Neil Dewar
Biographic Data
| ID | 461622 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Neil Dewar |
| GIVEN NAMES | Neil |
| FAMILY NAME | Dewar |
| SIGNATURE | DEWAR N |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Cambridge |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6623-4529 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 46 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 14 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1985 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Equivalence and Convention
The goal of this article is to analyze the role of convention in interpreting physical theories—in particular, how the distinction between the conventional and the nonconventional interacts with judgments of equivalence. We will begin with a discussion of what, if anything, distinguishes those statements of a theory that might be dubbed “conventions.” This will lead us to consider the conventions that are not themselves part of a theory’s content…
On Absolute Units
How may we characterize the intrinsic structure of physical quantities such as mass, length, or electric charge? This article shows that group-theoretic methods—specifically, the notion of a free and transitive group action—provide an elegant way of characterizing the structure of scalar quantities, and uses this to give an intrinsic treatment of vector quantities. It also gives a general account of how different scalar or vector quantities may b…
Interpretation and equivalence; or, equivalence and interpretation
On Internal Structure, Categorical Structure, and Representation
If categorical equivalence is a good criterion of theoretical equivalence, then it would seem that if some class of mathematical structures is represented as a category, then any other class of structures categorically equivalent to it will have the same representational capacities. Hudetz (2019a) has presented an apparent counterexample to this claim; in this note, I argue that the counterexample fails
Teaching and learning guide for
The epistemology of spacetime
How is it that the basic structures of space and time come to manifest themselves in physical theories and theorising, and in our empirical experience of the world? This question is central to an important field of the philosophy of physics: the epistemology of spacetime. In this article, we survey systematically the various responses which have been offered to this question, highlighting little-explored connections and open research questions
La Bohume
Supervenience, Reduction, and Translation
This article considers the following question: What is the relationship between supervenience and reduction? I investigate this formally: first, by introducing a recent argument by Christian List to the effect that one can have supervenience without reduction; then, by considering how the notion of Nagelian reduction can be related to the formal apparatus of definability and translation theory; then, by showing how, in the context of propositiona…
Sophistication about Symmetries
Suppose that one thinks that certain symmetries of a theory reveal ‘surplus structure’. What would a formalism without that surplus structure look like? The conventional answer is that it would be a reduced theory: a theory that traffics only in structures invariant under the relevant symmetry. In this article, I argue that there is a neglected alternative: one can work with a sophisticated version of the theory, in which the symmetries act as is…
Maxwell Gravitation
This article gives an explicit presentation of Newtonian gravitation on the backdrop of Maxwell space-time, giving a sense in which acceleration is relative in gravitational theory. However, caution is needed: assessing whether this is a robust or interesting sense of the relativity of acceleration depends on some subtle technical issues and on substantive philosophical questions over how to identify the space-time structure of a theory
Symmetries and the philosophy of language
Commentaries
International audience
Adaptive or structural transformation? The case of the Harare, Zimbabwe, housing system
Experience in socialist societies suggests that the housing process has played a prominent role in achieving the objectives of social transformation. Public ownership of land and urban residential property, control over the distribution of residential space, public land, collective group delivery systems and convergence of housing standards have been major outcomes. The matter is taken up in this paper in reference to the evolving structure of th…
Municipal Government Under the New South African Constitution
Promulgation of the Republic of South Africa Constitution Act of 1983, the inauguration of eleven Black Town Councils in January 1984, and subsequent legislation regarding third tier government brings immediacy to the subject of the geographic implications of political autonomy and the control of urban finance in South Africa. This paper reviews recent changes affecting local government under the new political dispensation and discusses some impo…
Sophistication about Symmetries
Suppose that one thinks that certain symmetries of a theory reveal ‘surplus structure’. What would a formalism without that surplus structure look like? The conventional answer is that it would be a reduced theory: a theory that traffics only in structures invariant under the relevant symmetry. In this article, I argue that there is a neglected alternative: one can work with a sophisticated version of the theory, in which the symmetries act as is…
Maxwell Gravitation
