Sherry Baron
Biographic Data
| ID | 190964 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sherry Baron |
| GIVEN NAMES | Sherry |
| FAMILY NAME | Baron |
| SIGNATURE | BARON S |
| AFFILIATIONS | The University of Western Australia |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4000-3276 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 64 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 111 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 64 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1956 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Structuralism and the Individuation of Causal Set Elements in Causal Set Theory
It has been suggested that causal set theory is particularly accommodating to a structuralist interpretation. In this paper, we will evaluate this claim, focusing on a recent version of structuralism proposed by Wüthrich (2012, 2024). We show that structuralism of this variety conflicts with the standard dynamics of causal set theory, and that removing this conflict may require reworking the dynamics. We also show that a structuralist interpretat…
Scientific Theory and Possibility
It is plausible that the models of scientific theories correspond to possibilities. But how do we know which models of which scientific theories so correspond? This paper provides a novel proposal for guiding belief about possibilities via scientific theories. The proposal draws on the notion of an effective theory: a theory that applies very well to a particular, restricted domain. We argue that it is the models of effective theories that we sho…
Spacetime emergence and the fear of intimacy
We provide a reply to the Argument from Intimacy on behalf of defenders of emergent spacetime in theories of quantum gravity. We argue that if one accepts that spacetime regions are nowhere in the sense that they are locations but do not have locations, then the Argument from Intimacy can be resolved. We go on to consider a problem with this response, namely that it is unavailable to super-substantivalists. We argue that this is right for identit…
Trust, Explainability and AI
There has been a surge of interest in explainable artificial intelligence (XAI). It is commonly claimed that explainability is necessary for trust in AI, and that this is why we need it. In this paper, I argue that for some notions of trust it is plausible that explainability is indeed a necessary condition. But that these kinds of trust are not appropriate for AI. For notions of trust that are appropriate for AI, explainability is not a necessar…
Priority monism and the emergence of spacetime
There has been a recent surge of interest in the idea that spacetime is not fundamental. Much of this interest has focused on the implications for physics. There has been less work investigating the implications of spacetime emergence for existing theories in metaphysics. This paper aims to fill this gap by considering the impact of spacetime emergence on priority monism. We argue that one prominent version of priority monism is incompatible with…
Inference to the Best Contradiction
Is endurantism the folk friendly view of persistence
Many philosophers have thought that our folk, or pre-reflective, view of persistence is one on which objects endure . This assumption not only plays a role in disputes about the nature of persistence itself, but is also put to use in several other areas of metaphysics, including debates about the nature of change and temporal passage. In this paper, we empirically test three broad claims. First, that most people (i.e. most non-philosophers) belie…
Causal theories of spacetime
We develop a new version of the causal theory of spacetime. Whereas traditional versions of the theory seek to identify spatiotemporal relations with causal relations, the version we develop takes causal relations to be the grounds for spatiotemporal relations. Causation is thus distinct from, and more basic than, spacetime. We argue that this non‐identity theory, suitably developed, avoids the challenges facing the traditional identity theory
Precarious work on the rise
Precarious employment (PE) is non-standard employment with uncertain and unstable contract duration, low wages, and limited labour protections and rights. Research has associated PE with workers' poor mental health and well-being; however, this association has been studied primarily using quantitative methods. This qualitative study seeks to examine the mechanisms between PE and mental health in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario, Ca…
Platonism and intra-mathematical explanation
I introduce an argument for Platonism based on intra-mathematical explanation: the explanation of one mathematical fact by another. The argument is important for two reasons. First, if the argument succeeds then it provides a basis for Platonism that does not proceed via standard indispensability considerations. Second, if the argument fails, it can only do so for one of the three reasons: either because there are no intra-mathematical explanatio…
Dialetheism and the A-theory
According to dialetheism, there are some true contradictions. According to the A-theory, the passage of time is a mind-independent feature of reality. On some A-theories, the passage of time involves the movement of the present. I show that by appealing to dialetheism, one can explain why the present moves. I then argue that A-theorists should adopt this explanation. To do this, I defend two claims. First, that the dialetheic explanation is an im…
Mathematical Explanation: A Pythagorean Proposal
Eliminating Spacetime
