Symmetry and Superfluous Structure: Lessons from History and Tempered Enthusiasm
Routledge Companion to the Philosophy of Physics, edited by Eleonor Knox and Alastair Wilson, Routledge.
One of the most powerful methods for zeroing in on the physical structure underlying a body of data uses symmetries as guides to the identification of excess structure. The guiding idea of the method is that regularity of the right kind is a sign of redundancy in the mathematical representation rather than relations between physically distinct entities, quantities, or situations. This paper lays bare the logical structure of the method and the reasoning behind it. Some of the delicacies of deploying it are introduced, and I look at the physical assumptions underlying its application.
Do You See Space? How to Recover the Visible and Tangible Reality of Space (Without Space)
Philosophy Beyond Space-time 2, edited by Christian Wuthrich and Nick Huggett, Oxford University Press.
Space, Quantum Mechanics, and Bohm’s Fishtank
In The Foundation of Reality: Fundamentality, Space and Time, Eds. David Glick and Anna Marmodoro, Oxford University Press.
Quantum Holism: Nonseparability as Common Ground
With Johnathan Schaffer, Synthese, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-016-1201-2.
Which Curie's Principle
With Elena Castellani. Philosophy of Science, 83(5): 1002–1013.
Is there more than one “Curie’s principle”? How far are different formulations legitimate? What are the aspects that make it so scientifically fruitful, independently of how it is formulated? The paper is devoted to exploring these questions. We start with illustrating Curie’s original 1894 article and his focus. Then, we consider the way that the discussion of the principle took shape from early commentators to its modern form. We say why we think that the modern focus on the inter-state version of the principle loses sight of some of the most interesting significant applications of the principle. Finally, we address criticism of the principle put forward by Norton (2014) and purported counterexamples due to Roberts (2013, 2014)
Do statistical mechanical probabilities need quantum shuffling? Albert’s Boltzmannian Story and GRW collapses
Unpublished.
Quantum Mechanics
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2021 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.)
Simplicity as a Guide to Scientific Metaphysics
Unpublished.
The idea that simplicity has a role in guiding our ideas about nature is an old and recurrent theme in philosophy.There is one kind of simplicity that plays a basic role guiding the construction of models and has special importance for philosophers interested in the ontological content of physics. I introduce it, convey a sense of how it works, and articulate the intuitive justification for its role. sense of how it works, and articulate the intuitive justification for its role.
Addendum to How to Combine Chance and Determinism: Response to Lewis
Unpublished.
How to Combine Chance and Determinism: Thinking About the Future in an Everett Universe
Philosophy of Science, Volume 70, Issue 4, October 2003, pp. 776-790. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/378864
Symmetry as a Guide to Superfluous Theoretical Structure
With Bas van Fraassen. In Symmetries in Physics: Philosophical Reflections, edited by Elena Castellani and Katherine Brading, Cambridge University Press.
Curie’s Principle
Synthese, F 97. 110(2), 167-190. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1004929109216
A reading is given of Curie’s principle that the symmetry of a cause is always preserved in its effects. The truth of the principle is demonstrated and its importance under the proposed reading is defended.
