Cristian López
Biographic Data
| ID | 3644922 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Cristian López |
| GIVEN NAMES | Cristian |
| FAMILY NAME | López |
| SIGNATURE | LÓPEZ C |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Lausanne |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2883-4037 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 3 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
What a Powers-BSA Theorist Should Say About Symmetries
Introduction to the Special Issue "On Time in Foundations of Physics"
This is an introduction to the Special Issue “On Time in Foundations of Physics”
The metaphysics of symmetries
My main aim in this paper is to lay out a metaphysical map of the possible metaphysical attitudes that philosophers may hold with respect to physical symmetries. Even though it is customary to distinguish between realism vs. anti-realism, I show that the metaphysical landscape looks a bit more complex. To show this, I differentiate at least nine different views that have been held, or might be held, concerning which place physical symmetries occu…
Against Symmetry Fundamentalism
Symmetry fundamentalism claims that symmetries should be taken metaphysically seriously as part of the fundamental ontology. The main aim of this paper is to bring some novel objections against this view. I make two points. The first places symmetry fundamentalism within a broader network of philosophical commitments. I claim that symmetry fundamentalism entails idealization realism which, in turn, entails the reification of further theoretical s…
The Open System View and The Metaphysics of Symmetries
Philosophers have been drawing their attention to the metaphysics of symmetries. Most have taken a Closed System View, that is, the metaphysical assumption that closed systems are ontologically fundamental. In this paper, I explore the consequences of adopting a different perspective, the Open System View, according to which open systems are regarded as ontologically fundamental. I argue that by doing so, our metaphysical understanding of symmetr…
The More Democracy, the Better? On Whether Democracy Makes Societies Open
It is a common view that Popper’s defense of the open society has been a defense of Western, liberal democracies. This seems to imply that by fostering democratic institutions we are ipso facto fostering open societies. I criticize this view by arguing that in-built incentives in democratic mechanisms move us away from (or hamper) the open society. Democracy promotes voters’ ignorance, indulges voters’ irrationality, and allows voters to external…
Minimal metaphysics in moral and political philosophy
The aim of this paper is to apply the methodology of minimal ontological commitments to moral and political philosophy. As minimal metaphysics in the philosophy of science endorses scientific realism, so we subscribe to moral realism, arguing that the presumption of liberty is the fundamental assumption defining a person. What needs to be justified then are restrictions to liberty and, in particular, the application of coercion upon persons. In e…
Miradas de resistencia
n octubre de 2019, Ecuador se encontraba inmerso en una coyuntura histrica marcada por medidas econmicas radicales anunciadas por el presidente Lenn Moreno.Estas reformas, parte de un acuerdo con el Fondo Monetario Internacional, incluan la eliminacin de subsidios a los combustibles, generando un profundo malestar en diversos
The metaphysical underdetermination of time-reversal invariance
In this paper I argue that the concept of time-reversal invariance in physics suffers from metaphysical underdetermination, that is, that the concept may be understood differently depending on one’s metaphysics about time, laws, and a theory’s basic properties. This metaphysical under-determinacy also affects subsidiary debates in philosophy of physics that rely on the concept of time-reversal invariance, paradigmatically the problem of the arrow…
Humean time-reversal symmetry
In this paper, we put forward an alternative interpretation of time-reversal symmetry in philosophy of physics: Humean time-reversal symmetry. According to it, time-reversal symmetry is understood as a heuristic, epistemic virtue of the best system, not as a property of the Humean mosaic. One of the consequences of this view is that one of the main arguments against a primitive direction of time is rendered harmless, which paves the way for primi…
Time’s Direction and Orthodox Quantum Mechanics
The physics and the philosophy of time reversal in standard quantum mechanics
Hacia una interpretación físico-causal de la información en contextos comunicacionales