Covid-19 Infections, Pandemic-Related Social and Economic Impacts, and Changes to Mental and Self-Rated Health Among Latinx Immigrant Housecleaners in New York City: The Safe and Just Cleaners Study
Objectives. To estimate impacts of COVID-19 infections and social and economic sequelae on mental and self-rated health among Latinx immigrant housecleaners in New York City. Methods. From March to June 2021, we conducted a follow-up study with 74% retention of 402 housecleaners initially surveyed before the pandemic between August 2019 and February 2020. We measured rates of self-reported COVID-19 infections, COVID-19 antibodies, and pandemic-re…
Presentism and representation: Saying it without words
The Triviality Argument against presentism maintains that we should reject presentism because there is no way to define the view that is not either trivially true or obviously false. We suggest that this style of argument over-emphasises purely linguistic means of representing a philosophical thesis. We argue that there is no reason to suppose that all philosophical theses must be linguistically representable, and thus that the failure to linguis…
Moving ego versus moving time: Investigating the shared source of future-bias and near-bias
It has been hypothesized that our believing that, or its seeming to us as though, the world is in some way dynamical partially explains (and perhaps rationalizes) future-bias. Recent work has, in turn, found a correlation between future-bias and near-bias, suggesting that there is a common explanation for both. Call the claim that what partially explains our being both future- and near-biased is our believing/it seeming to us as though the world …
Non-dynamism and temporal disturbances
Philosophical accounts denying that temporal passage is an objective feature of reality face an explanatory challenge with respect to why it appears to us as though time passes. Recently, two solutions have surfaced. Cognitive illusionism claims that people experience the passage of time due to their belief that time passes. Cognitive error theory claims that we do not experience the passage of time, but hold the belief that we do, which we have …
Counterfactuals of Ontological Dependence
A great deal has been written about ‘would’ counterfactuals of causal dependence. Comparatively little has been said regarding ‘would’ counterfactuals of ontological dependence. The standard Lewis-Stalnaker semantics is inadequate for handling such counterfactuals. That is because some of these counterfactuals are counterpossibles, and the standard Lewis-Stalnaker semantics trivializes for counterpossibles. Fortunately, there is a straightforward…
Presentism, Continuous Time-Travel and the Phenomenology of Passage
The harmony of grounding
Mereological harmony is the idea that the mereological structure of objects mirrors the mereological structure of locations. Grounding harmony is the idea that there is a similar mirroring between the grounding structure of objects and locations. Our goal in this paper is exploratory: we introduce and then explore two notions of grounding harmony: locative and structural. We outline potential locative and structural harmony principles for groundi…
Composing Spacetime
According to a number of approaches in theoretical physics, spacetime does not exist fundamentally. Rather, spacetime exists by depending on another, more fundamental, non-spatiotemporal structure. A prevalent opinion in the literature is that this dependence should not be analyzed in terms of composition. We should not say, that is, that spacetime depends on an ontology of non-spatiotemporal entities in virtue of having them as parts. But is tha…
Spacetime: Function and approximation
Several approaches to quantum gravity (QG) signal the loss of spacetime at some level. According to spacetime functionalism, spacetime is functionally realised by a more fundamental structure. According to one version of spacetime functionalism, the spacetime role is specified by Ramsifying general relativity (GR). In some approaches to QG, however, there does not appear to be anything that exactly realises the functional role defined by a Ramsey…
Explanation impossible
Exploring the Link Between the Hazards and Value of Work, and Overcoming Risk for Community-Based Health Interventions for Immigrant Latinx Low-Wage Workers
Few studies integrate work and immigration as intersecting social determinants of health. We synthesize data from 12 focus groups ( N = 97) originating from two separate community-engaged studies that originally centered on exploring barriers to health and hazards of work among immigrant Latinx women and men to explore the role of work in their overall health and well-being. The three major interrelated themes we drew from this research—hazards o…
Expanding the Conceptualization of Support in Low-Wage Carework: The Case of Home Care Aides and Client Death
Home care aides are a rapidly growing, non-standard workforce who face numerous health risks and stressors on the job. While research shows that aides receive limited support from their agency employers, few studies have explored the wider range of support that aides use when navigating work stress and considered the implications of these arrangements. To investigate this question, we conducted 47 in-depth interviews with 29 home care aides in Ne…
Mathematical Explanation by Law
Call an explanation in which a non-mathematical fact is explained—in part or in whole—by mathematical facts: an extra-mathematical explanation. Such explanations have attracted a great deal of interest recently in arguments over mathematical realism. In this article, a theory of extra-mathematical explanation is developed. The theory is modelled on a deductive-nomological (DN) theory of scientific explanation. A basic DN account of extra-mathemat…
