409A Quantum-Theoretic Argument Against NaturalismIn Bruce L. Gordon & William A. Dembski (eds.), The Nature of Nature: Examining the Role of Naturalism in Science, Isi Books. pp. 179-214. 2011.Quantum theory offers mathematical descriptions of measurable phenomena with great facility and accuracy, but it provides absolutely no understanding of why any particular quantum outcome is observed. It is the province of genuine explanations to tell us how things actually work—that is, why such descriptions hold and why such predictions are true. Quantum theory is long on the what, both mathematically and observationally, but almost completely silent on the how and the why. What is even more i…Read more
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299Balloons on a String: A Critique of Multiverse CosmologyIn William A. Dembski and Bruce L. Gordon (ed.), The Nature of Nature: Examining the Role of Naturalism in Science, . pp. 558-601. 2011.Our examination of universal origins and fine-tuning will begin with a discussion of infl ationary scenarios grafted onto Big Bang cosmology and the proof that all infl ationary spacetimes are past-incomplete. After diverting into a lengthy critical examination of the “different physics” offered by quantum cosmologists at the past-boundary of the universe, we will proceed to dissect the inadequacies of infl ationary explanations and string-theoretic constructs in the context of three cosmologica…Read more
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19Inflationary Cosmology and the String MultiverseIn Robert J. Spitzer (ed.), New Proofs for the Existence of God: Contributions of Contemporary Physics and Philosophy. pp. 75-103. 2010.We begin with a discussion of the Borde-Guth-Vilenkin past-incompleteness theorem for inflationary universes and discuss its significance for various pre-big-bang inflationary scenarios in string cosmology, including landscape and cyclic ekpyrotic models. We then undertake a general critique of inflationary cosmology in respect of its stated goals and conclude with a critcal discussion of the string-theoretic multiverse as a "solution" to the problem of cosmological fine-tuning.
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23Is Intelligent Design Science? The Scientific Status and Future of Design-Theoretic ExplanationsIn James M. Kushiner & William A. Dembski (eds.), Signs of Intelligence: Understanding Intelligent Design, Brazos Press. pp. 193-216. 2001.This essay argues that, despite the failure of demarcation criteria for separating science from non-science, the mathematics of design and design-theoretic inferences nonetheless satisfy all the criteria of various competing theories of scientific explanation.
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18The Necessity of SufficiencyIn Jerry L. Walls & Trent Dougherty (eds.), Two Dozen (or so) Arguments for God: The Plantinga Project, Oxford University Press. pp. 417-445. 2018.There is an argument for the existence of God from the incompleteness of nature that is vaguely present in Plantinga’s recent work. This argument, which rests on the metaphysical implications of quantum physics and the philosophical deficiency of necessitarian conceptions of physical law, deserves to be given a clear formulation. The goal is to demonstrate, via a suitably articulated principle of sufficient reason, that divine action in an occasionalist mode is needed (and hence God’s existence …Read more
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229In Defense of UniformitarianismPerspectives on Science and Christian Faith 65 (2). 2013.The practice of science rests on the assumption of dependable regularity in the behavior of the physical world. It presumes that the world has an investigable causal structure and that scientific experimentation, observation, and theorizing provide a reliable pathway to its discernment. This much is not in dispute. What is in dispute is what warrants the metaphysical and methodological assumption—essential to the heuristic utility of science—that nature is uniform in such a way that the present …Read more
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90Ontology schmontology? Identity, individuation, and fock spacePhilosophy of Science 70 (5): 1343-1356. 2003.The aim of this paper is modest. It is argued that if the nature of the "equivalence" between first-quantized particle theories and second-quantized (Fock Space) theories is examined closely, if the inadequacies of de Muynck's "indexed particle" version of Fock Space are recognized, and if the question is not begged against modal metaphysics, then van Fraassen's attempted deflation of ontological issues in quantum theory can be seen to fail.
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217Maxwell-Boltzmann Statistics and the Metaphysics of ModalitySynthese 133 (3): 393-417. 2002.ABSTRACT. Two arguments have recently been advanced that Maxwell-Boltzmann particles are indistinguishable just like Bose-Einstein and Fermi-Dirac particles. Bringing modal metaphysics to bear on these arguments shows that ontological indistinguishability for classical (MB) particles does not follow. The first argument, resting on symmetry in the occupation representation for all three cases, fails since peculiar correlations exist in the quantum (BE and FD) context as harbingers of ontic indist…Read more
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23The nature of nature: examining the role of naturalism in science (edited book)ISI Books. 2011.The world's leading authorities in the sciences and humanities—dozens of top scholars, including three Nobel laureates—join a cultural and intellectual battle that leaves no human life untouched. Is the universe self-existent, self-sufficient, and self-organizing, or is it grounded instead in a reality that transcends space, time, matter, and energy?
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10Losing Our ReligionIn Stephen Dilley (ed.), Darwinian Evolution and Classical Liberalism: Theories in Tension, Lexington Books. pp. 157. 2013.