•  424
    The central motivating idea behind the development of this work is the concept of prespace, a hypothetical structure that is postulated by some physicists to underlie the fabric of space or space-time. I consider how such a structure could relate to space and space-time, and the rest of reality as we know it, and the implications of the existence of this structure for quantum theory. Understanding how this structure could relate to space and to the rest of reality requires, I believe, that we co…Read more
  •  206
    This paper presents a new modified quantum mechanics, Critical Complexity Quantum Mechanics, which includes a new account of wavefunction collapse. This modified quantum mechanics is shown to arise naturally from a fully discrete physics, where all physical quantities are discrete rather than continuous. I compare this theory with the spontaneous collapse theories of Ghirardi, Rimini, Weber and Pearle and discuss some implications of these theories and CCQM for a realist view of the quantum real…Read more
  •  104
    The naturalness theory of laws
    In Howard Sankey (ed.), Causation and Laws of Nature, Kluwer Academic Publishers. pp. 77--82. 1999.
    If I were to drop an apple, then it would fall. It is not possible that it would fly upwards. It is necessary that it would fall. I think these statements are true, but at the same time I believe that it is not logically necessary that the apple would fall. I believe that there is in nature a kind of necessity weaker than logical necessity: natural necessity.
  •  22
    Raphael's Platonic Vision
    Journal of the American Philosophical Association 6 (4): 410-430. 2020.
    The four frescoes by Raphael in the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican Museum visually embody close approximations of several numerical ratios that are of deep significance in the material grounding of musical harmonies in the physics of natural harmonics. Of special significance is the Pythagorean musical frequency ratio of 9:8, the whole tone interval, which in Plato's Timaeus is called the epogdoôn.
  •  1
    The Necessitarian Perspective: Laws as Natural Entailments
    In F. Weinert (ed.), Laws of Nature, Walter De Gruyter. pp. 92-119. 1995.
    We maintain that there is something called natural necessity that is involved in the laws of nature -laws are concerned with what must happen, and what could not possibly happen. rather than merely what does and does not happen. Some recent believers in natural necessity, such as Dretske [1977], Tooley [1977,1987] and Armstrong [1978, 1983], have argued that this natural necessity arises from certain relations among the properties of things in our world - they argue that there are relations of “…Read more