Temporal Experience, Temporal Passage and the Cognitive Sciences
Cognitive science has recently made some startling discoveries about temporal experience, and these discoveries have been drafted into philosophical service. We survey recent appeals to cognitive science in the philosophical debate over whether time objectively passes. Since this research is currently in its infancy, we identify some directions for future research
Explaining Mathematical Explanation
There has been a recent surge of interest in mathematical explanations of empirical facts. A number of putative cases of such explanation have been identified, and used to provide support for an explanatory version of the indispensability argument for mathematical platonism. In this paper, I consider the prospects for developing a metaphysically light-weight theory of mathematical explanations by appealing to the resources currently available in …
Optimisation and mathematical explanation: Doing the Lévy Walk
The explanatory dispensability of idealizations
The Key Role of Work in Population Health Inequities
A review of the article Work as an Inclusive Part of Population Health Inequities Research and Prevention by Emily Quinn Ahonen, Kaori Fujishiro, Thomas Cunningham and Michael Flynn which appears in the same issue is presented
Promoting Community Preparedness and Resilience: A Latino Immigrant Community–Driven Project Following Hurricane Sandy
As community residents and recovery workers, Latino immigrants play important roles after disasters, yet are rarely included in preparedness planning. A community–university–labor union partnership created a demonstration project after Hurricane Sandy to strengthen connections to disaster preparedness systems to increase community resilience among Latino immigrant communities in New York and New Jersey. Building ongoing ties that connect workers …
Home Care Workers' Experiences of Client Death and Disenfranchised Grief
While many types of health care workers experience patient death, home care workers do so under vastly different social and economic circumstances. When a client dies, home care workers often lose both a close relationship and a job. Though research suggests that health care workers' grief may frequently be disenfranchised, there is no in-depth study of the mechanisms that disenfranchise home care workers' grief specifically. To address this gap,…
Do Not Revise Ockham's Razor Without Necessity
Ockham's razor asks that we not multiply entities beyond necessity. The razor is a powerful methodological tool, enabling us to articulate reasons for preferring one theory to another. There are those, however, who would modify the razor. Schaffer (2010: 313—our italics), for one, tells us that, ‘I think the proper rendering of Ockham's razor should be ‘Do not multiply fundamental entities without necessity’’. Our aim, here, is to challenge such …
Moving ego versus moving time: Investigating the shared source of future-bias and near-bias
It has been hypothesized that our believing that, or its seeming to us as though, the world is in some way dynamical partially explains (and perhaps rationalizes) future-bias. Recent work has, in turn, found a correlation between future-bias and near-bias, suggesting that there is a common explanation for both. Call the claim that what partially explains our being both future- and near-biased is our believing/it seeming to us as though the world …
Why Do Female Students Leave Philosophy? The Story from Sydney
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
What’s So Spatial about Time Anyway
Skow ([2007]), and much more recently Callender ([2017]), argue that time can be distinguished from space due to the special role it plays in our laws of nature: our laws determine the behaviour of physical systems across time, but not across space. In this work we assess the claim that the laws of nature might provide the basis for distinguishing time from space. We find that there is an obvious reason to be sceptical of the argument Skow submit…
Monism: The Islands of Plurality
Priority monism (hereafter, ‘monism’) is the view that there exists one fundamental entity—the world—and that all other objects that exist (a set of objects typically taken to include tables, chairs, and the whole menagerie of everyday items) are merely derivative. Jonathan Schaffer has defended monism in its current guise, across a range of papers. Each paper looks to add something to the monistic picture of the world. In this paper we argue tha…
Causation in a timeless world
The Role for Community-Based Participatory Research in Formulating Policy Initiatives: Promoting Safety and Health for In-Home Care Workers and Their Consumers
Although community-based participatory research (CBPR) can be effective in influencing policy, the process of formulating policy initiatives through CBPR is understudied. We describe a case study to illustrate how alliances among various community partners could be united to formulate policy directions. In collaboration with partners, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health initiated a project aimed at improving health and safet…
Empirical incoherence and double functionalism
Time, physics, and philosophy: It's all relative
This article provides a non-technical overview of the conflict between the special theory of relativity and the dynamic theories of time. The chief argument against dynamic theories of time from relativistic mechanics is presented. The space of current responses to that argument is subsequently mapped
