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1520Oltre la fisica normale. Interpretazioni alternative e teorie non standard nella fisica moderna (edited book)ISONOMIA - Epistemologica. 2013.Nella sua straordinaria opera scientifica, Franco Selleri si è sempre opposto alla rinuncia alla comprensione della struttura della realtà e della natura degli oggetti fisici, che egli considera come l’elemento caratterizzante delle principali teorie della fisica del Novecento e che è stata stigmatizzata da Karl Popper come tesi della “fine della strada in fisica”. Sin dalla fine degli anni ’60, egli ha sviluppato quella riflessione critica nei confronti delle teorie fondamentali della fisica mo…Read more
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68A physical interpretation of Lewis’ discrepancy between personal and external time in time travelsSynthese 197 (11): 4847-4866. 2020.This paper deals with those time travels mostly considered by physics, namely those in the form of the so-called closed timelike curves. Some authoritative scholars have raised doubts about the status of these journeys as proper time travels. By using David Lewis’ famous definition of time travels proposed in 1976, we show that this proper status may actually be recovered, at least in some cosmological contexts containing spacetime regions, such as those concerning black holes described by the K…Read more
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48Space and Time: A Priori and a Posteriori Studies (edited book)De Gruyter. 2014.This collection focuses on the ontology of space and time. It is centred on the idea that the issues typically encountered in this area must be tackled from a multifarious perspective, paying attention to both a priori and a posteriori considerations. Several experts in this area contribute to this volume: G. Landini discusses how Russell’s conception of time features in his general philosophical perspective;D. Dieks proposes a middle course between substantivalist and relationist accounts of sp…Read more
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47Is Einstein’s Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics Ψ-Epistemic?Axiomathes 29 (6): 607-619. 2019.Harrigan and Spekkens, introduced the influential notion of an ontological model of operational quantum theory. Ontological models can be either “epistemic” or “ontic.” According to the two scholars, Einstein would have been one of the first to propose an epistemic interpretation of quantum mechanics. Pusey et al. showed that an epistemic interpretation of quantum theory is impossible, so implying that Einstein had been refuted. We discuss in detail Einstein’s arguments against the standard inte…Read more
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34In the present essay Kantian prohibition against scientific cosmology is discussed. It is shown that the possibility of such a science is based essentially on a hypothetico-deductive use of the cosmological principle. Moreover the epistemological character of the latter is investigated, in order to prove that it has no a priori character, against the received view on the topics.
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25No-Thing and Causality in Realistic Non-Standard Interpretations of the Quantum Mechanical Wave Function: Ex Nihilo Aliquid?Foundations of Science 28 (1): 159-184. 2023.It has been shown that quantum mechanics in its orthodox interpretation violates four different formulations of causality principle endowed with empirical meaning. The present work aims to highlight how even a realistic non-standard interpretation of the theory conflicts with causality in its Cartesian formulation of the principle of the non-inferiority of causes over effects. Such an interpretation, which attributes some form of weak physical reality to the wave function (called empty wave, reg…Read more
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21Philosophy of Space and Expanding Universe in G. J. WhitrowFoundations of Science 20 (3): 233-247. 2015.One of the few authors to have explicitly connected the physical issue of the expansion of the universe with the philosophical topic of the metaphysical status of space is Gerald James Whitrow. This paper examines his view and tries to highlight its strong and weak points, thereby clarifying its obscure aspects. In general, this really interesting philosophical approach to one of the most important phenomena concerning our universe, and therefore modern cosmology, has been very rarely tackled. T…Read more
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20J. Jeans’ Idealism About Space And Its Influences On E.A. Milne At The Dawn Of Modern CosmologyStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 46 (2): 303-315. 2014.This paper deals with two important English scientists of the first half of the twentieth century: Edward Arthur Milne and James Hopwood Jeans. It examines the philosophical reasons that, in 1932, induced Milne to devote himself to the newborn modern cosmology. Among those reasons, it is argued that the most important ones were some of Jeans’ philosophical statements regarding the new relativistic view of the expanding universe. In particular, Milne reacted to some confusing idealist opinions ex…Read more
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14ContentsIn Giovanni Macchia, Francesco Orilia & Vincenzo Fano (eds.), Space and Time: A Priori and a Posteriori Studies, De Gruyter. 2014.
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13Expansion of the Universe and Spacetime OntologyHumana Mente 4 (13). 2018.The debate on the ontological status of spacetime in General Relativity has historically seen two principal philosophical contenders: substantivalism, roughly the view that holds that spacetime exists apart from the material contents of the universe, and relationism, the doctrine that spacetime does not exist, i.e., it is a mere abstract web of spatiotemporal relations among bodies. This dispute, however, has rarely been fought on a cosmological battlefield. In this paper an attempt in this dire…Read more
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8Editors’ introductionIn Giovanni Macchia, Francesco Orilia & Vincenzo Fano (eds.), Space and Time: A Priori and a Posteriori Studies, De Gruyter. pp. 1-6. 2014.
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7Gödelian time travel and weyl’s principleIn Giovanni Macchia, Francesco Orilia & Vincenzo Fano (eds.), Space and Time: A Priori and a Posteriori Studies, De Gruyter. pp. 237-272. 2014.
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5About the authorsIn Giovanni Macchia, Francesco Orilia & Vincenzo Fano (eds.), Space and Time: A Priori and a Posteriori Studies, De Gruyter. pp. 273-276. 2014.