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17Inference, Explanation, and Other Frustrations: Essays in the Philosophy of Science (edited book)University of California Press. 1992.These provocative essays by leading philosophers of science exemplify and illuminate the contemporary uncertainty and excitement in the field. The papers are rich in new perspectives, and their far-reaching criticisms challenge arguments long prevalent in classic philosophical problems of induction, empiricism, and realism. By turns empirical or analytic, historical or programmatic, confessional or argumentative, the authors' arguments both describe and demonstrate the fact that philosophy of sc…Read more
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58Quantum Bayesianism AssessedThe Monist 102 (4): 403-423The idea that the quantum probabilities are best construed as the personal/subjective degrees of belief of Bayesian agents is an old one. In recent years the idea has been vigorously pursued by a group of physicists who fly the banner of quantum Bayesianism. The present paper aims to identify the prospects and problems of implementing QBism, and it critically assesses the claim that QBism provides a resolution of some of the long-standing foundations issues in quantum mechanics, including the me…Read more
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60David Lewis' "Principal Principle" is a purported principle of rationality connecting credence and objective chance. Almost all of the discussion of the Principal Principle in the philosophical literature assumes classical probability theory, which is unfortunate since the theory of modern physics that, arguably, speaks most clearly of objective chance is the quantum theory, and quantum probabilities are not classical probabilities. Given the generally accepted updating rule for quantum probabil…Read more
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96David Lewis' "Principal Principle" is a purported principle of rationality connecting credence and objective chance. Almost all of the discussion of the Principal Principle in the philosophical literature assumes classical probability theory, which is unfortunate since the theory of modern physics that, arguably, speaks most clearly of objective chance is the quantum theory, and quantum probabilities are not classical probabilities. This paper develops an account of how chance works in quantum t…Read more
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880Do the Laws of Physics Forbid the Operation of Time Machines?Synthese 169 (1). 2009.We address the question of whether it is possible to operate a time machine by manipulating matter and energy so as to manufacture closed timelike curves. This question has received a great deal of attention in the physics literature, with attempts to prove no- go theorems based on classical general relativity and various hybrid theories serving as steps along the way towards quantum gravity. Despite the effort put into these no-go theorems, there is no widely accepted definition of a time machi…Read more
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65Carnap, Kuhn, and the Philosophy of Science MethodologyIn Paul Horwich (ed.), World Changes. Thomas Kuhn and the Nature of Science, Mit Press. pp. 9--36. 1993.
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34World Enough and SpacetimeMIT press. 1989.Newton's Principia introduced conceptions of space and time that launched one of themost famous and sustained debates in the history of physics, a controversy that involves fundamentalconcerns in the foundations of physics, metaphysics, and scientific epistemology.This bookintroduces and clarifies the historical and philosophical development of the clash between Newton'sabsolute conception of space and Leibniz's relational one. It separates the issues and provides newperspectives on absolute rel…Read more
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68Infinite pains: the trouble with supertasksIn Adam Morton & Stephen P. Stich (eds.), Benacerraf and His Critics, Blackwell. pp. 11--271. 1996.
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82From metaphysics to physicsIn Jeremy Butterfield & Constantine Pagonis (eds.), From Physics to Philosophy, Cambridge University Press. pp. 166--86. 1999.We discuss the relationship between the interpretative problems of quantum gravity and those of general relativity. We argue that classical and quantum theories of gravity resuscitate venerable philosophical questions about the nature of space, time, and change; and that the resolution of some of the difficulties facing physicists working on quantum theories of gravity would appear to require philosophical as well as scientific creativity.
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161There is currently no viable alternative to the Bayesian analysis of scientific inference, yet the available versions of Bayesianism fail to do justice to several aspects of the testing and confirmation of scientific hypotheses. Bayes or Bust? provides the first balanced treatment of the complex set of issues involved in this nagging conundrum in the philosophy of science. Both Bayesians and anti-Bayesians will find a wealth of new insights on topics ranging from Bayes’s original paper to contem…Read more
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40The Problem of IrreversibilityPSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1986. 1986.After reviewing recent literature from physics and philosophy, it is concluded that we are still far from having a satisfying explanation of the nature and origins of irreversibility. It is proposed that the most fruitful approach to this problem is to concentrate on conditions needed for a rigorous derivation of the Boltzmann equation.
