Javier Anta
Biographic Data
| ID | 1313770 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Javier Anta |
| GIVEN NAMES | Javier |
| FAMILY NAME | Anta |
| SIGNATURE | ANTA J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Logos Technologies (United States) |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4409-7719 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 11 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Complementing Science
In this paper, I argue that the history and philosophy of thermodynamics of computation in 1998–2024 has contributed to gain scientific knowledge about Maxwell’s demon and Landauer’s principle, thus successfully implementing Hasok Chang’s model of integrated HPS as complementary science. Here, I distinguish three senses in which this HPS field has contributed epistemically to thermal physics. Firstly, by reopening a closed research programme base…
How to Conceptual Engineer ‘Entropy’ and ‘Information’
In this paper I discuss how to conceptual engineer ‘entropy’ and ‘information’ as they are used in information theory and statistical mechanics. Initially, I evaluate the extent to which the all-pervasive entangled use of entropy and information notions can be somehow defective in these domains, such as being meaningless or generating confusion. Then, I assess the main ameliorative strategies to improve this defective conceptual practice. The fir…
Intellectual inflation
This paper aims to analyze a specific way in which a scientific programme or area can, in Lakatosian terms, degenerate: namely, through a developmental process of intellectual inflation. Adopting a pluralist approach to the notion of scientific progress, we propose that the historical development of a particular scientific area can be analyzed as being intellectually inflationary during a bounded period of time if it has considerably increased it…
Tras el laberinto humeano
En este artículo defiendo que el problema humeano de la justificación racional de la inducción no ha contribuido a la comprensión filosófica de este tipo de inferencias. La teoría material de la inducción propuesta por Norton (2003) permite analizar el razonamiento inductivo más allá del laberinto justificativo humeano, pero con un corte demasiado alto: asumir que las inducciones dependen intrínsecamente de cómo es localmente la realidad. En su l…
Under Shannon’s Bandwagon. Rethinking the Reception of Information Theory in Thermal Physics, 1948-1957
In this paper I analyze the historical case of how Shannon’s theory of information, among other alternative theories, began to be applied rapidly and systematically within thermal physics in the 1950s. After evaluating this theory and the intellectual context in which it is inserted, I argue that it was not the formal-conceptual features of Shannon’s theory but the particular motivations of influential scientists such as von Neumann, Weaver and W…
Integrating Inferentialism about Physical Theories and Representations
This paper argues for an integrated inferential conception about theories and representations and its role in accounting for the theoretical value of philosophically disregarded representational practices, such as the systematic use of phase space diagrams within the theoretical context of statistical mechanics. This proposal would rely on both inferentialism about scientific representations (Suárez 2004) and inferentialism about particular physi…
The epistemic schism of statistical mechanics
In this paper I will argue that the two main approaches to statistical mechanics, that of Boltzmann and Gibbs, constitute two substantially different theoretical apparatuses. Particularly, I defend that this theoretical split must be philosophically understood as a separation of epistemic functions within this physical domain: while Boltzmannians are able to generate powerful explanations of thermal phenomena from molecular dynamics, Gibbsians ca…
Information, meaning and physics
Argument In this comparative historical analysis, we will analyze the intellectual tendency that emerged between 1946 and 1956 to take advantage of the popularity of communication theory to develop a kind of informational epistemology of statistical mechanics. We will argue that this tendency results from a historical confluence in the early 1950s of certain theoretical claims of the so-called English School of Information Theory, championed by a…
Can informational thermal physics explain the approach to equilibrium
An Inferential Account on Theoretical Concepts in Physics
In this paper we develop an inferential account on the meaning and reference of theoretical concepts in physics, mainly based on the pragmatic notion of ‘inferential validity’. Firstly, we distinguish between empirical meaningfulness and theoretical significance as two different modes of meaning, wherein the former depends on consistently encoding experimental values, as proposed by Chang (2004), and the latter on being semantically coherent with…
Influence of the weather on mode choice in corridors with time-varying congestion
Under Shannon’s Bandwagon. Rethinking the Reception of Information Theory in Thermal Physics, 1948-1957
