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48Quantum metaphysical indeterminacy and the ontological foundations of orthodoxyStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 90 (C): 235-246. 2021.
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53Wavefunction realism does not ‘privilege position’Synthese 200 (1): 1-14. 2022.It is common ground among proponents and detractors of wavefunction realism that the view ‘privileges position’, in the sense that it arbitrarily singles out one among a continuum infinity of wavefunction representations as characterizing the fundamental field: the position representation. This paper shows that, properly understood, wavefunction realism does not involve such an arbitrary choice. First, I argue that, though each wavefunction representation gives rise to a different version of wav…Read more
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64Symmetry fundamentalism in quantum mechanicsPhilosophical Studies 178 (12): 3995-4024. 2021.Modern particle physics suggests an intriguing vision of physical reality: we are to imagine the symmetries of the world as fundamental, whereas the material constituents of the world are ontologically derivative of them. This paper develops a novel ontology for non-relativistic quantum mechanics which gives precise metaphysical content to this vision.
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37Symmetry Fundamentalism: A Case Study from Classical PhysicsPhilosophical Quarterly 71 (2): 308-333. 2020.Physicists have suggested what I call symmetry fundamentalism: the view that symmetries are fundamental aspects of physical reality and that these aspects are more fundamental than what one might ordinarily think of as the fundamental building blocks of the world, such as elementary particles. The goal of this paper is to develop an ontology for classical particle mechanics that provides a precise instance of symmetry fundamentalism.
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30The Theory of Every Thing: Toward a Symmetry-Based Metaphysics of MatterDissertation, Princeton University. 2020.
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45The metaphysics of invarianceStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 70 51-64. 2020.
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109Fundamental physics contains an important link between properties of elementary particles and continuous symmetries of particle systems. For example, properties such as mass and spin are said to be 'associated' with specific continuous symmetries. These 'associations' have played a key role in the discovery of various new particle kinds, but more importantly: they are thought to provide a deep insight into the nature of physical reality. The link between properties and symmetries has been said …Read more
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113Decoherent Histories of Spin NetworksFoundations of Physics 43 (3): 310-328. 2013.The decoherent histories formalism, developed by Griffiths, Gell-Mann, and Hartle (in Phys. Rev. A 76:022104, 2007; arXiv:1106.0767v3 [quant-ph], 2011; Consistent Quantum Theory, Cambridge University Press, 2003; arXiv:gr-qc/9304006v2, 1992) is a general framework in which to formulate a timeless, ‘generalised’ quantum theory and extract predictions from it. Recent advances in spin foam models allow for loop gravity to be cast in this framework. In this paper, I propose a decoherence functional …Read more
Geneva, Geneve, Switzerland
Areas of Specialization
Metaphysics |
Philosophy of Physics, Miscellaneous |
General Philosophy of Science |
Areas of Interest
Epistemology |
Normative Ethics |
Social and Political Philosophy |
Immanuel Kant |