T. O.

Unaffiliated
  • Thomas Sattig, How Time Passes, Review by Elena Padoan (review)
    Studia Philosophica. forthcoming.
    Consider the following two cases, A and B. In case A, a cube exists and, a few seconds later, a sphere exists, exhibiting a sequence of disappearance and appearance. In case B, by contrast, a cube and a sphere exist side by side. What distinguishes these two cases is the way in which the entities involved—the cube and the sphere—are organized in time and space. In case A, the cube and the sphere are temporally organized in such a way that they exhibit “dis/appearance”, whereas in case B the…Read more
  • Real Numbers are the Hidden Variables of Classical Mechanics
    Quantum Studies: Mathematics and Foundations 7. 2020.
    Do scientific theories limit human knowledge? In other words, are there physical variables hidden by essence forever? We argue for negative answers and illustrate our point on chaotic classical dynamical systems. We emphasize parallels with quantum theory and conclude that the common real numbers are, de facto, the hidden variables of classical physics. Consequently, real numbers should not be considered as ``physically real" and classical mechanics, like quantum physics, is indeterministic.