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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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59David 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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95David 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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842Do 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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16Bayes or Bust? A Critical Examination of Bayesian Confirmation TheoryPhilosophical Quarterly 45 (180): 377-379. 1995.
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168How determinism can fail in classical physics and how quantum physics can (sometimes) provide a curePhilosophy of Science 75 (5): 817-829. 2008.Various fault modes of determinism in classical physics are outlined. It is shown how quantum mechanics can cure some forms of classical indeterminism. †To contact the author, please write to: Department of HPS, University of Pittsburgh, 1017 Cathedral of Learning, Pittsburgh, PA 15260; e‐mail: [email protected].
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31The implications of general covariance for the ontology and ideology of spacetimeIn Dennis Dieks (ed.), The Ontology of Spacetime, Elsevier. pp. 3--24. 2006.It generally agreed that the requirement of formal general covariance is a condition of the well-formedness of a spacetime theory and not a restriction on its content. Physicists commonly take the substantive requirement of general covariance to mean that the laws exhibit diffeomorphism invariance and that this invariance is a gauge symmetry. This latter requirement does place restrictions on the content of a spacetime theory. The present paper explores the implications of these restrictions for…Read more
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42Infinitely Challenging: Pitowsky’s Subjective Interpretation and the Physics of Infinite SystemsIn Yemima Ben-Menahem & Meir Hemmo (eds.), Probability in Physics, Springer. pp. 219--232. 2011.On Itamar Pitowsky’s subjective interpretation of quantum mechanics, “the Hilbert space formalism of quantum mechanics [QM] is just a new kind of probability theory”, one whose probabilities correspond to odds rational agents would accept on the outcomes of gambles concerning quantum event structures. Our aim here is to ask whether Pitowsky’s approach can be extended from its original context, of quantum theories for systems with an finite number of degrees of freedom, to systems with an infinit…Read more
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139Notes on the causal theory of timeSynthese 24 (1-2). 1972.I have argued that the most recent versions of the causal theory are subject to serious limitations. The causal analysis of spatiotemporal coincidence considered in Section IV does not apply to space-times in which (1) fails. And current versions of the theory collapse altogether for typical cases of relativistic space-times which are closed in their temporal aspects. Second, I have pointed out that the program of recent causal theorists is based on a false dichotomy — open vs. closed times; for…Read more
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279An attempt to add a little direction to "the problem of the direction of time"Philosophy of Science 41 (1): 15-47. 1974.It is argued that the main problem with "the problem of the direction of time" is to figure out what the problem is or is supposed to be. Towards this end, an attempt is made to disentangle and to classify some of the many issues which have been discussed under the label of 'the direction of time'. Secondly, some technical apparatus is introduced in the hope of producing a sharper formulation of the issues than they have received in the philosophical literature. Finally, some tentative suggestio…Read more
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517Sharpening the Electromagnetic Arrow(s) of TimeIn Craig Callender (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Time, Oxford University Press. 2011.Time in electromagnetism shares many features with time in other physical theories. But there is one aspect of electromagnetism's relationship with time that has always been controversial, yet has not always attracted the limelight it deserves: the electromagnetic arrow of time. Beginning with a re-analysis of a famous argument between Ritz and Einstein over the origins of the radiation arrow, this chapter frames the debate between modern Einsteinians and neo-Ritzians. It tries to find a clean s…Read more
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185Curie’s Principle and spontaneous symmetry breakingInternational Studies in the Philosophy of Science 18 (2 & 3). 2004.In 1894 Pierre Curie announced what has come to be known as Curie's Principle: the asymmetry of effects must be found in their causes. In the same publication Curie discussed a key feature of what later came to be known as spontaneous symmetry breaking: the phenomena generally do not exhibit the symmetries of the laws that govern them. Philosophers have long been interested in the meaning and status of Curie's Principle. Only comparatively recently have they begun to delve into the mysteries of …Read more
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37Why Space is Not a Substance (at Least Not to First Degree)Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 67 (4): 225-244. 1986.
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234Laplacian determinism, or is this any way to run a universe?Journal of Philosophy 68 (21): 729-744. 1971.
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71the success of classical equilibrium statistical mechanics. Our claim is based on the observations that dynamical systems for which statistical mechanics works are most likely not ergodic, and that ergodicity is both too strong and too weak a condition for the required explanation: one needs only ergodic-like behavior for the finite set of observables that matter, but the behavior must ensure that the approach to equilibrium for these obsersvables is on the appropriate..
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200The Unruh effect for philosophersStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 42 (2): 81-97. 2011.The importance of the Unruh effect lies in the fact that, together with the related Hawking effect, it serves to link the three main branches of modern physics: thermal/statistical physics, relativity theory/gravitation, and quantum physics. However, different researchers can have in mind different phenomena when they speak of “the Unruh effect” in flat spacetime and its generalization to curved spacetimes. Three different approaches are reviewed here. They are shown to yield results that are so…Read more
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50Infinities, Infinitesimals, and Indivisibles: The Leibnizian LabyrinthStudia Leibnitiana 7 (2). 1975.Es werden zwei Bedeutungen von „Infinitesimal“ unterschieden und zwei Thesen verteidigt: (1) Leibniz glaubte, das Infinitesimale in einer der beiden Bedeutungen sei nicht nur eine nützliche Erdichtung, sondern es sei sogar notwendig fur die Differentialrechnung; (2) die moderne Nichtstand-Analysis rechtfertigt weder Leibniz's Griinde fur die Einführung des Infinitesimalen noch seinen Gebrauch desselben
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284Weyling the time away: the non-unitary implementability of quantum field dynamics on curved spacetimeStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 33 (2): 151-184. 2002.The simplest case of quantum field theory on curved spacetime—that of the Klein–Gordon field on a globally hyperbolic spacetime—reveals a dilemma: In generic circumstances, either there is no dynamics for this quantum field, or else there is a dynamics that is not unitarily implementable. We do not try to resolve the dilemma here, but endeavour to spell out the consequences of seizing one or the other horn of the dilemma.
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247Reassessing the prospects for a growing Block model of the universeInternational Studies in the Philosophy of Science 22 (2). 2008.Although C. D. Broad's notion of Becoming has received a fair amount of attention in the philosophy-of-time literature, there are no serious attempts to show how to replace the standard 'block' spacetime models by models that are more congenial to Broad's idea that the sum total of existence is continuously increased by Becoming or the coming into existence of events. In the Newtonian setting Broad-type models can be constructed in a cheating fashion by starting with a Newtonian block model, car…Read more
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85Bayes, Hume, Price, and MiraclesIn Richard Swinburne (ed.), Bayes’s Theorem, Oxford University Press. pp. 91--110. 2002.This chapter discusses the Bayesian analysis of miracles. It is set in the context of the eighteenth-century debate on miracles. The discussion is focused on the probable response of Thomas Bayes to David Hume's celebrated argument against miracles. The chapter presents the claim that the criticisms Richard Price made against Hume's argument against miracles were largely solid.
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356Thoroughly modern Mctaggart: Or, what Mctaggart would have said if he had read the general theory of relativityPhilosophers' Imprint 2 1-28. 2002.The philosophical literature on time and change is fixated on the issue of whether the B-series account of change is adequate or whether real change requires Becoming of either the property-based variety of McTaggart's A-series or the non-property-based form embodied in C. D. Broad's idea of the piling up of successive layers of existence. For present purposes it is assumed that the B-series suffices to ground real change. But then it is noted that modern science in the guise of Einstein's gener…Read more
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Physical Science |
General Philosophy of Science |
Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Physical Science |
General Philosophy of Science |