In this paper I analyze the historical case of how Shannon’s theory of information, among other alternative theories, began to be applied rapidly and systematically within thermal physics in the 1950s. After evaluating this theory and the intellectual context in which it is inserted, I argue that it was not the formal-conceptual features of Shannon’s theory but the particular motivations of influential scientists such as von Neumann, Weaver and W…
Influence of the weather on mode choice in corridors with time-varying congestion
An Inferential Account on Theoretical Concepts in Physics
In this paper we develop an inferential account on the meaning and reference of theoretical concepts in physics, mainly based on the pragmatic notion of ‘inferential validity’. Firstly, we distinguish between empirical meaningfulness and theoretical significance as two different modes of meaning, wherein the former depends on consistently encoding experimental values, as proposed by Chang (2004), and the latter on being semantically coherent with…
Integrating Inferentialism about Physical Theories and Representations
This paper argues for an integrated inferential conception about theories and representations and its role in accounting for the theoretical value of philosophically disregarded representational practices, such as the systematic use of phase space diagrams within the theoretical context of statistical mechanics. This proposal would rely on both inferentialism about scientific representations (Suárez 2004) and inferentialism about particular physi…
The epistemic schism of statistical mechanics
In this paper I will argue that the two main approaches to statistical mechanics, that of Boltzmann and Gibbs, constitute two substantially different theoretical apparatuses. Particularly, I defend that this theoretical split must be philosophically understood as a separation of epistemic functions within this physical domain: while Boltzmannians are able to generate powerful explanations of thermal phenomena from molecular dynamics, Gibbsians ca…
Information, meaning and physics
Argument In this comparative historical analysis, we will analyze the intellectual tendency that emerged between 1946 and 1956 to take advantage of the popularity of communication theory to develop a kind of informational epistemology of statistical mechanics. We will argue that this tendency results from a historical confluence in the early 1950s of certain theoretical claims of the so-called English School of Information Theory, championed by a…
Can informational thermal physics explain the approach to equilibrium
Under Shannon’s Bandwagon. Rethinking the Reception of Information Theory in Thermal Physics, 1948-1957
In this paper I analyze the historical case of how Shannon’s theory of information, among other alternative theories, began to be applied rapidly and systematically within thermal physics in the 1950s. After evaluating this theory and the intellectual context in which it is inserted, I argue that it was not the formal-conceptual features of Shannon’s theory but the particular motivations of influential scientists such as von Neumann, Weaver and W…
Tras el laberinto humeano
En este artículo defiendo que el problema humeano de la justificación racional de la inducción no ha contribuido a la comprensión filosófica de este tipo de inferencias. La teoría material de la inducción propuesta por Norton (2003) permite analizar el razonamiento inductivo más allá del laberinto justificativo humeano, pero con un corte demasiado alto: asumir que las inducciones dependen intrínsecamente de cómo es localmente la realidad. En su l…
Intellectual inflation
This paper aims to analyze a specific way in which a scientific programme or area can, in Lakatosian terms, degenerate: namely, through a developmental process of intellectual inflation. Adopting a pluralist approach to the notion of scientific progress, we propose that the historical development of a particular scientific area can be analyzed as being intellectually inflationary during a bounded period of time if it has considerably increased it…
Complementing Science
In this paper, I argue that the history and philosophy of thermodynamics of computation in 1998–2024 has contributed to gain scientific knowledge about Maxwell’s demon and Landauer’s principle, thus successfully implementing Hasok Chang’s model of integrated HPS as complementary science. Here, I distinguish three senses in which this HPS field has contributed epistemically to thermal physics. Firstly, by reopening a closed research programme base…
How to Conceptual Engineer ‘Entropy’ and ‘Information’
In this paper I discuss how to conceptual engineer ‘entropy’ and ‘information’ as they are used in information theory and statistical mechanics. Initially, I evaluate the extent to which the all-pervasive entangled use of entropy and information notions can be somehow defective in these domains, such as being meaningless or generating confusion. Then, I assess the main ameliorative strategies to improve this defective conceptual practice. The fir…
Philosophy (8 works) · Epistemology (7 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · Philosophy and History of Science (6 works) · Physics (6 works) · Mathematics (5 works) · Psychology (5 works) · Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics (4 works) · Theoretical physics (4 works) · Cognitive Science and Education Research (3 works)