James D Fraser
Biographic Data
| ID | 1071138 |
|---|---|
| NAME | James D Fraser |
| GIVEN NAMES | James D |
| FAMILY NAME | Fraser |
| SIGNATURE | FRASER J D |
| AFFILIATIONS | Durham University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8653-1333 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 55 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 13 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1884 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Perturbative causality
This paper examines the development of causal perturbation theory, a reformulation of perturbative quantum theory (QFT) starting from a causality condition rather than a time-evolution equation. We situate this program alongside other causality-based reformulations of relativistic quantum theory which flourished in the post-war period, contrasting it in particular with axiomatic QFT. Whereas the axiomatic QFT tradition tried to move beyond the pe…
Knowledge of the Quantum Domain
The existence of multiple interpretations of quantum mechanics appears to pose a serious challenge for knowledge claims about the quantum domain. Hoefer (2020) argues that a scientific realist epistemology must be abandoned in this context, while Callender (2020) argues that the realist’s only option is to break the underdetermination between rival interpretations by appealing to extra-empirical virtues. We develop a different response to the qua…
Infinite Scale Skepticism
There has been much debate about how the semantic content of quantum theories with infinitely many degrees of freedom ought to be understood. This paper focuses instead on the epistemological status of the limit of infinite degrees of freedom. Do we have strong grounds to believe that the actual world is an infinite quantum system? I consider two types of argument for thinking that we do: indispensability arguments, which appeal to the role that …
Taking approximations seriously
The twin origins of renormalization group concepts
The Real Problem with Perturbative Quantum Field Theory
The perturbative approach to quantum field theory (QFT) has long been viewed with suspicion by philosophers of science. This article offers a diagnosis of its conceptual problems. Drawing on Norton’s ([2012]) discussion of the notion of approximation I argue that perturbative QFT ought to be understood as producing approximations without specifying an underlying QFT model. This analysis leads to a reassessment of common worries about perturbative…
Green grabs and biochar
Biochar currently attracts technological and market optimism, promising multiple winsfor climate change, food security, bioenergy and healthnot least for African farmers.This paper examines the political-economic and discursive processes constructing biochar as a novel green commodity, creating new alliances amongst scientists, businesses, venture capital firms and non-governmental organisations.Carbon market logics are not only threatening large…
Renormalization and the Formulation of Scientific Realism
Providing a precise statement of their position has long been a central challenge facing scientific realists. This article draws some morals about how realism ought to be formulated from the renormalization group framework in high-energy physics
Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking in Finite Systems
The orthodox characterization of spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB) in statistical mechanics appeals to novel properties of systems with infinite degrees of freedom, namely, the existence of multiple equilibrium states. This raises the same puzzles about the status of the thermodynamic limit fueling recent debates about phase transitions. I argue that there are prospects of explaining the success of the standard approach to SSB in terms of the p…
And Sadly Teach
Case-control study of occupation and cancer of the prostate in New Zealand
A New Zealand Cancer Registry based case-control study involved 617 male patients with prostate cancer registered during 1979 and aged 20 years or more at the time of registration. Controls were also males chosen from the Cancer Registry with two controls per case, matched on age and year of registration. There was an elevated risk in the upper social class groupings. The data did not support the findings, from other countries, of elevated risks …
Seroepidemiology of Q fever among domestic animals in Nova Scotia
We used the indirect microimmunofluorescence test to determine the presence of antibodies in sheep, cattle, goat, cat, and dog sera to phase I and II Coxiella burnetii antigens in Nova Scotia. Only 6.7 per cent of the 329 sheep tested had antibodies to phase II antigen and none had antibodies to phase I. Of 29 goats tested, 7 per cent and 3.5 per cent had antibodies to phase II and phase I antigens, respectively. In contrast, 23.8 per cent of the…
Descriptive Notes on the Stone Circles of Strathnairn and Neighbourhood of Inverness, with Plans, &c
Stone circles (locally known as " Druidical circles") are found in various states of preservation, from the lower end of Stratlmairn to a point twenty-five miles up the river. There are, or rather, there were, twenty-five of these circles within the drainage area of the River Nairn, and twelve or fourteen between the western watershed of the Nairn and the Kiver Ness
Renormalization and the Formulation of Scientific Realism
Providing a precise statement of their position has long been a central challenge facing scientific realists. This article draws some morals about how realism ought to be formulated from the renormalization group framework in high-energy physics
The Real Problem with Perturbative Quantum Field Theory
The perturbative approach to quantum field theory (QFT) has long been viewed with suspicion by philosophers of science. This article offers a diagnosis of its conceptual problems. Drawing on Norton’s ([2012]) discussion of the notion of approximation I argue that perturbative QFT ought to be understood as producing approximations without specifying an underlying QFT model. This analysis leads to a reassessment of common worries about perturbative…
Taking approximations seriously
The twin origins of renormalization group concepts
Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking in Finite Systems
The orthodox characterization of spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB) in statistical mechanics appeals to novel properties of systems with infinite degrees of freedom, namely, the existence of multiple equilibrium states. This raises the same puzzles about the status of the thermodynamic limit fueling recent debates about phase transitions. I argue that there are prospects of explaining the success of the standard approach to SSB in terms of the p…
Seroepidemiology of Q fever among domestic animals in Nova Scotia