Feel the flow
Using the Associative Imagery Technique in Qualitative Health Research: The Experiences of Homecare Workers and Consumers
The associative imagery technique is a qualitative tool with which researchers use carefully selected photographs or images to trigger participants' responses to explain difficult behavioral and social concepts. In this article, we describe the development and implementation of the associative imagery method in focus groups to understand the complex relationships between homecare workers and their clients as part of a larger health and safety int…
Partnerships for Environmental and Occupational Justice: Contributions to Research, Capacity and Public Health
In 1994, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) initiated a program to address communication gaps between community residents, researchers and health care providers in the context of disproportionate environmental exposures. Over 13 years, together with the Environmental Protection Agency and National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety, NIEHS funded 54 environmental justice projects. Here we examine the methods …
Pandemic Influenza and Farmworkers: The Effects of Employment, Social, and Economic Factors
Employment, social, and economic factors have the potential to affect the magnitude of an influenza pandemic among farmworkers. Prevention efforts targeted toward livestock farmworkers, including increased access to seasonal influenza vaccine, risk reduction training, various forms of personal protection, and workplace sanitation, are needed. Crop and livestock farmworkers are at increased risk of exposure to influenza A viruses because of limite…
Platonism and intra-mathematical explanation
I introduce an argument for Platonism based on intra-mathematical explanation: the explanation of one mathematical fact by another. The argument is important for two reasons. First, if the argument succeeds then it provides a basis for Platonism that does not proceed via standard indispensability considerations. Second, if the argument fails, it can only do so for one of the three reasons: either because there are no intra-mathematical explanatio…
Mathematical Explanation: A Pythagorean Proposal
Non-dynamism and temporal disturbances
Philosophical accounts denying that temporal passage is an objective feature of reality face an explanatory challenge with respect to why it appears to us as though time passes. Recently, two solutions have surfaced. Cognitive illusionism claims that people experience the passage of time due to their belief that time passes. Cognitive error theory claims that we do not experience the passage of time, but hold the belief that we do, which we have …
Spacetime: Function and approximation
Several approaches to quantum gravity (QG) signal the loss of spacetime at some level. According to spacetime functionalism, spacetime is functionally realised by a more fundamental structure. According to one version of spacetime functionalism, the spacetime role is specified by Ramsifying general relativity (GR). In some approaches to QG, however, there does not appear to be anything that exactly realises the functional role defined by a Ramsey…
Responses of Homeless Men to Baron M -Limits Blots
Protecting Home Health Care Workers: A Challenge to Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Planning
The home health care sector is a critical element in a pandemic influenza emergency response. Roughly 85% of the 1.5 million workers delivering in-home care to 7.6 million clients are low-wage paraprofessionals, mostly women, and disproportionately members of racial and ethnic minorities. Home health care workers' ability and willingness to respond during a pandemic depends on appropriate communication, training, and adequate protections, includi…
Shelley Davis: Public Health Advocate at the Service of the Farmworker
Partnerships for Environmental and Occupational Justice: Contributions to Research, Capacity and Public Health
In 1994, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) initiated a program to address communication gaps between community residents, researchers and health care providers in the context of disproportionate environmental exposures. Over 13 years, together with the Environmental Protection Agency and National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety, NIEHS funded 54 environmental justice projects. Here we examine the methods …
Pandemic Influenza and Farmworkers: The Effects of Employment, Social, and Economic Factors
Employment, social, and economic factors have the potential to affect the magnitude of an influenza pandemic among farmworkers. Prevention efforts targeted toward livestock farmworkers, including increased access to seasonal influenza vaccine, risk reduction training, various forms of personal protection, and workplace sanitation, are needed. Crop and livestock farmworkers are at increased risk of exposure to influenza A viruses because of limite…
The Role for Community-Based Participatory Research in Formulating Policy Initiatives: Promoting Safety and Health for In-Home Care Workers and Their Consumers
Although community-based participatory research (CBPR) can be effective in influencing policy, the process of formulating policy initiatives through CBPR is understudied. We describe a case study to illustrate how alliances among various community partners could be united to formulate policy directions. In collaboration with partners, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health initiated a project aimed at improving health and safet…