El objetivo del presente artículo es proponer una nueva interpretación del concepto de información en contextos comunicacionales: una interpretación físicocausal. Apelando a las teorías manipulabilistas de la causación, principalmente ensu versión intervencionista, buscaremos mostrar que la información comunicacional es una propiedad física que podemos manipular para generar situaciones comunicacionales. Este enfoque nos permite entender la natur…
Información clásica e información cuántica
El presente artículo busca ofrecer un análisis conceptual de la noción de información, a partir del modo en que es definida por las teorías formales de Claude Shannon y de Benjamin Schumacher. Contra la postura según la cual existen dos tipos de información de naturalezas diferentes, una información clásica y una información cuántica (definidas por las teorías de Shannon y de Schumacher respectivamente), aquí argumentamos que no hay razones sufic…
La excepcionalidad del Otro
La Excepcionalidad del Otro This paper is a voyage in an archipelago of concepts, a nomadic journey, and an invitation to think about the other and about the social and the imaginary. Our objective is to step back, to question “truths”, and to reject the production of absolute knowledge; and by doing so, to stimulate doubts and suspicions about the production of scientific knowledge and its effects on the social imaginary
The exceptionality of the Other
Esta articulo es un viaje por un archipielago conceptual, una practica de nomadismo, una invitacion a pensar sobre el otro, sobre lo social y el imaginario. Nuestro objetivo es desandar caminos, cuestionar verdades, obstaculizar la produccion de conocimiento totalizante y depredador, en suma, propiciar la emergencia de intercambios, dudas y sospechas para con la produccion de conocimiento cientifico y sus efectos en el imaginario social de la alt…
Imaginando la solidaridad
Our aim is, basically, to try to trouble this notion of solidarity that is launched as obvious, non-criticisable, politically correct, massive, positive, transparent, good, aesthetic... We would be able to add other attributes, but they are enough to characterize a specific and useful kind of solidarity, a present society?s tendency, a sort of symbolic exchange established over asymmetric and unequal relations and, also reproductive of the system…
Imaginando la solidaridad
Our aim is, basically, to try to trouble this notion of solidarity that is launched as obvious, non-criticisable, politically correct, massive, positive, transparent, good, aesthetic... We would be able to add other attributes, but they are enough to characterize a specific and useful kind of solidarity, a present society?s tendency, a sort of symbolic exchange established over asymmetric and unequal relations and, also reproductive of the system…
La excepcionalidad del Otro
La Excepcionalidad del Otro This paper is a voyage in an archipelago of concepts, a nomadic journey, and an invitation to think about the other and about the social and the imaginary. Our objective is to step back, to question “truths”, and to reject the production of absolute knowledge; and by doing so, to stimulate doubts and suspicions about the production of scientific knowledge and its effects on the social imaginary
The exceptionality of the Other
Esta articulo es un viaje por un archipielago conceptual, una practica de nomadismo, una invitacion a pensar sobre el otro, sobre lo social y el imaginario. Nuestro objetivo es desandar caminos, cuestionar verdades, obstaculizar la produccion de conocimiento totalizante y depredador, en suma, propiciar la emergencia de intercambios, dudas y sospechas para con la produccion de conocimiento cientifico y sus efectos en el imaginario social de la alt…
Información clásica e información cuántica
El presente artículo busca ofrecer un análisis conceptual de la noción de información, a partir del modo en que es definida por las teorías formales de Claude Shannon y de Benjamin Schumacher. Contra la postura según la cual existen dos tipos de información de naturalezas diferentes, una información clásica y una información cuántica (definidas por las teorías de Shannon y de Schumacher respectivamente), aquí argumentamos que no hay razones sufic…
Hacia una interpretación físico-causal de la información en contextos comunicacionales
El objetivo del presente artículo es proponer una nueva interpretación del concepto de información en contextos comunicacionales: una interpretación físicocausal. Apelando a las teorías manipulabilistas de la causación, principalmente ensu versión intervencionista, buscaremos mostrar que la información comunicacional es una propiedad física que podemos manipular para generar situaciones comunicacionales. Este enfoque nos permite entender la natur…