We used the indirect microimmunofluorescence test to determine the presence of antibodies in sheep, cattle, goat, cat, and dog sera to phase I and II Coxiella burnetii antigens in Nova Scotia. Only 6.7 per cent of the 329 sheep tested had antibodies to phase II antigen and none had antibodies to phase I. Of 29 goats tested, 7 per cent and 3.5 per cent had antibodies to phase II and phase I antigens, respectively. In contrast, 23.8 per cent of the…
Perturbative causality
This paper examines the development of causal perturbation theory, a reformulation of perturbative quantum theory (QFT) starting from a causality condition rather than a time-evolution equation. We situate this program alongside other causality-based reformulations of relativistic quantum theory which flourished in the post-war period, contrasting it in particular with axiomatic QFT. Whereas the axiomatic QFT tradition tried to move beyond the pe…
Knowledge of the Quantum Domain
The existence of multiple interpretations of quantum mechanics appears to pose a serious challenge for knowledge claims about the quantum domain. Hoefer (2020) argues that a scientific realist epistemology must be abandoned in this context, while Callender (2020) argues that the realist’s only option is to break the underdetermination between rival interpretations by appealing to extra-empirical virtues. We develop a different response to the qua…
Case-control study of occupation and cancer of the prostate in New Zealand
A New Zealand Cancer Registry based case-control study involved 617 male patients with prostate cancer registered during 1979 and aged 20 years or more at the time of registration. Controls were also males chosen from the Cancer Registry with two controls per case, matched on age and year of registration. There was an elevated risk in the upper social class groupings. The data did not support the findings, from other countries, of elevated risks …
Descriptive Notes on the Stone Circles of Strathnairn and Neighbourhood of Inverness, with Plans, &c
Stone circles (locally known as " Druidical circles") are found in various states of preservation, from the lower end of Stratlmairn to a point twenty-five miles up the river. There are, or rather, there were, twenty-five of these circles within the drainage area of the River Nairn, and twelve or fourteen between the western watershed of the Nairn and the Kiver Ness
Seroepidemiology of Q fever among domestic animals in Nova Scotia
We used the indirect microimmunofluorescence test to determine the presence of antibodies in sheep, cattle, goat, cat, and dog sera to phase I and II Coxiella burnetii antigens in Nova Scotia. Only 6.7 per cent of the 329 sheep tested had antibodies to phase II antigen and none had antibodies to phase I. Of 29 goats tested, 7 per cent and 3.5 per cent had antibodies to phase II and phase I antigens, respectively. In contrast, 23.8 per cent of the…
Case-control study of occupation and cancer of the prostate in New Zealand
A New Zealand Cancer Registry based case-control study involved 617 male patients with prostate cancer registered during 1979 and aged 20 years or more at the time of registration. Controls were also males chosen from the Cancer Registry with two controls per case, matched on age and year of registration. There was an elevated risk in the upper social class groupings. The data did not support the findings, from other countries, of elevated risks …
And Sadly Teach
Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking in Finite Systems
The orthodox characterization of spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB) in statistical mechanics appeals to novel properties of systems with infinite degrees of freedom, namely, the existence of multiple equilibrium states. This raises the same puzzles about the status of the thermodynamic limit fueling recent debates about phase transitions. I argue that there are prospects of explaining the success of the standard approach to SSB in terms of the p…
Green grabs and biochar
Biochar currently attracts technological and market optimism, promising multiple winsfor climate change, food security, bioenergy and healthnot least for African farmers.This paper examines the political-economic and discursive processes constructing biochar as a novel green commodity, creating new alliances amongst scientists, businesses, venture capital firms and non-governmental organisations.Carbon market logics are not only threatening large…
Renormalization and the Formulation of Scientific Realism
Providing a precise statement of their position has long been a central challenge facing scientific realists. This article draws some morals about how realism ought to be formulated from the renormalization group framework in high-energy physics
The Real Problem with Perturbative Quantum Field Theory
The perturbative approach to quantum field theory (QFT) has long been viewed with suspicion by philosophers of science. This article offers a diagnosis of its conceptual problems. Drawing on Norton’s ([2012]) discussion of the notion of approximation I argue that perturbative QFT ought to be understood as producing approximations without specifying an underlying QFT model. This analysis leads to a reassessment of common worries about perturbative…
The twin origins of renormalization group concepts
Taking approximations seriously
Infinite Scale Skepticism
There has been much debate about how the semantic content of quantum theories with infinitely many degrees of freedom ought to be understood. This paper focuses instead on the epistemological status of the limit of infinite degrees of freedom. Do we have strong grounds to believe that the actual world is an infinite quantum system? I consider two types of argument for thinking that we do: indispensability arguments, which appeal to the role that …
Perturbative causality
This paper examines the development of causal perturbation theory, a reformulation of perturbative quantum theory (QFT) starting from a causality condition rather than a time-evolution equation. We situate this program alongside other causality-based reformulations of relativistic quantum theory which flourished in the post-war period, contrasting it in particular with axiomatic QFT. Whereas the axiomatic QFT tradition tried to move beyond the pe…
Knowledge of the Quantum Domain
The existence of multiple interpretations of quantum mechanics appears to pose a serious challenge for knowledge claims about the quantum domain. Hoefer (2020) argues that a scientific realist epistemology must be abandoned in this context, while Callender (2020) argues that the realist’s only option is to break the underdetermination between rival interpretations by appealing to extra-empirical virtues. We develop a different response to the qua…
Mathematics (8 works) · Epistemology (6 works) · Philosophy (6 works) · Physics (6 works) · Quantum Mechanics and Applications (6 works) · Theoretical physics (5 works) · Quantum mechanics (4 works) · Geography (3 works) · Philosophy (3 works) · Philosophy and History of Science (3 works)