Workplace Assaults on Nursing Assistants in US Nursing Homes: A Multilevel Analysis
Objectives. We examined risk factors for injuries to nursing assistants from assaults by nursing home residents at both the individual and the organizational level. Methods. We analyzed data from the 2004 National Nursing Assistant Survey that were linked to facility information from the 2004 National Nursing Home Survey by use of multilevel modeling that accounted for the complex survey design effect. Results. Thirty-four percent of nursing assi…
Using the Associative Imagery Technique in Qualitative Health Research: The Experiences of Homecare Workers and Consumers
The associative imagery technique is a qualitative tool with which researchers use carefully selected photographs or images to trigger participants' responses to explain difficult behavioral and social concepts. In this article, we describe the development and implementation of the associative imagery method in focus groups to understand the complex relationships between homecare workers and their clients as part of a larger health and safety int…
A Truthmaker Indispensability Argument
Can Indispensability‐Driven Platonists Be (Serious) Presentists
In this article I consider what it would take to combine a certain kind of mathematical P latonism with serious presentism. I argue that a Platonist moved to accept the existence of mathematical objects on the basis of an indispensability argument faces a significant challenge if she wishes to accept presentism. This is because, on the one hand, the indispensability argument can be reformulated as a new argument for the existence of past entities…
Psychosocial work characteristics of personal care and service occupations: A process for developing meaningful measures for a multiethnic workforce
This complex process is necessary when conducting research with nontraditional and multilingual worker populations
Causation in a timeless world
Optimisation and mathematical explanation: Doing the Lévy Walk
Why Do Female Students Leave Philosophy? The Story from Sydney
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Temporal Experience, Temporal Passage and the Cognitive Sciences
Cognitive science has recently made some startling discoveries about temporal experience, and these discoveries have been drafted into philosophical service. We survey recent appeals to cognitive science in the philosophical debate over whether time objectively passes. Since this research is currently in its infancy, we identify some directions for future research
The explanatory dispensability of idealizations
Metaphysics as fairness
Do Not Revise Ockham's Razor Without Necessity
Ockham's razor asks that we not multiply entities beyond necessity. The razor is a powerful methodological tool, enabling us to articulate reasons for preferring one theory to another. There are those, however, who would modify the razor. Schaffer (2010: 313—our italics), for one, tells us that, ‘I think the proper rendering of Ockham's razor should be ‘Do not multiply fundamental entities without necessity’’. Our aim, here, is to challenge such …
Monism: The Islands of Plurality
Priority monism (hereafter, ‘monism’) is the view that there exists one fundamental entity—the world—and that all other objects that exist (a set of objects typically taken to include tables, chairs, and the whole menagerie of everyday items) are merely derivative. Jonathan Schaffer has defended monism in its current guise, across a range of papers. Each paper looks to add something to the monistic picture of the world. In this paper we argue tha…
Explaining Mathematical Explanation
There has been a recent surge of interest in mathematical explanations of empirical facts. A number of putative cases of such explanation have been identified, and used to provide support for an explanatory version of the indispensability argument for mathematical platonism. In this paper, I consider the prospects for developing a metaphysically light-weight theory of mathematical explanations by appealing to the resources currently available in …
Awareness of Paid Sick Leave among New York City Restaurant Workers
Promoting Community Preparedness and Resilience: A Latino Immigrant Community–Driven Project Following Hurricane Sandy
As community residents and recovery workers, Latino immigrants play important roles after disasters, yet are rarely included in preparedness planning. A community–university–labor union partnership created a demonstration project after Hurricane Sandy to strengthen connections to disaster preparedness systems to increase community resilience among Latino immigrant communities in New York and New Jersey. Building ongoing ties that connect workers …
Feel the flow
Harrington’s time as a historical Introduction: James Harrington: Time: A philosophical introduction. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015, $23.99 E-Book
The Key Role of Work in Population Health Inequities
A review of the article Work as an Inclusive Part of Population Health Inequities Research and Prevention by Emily Quinn Ahonen, Kaori Fujishiro, Thomas Cunningham and Michael Flynn which appears in the same issue is presented
Epistemology (41 works) · Philosophy (41 works) · Metaphysics (24 works) · Computer Science (21 works) · Philosophy and History of Science (21 works) · Philosophy and Theoretical Science (21 works) · Philosophy of language (19 works) · Psychology (18 works) · Philosophy of science (17 works) · Medicine (16 works)