The physics and the philosophy of time reversal in standard quantum mechanics
Time’s Direction and Orthodox Quantum Mechanics
The metaphysical underdetermination of time-reversal invariance
In this paper I argue that the concept of time-reversal invariance in physics suffers from metaphysical underdetermination, that is, that the concept may be understood differently depending on one’s metaphysics about time, laws, and a theory’s basic properties. This metaphysical under-determinacy also affects subsidiary debates in philosophy of physics that rely on the concept of time-reversal invariance, paradigmatically the problem of the arrow…
Humean time-reversal symmetry
In this paper, we put forward an alternative interpretation of time-reversal symmetry in philosophy of physics: Humean time-reversal symmetry. According to it, time-reversal symmetry is understood as a heuristic, epistemic virtue of the best system, not as a property of the Humean mosaic. One of the consequences of this view is that one of the main arguments against a primitive direction of time is rendered harmless, which paves the way for primi…
The More Democracy, the Better? On Whether Democracy Makes Societies Open
It is a common view that Popper’s defense of the open society has been a defense of Western, liberal democracies. This seems to imply that by fostering democratic institutions we are ipso facto fostering open societies. I criticize this view by arguing that in-built incentives in democratic mechanisms move us away from (or hamper) the open society. Democracy promotes voters’ ignorance, indulges voters’ irrationality, and allows voters to external…
Minimal metaphysics in moral and political philosophy
The aim of this paper is to apply the methodology of minimal ontological commitments to moral and political philosophy. As minimal metaphysics in the philosophy of science endorses scientific realism, so we subscribe to moral realism, arguing that the presumption of liberty is the fundamental assumption defining a person. What needs to be justified then are restrictions to liberty and, in particular, the application of coercion upon persons. In e…
Miradas de resistencia
n octubre de 2019, Ecuador se encontraba inmerso en una coyuntura histrica marcada por medidas econmicas radicales anunciadas por el presidente Lenn Moreno.Estas reformas, parte de un acuerdo con el Fondo Monetario Internacional, incluan la eliminacin de subsidios a los combustibles, generando un profundo malestar en diversos
The metaphysics of symmetries
My main aim in this paper is to lay out a metaphysical map of the possible metaphysical attitudes that philosophers may hold with respect to physical symmetries. Even though it is customary to distinguish between realism vs. anti-realism, I show that the metaphysical landscape looks a bit more complex. To show this, I differentiate at least nine different views that have been held, or might be held, concerning which place physical symmetries occu…
Against Symmetry Fundamentalism
Symmetry fundamentalism claims that symmetries should be taken metaphysically seriously as part of the fundamental ontology. The main aim of this paper is to bring some novel objections against this view. I make two points. The first places symmetry fundamentalism within a broader network of philosophical commitments. I claim that symmetry fundamentalism entails idealization realism which, in turn, entails the reification of further theoretical s…
The Open System View and The Metaphysics of Symmetries
Philosophers have been drawing their attention to the metaphysics of symmetries. Most have taken a Closed System View, that is, the metaphysical assumption that closed systems are ontologically fundamental. In this paper, I explore the consequences of adopting a different perspective, the Open System View, according to which open systems are regarded as ontologically fundamental. I argue that by doing so, our metaphysical understanding of symmetr…
What a Powers-BSA Theorist Should Say About Symmetries
Introduction to the Special Issue "On Time in Foundations of Physics"
This is an introduction to the Special Issue “On Time in Foundations of Physics”
Epistemology (9 works) · Philosophy (8 works) · Political science (7 works) · Metaphysics (6 works) · Philosophy of science (6 works) · Physics (6 works) · Humanities (5 works) · Quantum Mechanics and Applications (5 works) · Theoretical physics (5 works) · Law (4 works)