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73Fairy tales vs an ongoing story: Ramsey's neglected argument for scientific realism (review)Philosophical Studies 33 (2). 1978.
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74On Writing the History of Special RelativityPSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1982. 1982.Nearly all accounts of the genesis of special relativity unhesitatingly assume that the theory was worked out in a roughly five week period following the discovery of the relativity of simultaneity. Not only is there no direct evidence for this common presupposition, there are numerous considerations which militate against it. The evidence suggests it is far more reasonable that Einstein was already in possession of the Lorentz and field transformations, that he had applied these to the dynamics…Read more
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251A Primer on DeterminismD. Reidel. 1986.Determinism is a perennial topic of philosophical discussion. Very little acquaintance with the philosophical literature is needed to reveal the Tower of ...
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205The gravitational red shift as a test of general relativity: History and analysisStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 11 (3): 175-214. 1980.
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38Bangs, Crunches, Whimpers, and Shrieks: Singularities and Acausalities in Relativistic SpacetimesPhilosophical Review 107 (1): 142. 1998.For much of this century, philosophers hoped that Einstein’s general theory of relativity would play the role of physician to philosophy. Its development would positively influence the philosophy of methodology and confirmation, and its ontology would answer many traditional philosophical debates—for example, the issue of spacetime substantivalism. In physics, by contrast, the attitude is increasingly that GTR itself needs a physician. The more we learn about GTR the more we discover how odd are…Read more
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24The Cosmos of Science: Essays of Exploration (edited book)University of Pitsburgh Press. 1996.The inaugural volume of the series, devoted to the work of philosopher Adolf Grnbaum, encompasses the philosophical problems of space, time, and cosmology, the ...
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107Discussion. Comments on Laraudogoitia's 'classical particle dynamics, indeterminism and a supertask'British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 49 (1): 123-133. 1998.We discuss two supertasks invented recently by Laraudogoitia [1996, 1997], Both involve an infinite number of particle collisions within a finite amount of time and both compromise determinism. We point out that the sources of the indeterminism are rather different in the two cases - one involves unbounded particle velocities, the other involves particles with no lower bound to their sizes - and consequently that the implications for determinism are rather different - one form of indeterminism a…Read more
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10Not All Is ChaosMetascience 7 (1): 183-188. 1998.Reviews of Florian Diacu and Philip Holmes, Celestial Encounters: The Origins of Chaos and Stability, and Paul Weingartner and Gerhard Schutz, Law and Prediction in the Light of Chaos Research.
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157Superselection Rules for PhilosophersErkenntnis 69 (3): 377-414. 2008.The overaraching goal of this paper is to elucidate the nature of superselection rules in a manner that is accessible to philosophers of science and that brings out the connections between superselection and some of the most fundamental interpretational issues in quantum physics. The formalism of von Neumann algebras is used to characterize three different senses of superselection rules (dubbed, weak, strong, and very strong) and to provide useful necessary and sufficient conditions for each sen…Read more
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34Discussions of branching time and branching spacetime have become common in the philosophical literature. If properly understood, these conceptions can be harmless. But they are sometimes used in the service of debatable and even downright pernicious doctrines. The purpose of this chapter is to identify the pernicious branching and prune it back.
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120What revisions does bootstrap testing need? A replyPhilosophy of Science 55 (2): 260-264. 1988.
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70Kant, incongruous counterparts, and the nature of space and space-timeIn James Van~Cleve & Robert E. Frederick (eds.), The Philosophy of Right and Left, Kluwer Academic Publishers. pp. 131--149. 1991.The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, I want to examine some rather curious arguments of Kant’s which purport to show that some alleged properties of space can be derived from some alleged facts about incongruous counterparts. Secondly, I want to give some preliminary answers to some important questions about the distinction between right and left and the nature of space and space-time which are raised by Kant’s argument. As a byproduct, I hope that the discussion will provide an example …Read more
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45Cosmic CensorshipPSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1992. 1992.The cosmic censorship hypothesis states that the general theory of relativity has built in mechanisms to prevent the formation of "naked singularities," pathologies in the spacetime structure that lead to a breakdown in predictability and determinism. This paper discusses some attempts to turn the vague hypothesis into a precise conjecture. Evidence in favor of and against the conjecture is briefly reviewed. Finally the possibility of forming naked singularities via black hole evaporation due to…Read more
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Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Physical Science |
General Philosophy of Science |
Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Physical Science |
General Philosophy of Science |