This article gives an explicit presentation of Newtonian gravitation on the backdrop of Maxwell space-time, giving a sense in which acceleration is relative in gravitational theory. However, caution is needed: assessing whether this is a robust or interesting sense of the relativity of acceleration depends on some subtle technical issues and on substantive philosophical questions over how to identify the space-time structure of a theory
On Absolute Units
How may we characterize the intrinsic structure of physical quantities such as mass, length, or electric charge? This article shows that group-theoretic methods—specifically, the notion of a free and transitive group action—provide an elegant way of characterizing the structure of scalar quantities, and uses this to give an intrinsic treatment of vector quantities. It also gives a general account of how different scalar or vector quantities may b…
La Bohume
Supervenience, Reduction, and Translation
This article considers the following question: What is the relationship between supervenience and reduction? I investigate this formally: first, by introducing a recent argument by Christian List to the effect that one can have supervenience without reduction; then, by considering how the notion of Nagelian reduction can be related to the formal apparatus of definability and translation theory; then, by showing how, in the context of propositiona…
Adaptive or structural transformation? The case of the Harare, Zimbabwe, housing system
Experience in socialist societies suggests that the housing process has played a prominent role in achieving the objectives of social transformation. Public ownership of land and urban residential property, control over the distribution of residential space, public land, collective group delivery systems and convergence of housing standards have been major outcomes. The matter is taken up in this paper in reference to the evolving structure of th…
The epistemology of spacetime
How is it that the basic structures of space and time come to manifest themselves in physical theories and theorising, and in our empirical experience of the world? This question is central to an important field of the philosophy of physics: the epistemology of spacetime. In this article, we survey systematically the various responses which have been offered to this question, highlighting little-explored connections and open research questions
Interpretation and equivalence; or, equivalence and interpretation
Municipal Government Under the New South African Constitution
Promulgation of the Republic of South Africa Constitution Act of 1983, the inauguration of eleven Black Town Councils in January 1984, and subsequent legislation regarding third tier government brings immediacy to the subject of the geographic implications of political autonomy and the control of urban finance in South Africa. This paper reviews recent changes affecting local government under the new political dispensation and discusses some impo…
Municipal Government Under the New South African Constitution
Promulgation of the Republic of South Africa Constitution Act of 1983, the inauguration of eleven Black Town Councils in January 1984, and subsequent legislation regarding third tier government brings immediacy to the subject of the geographic implications of political autonomy and the control of urban finance in South Africa. This paper reviews recent changes affecting local government under the new political dispensation and discusses some impo…
Adaptive or structural transformation? The case of the Harare, Zimbabwe, housing system
Experience in socialist societies suggests that the housing process has played a prominent role in achieving the objectives of social transformation. Public ownership of land and urban residential property, control over the distribution of residential space, public land, collective group delivery systems and convergence of housing standards have been major outcomes. The matter is taken up in this paper in reference to the evolving structure of th…
Commentaries
International audience
Symmetries and the philosophy of language
Maxwell Gravitation
This article gives an explicit presentation of Newtonian gravitation on the backdrop of Maxwell space-time, giving a sense in which acceleration is relative in gravitational theory. However, caution is needed: assessing whether this is a robust or interesting sense of the relativity of acceleration depends on some subtle technical issues and on substantive philosophical questions over how to identify the space-time structure of a theory
Supervenience, Reduction, and Translation
This article considers the following question: What is the relationship between supervenience and reduction? I investigate this formally: first, by introducing a recent argument by Christian List to the effect that one can have supervenience without reduction; then, by considering how the notion of Nagelian reduction can be related to the formal apparatus of definability and translation theory; then, by showing how, in the context of propositiona…
Sophistication about Symmetries
Suppose that one thinks that certain symmetries of a theory reveal ‘surplus structure’. What would a formalism without that surplus structure look like? The conventional answer is that it would be a reduced theory: a theory that traffics only in structures invariant under the relevant symmetry. In this article, I argue that there is a neglected alternative: one can work with a sophisticated version of the theory, in which the symmetries act as is…
La Bohume
Teaching and learning guide for
The epistemology of spacetime
How is it that the basic structures of space and time come to manifest themselves in physical theories and theorising, and in our empirical experience of the world? This question is central to an important field of the philosophy of physics: the epistemology of spacetime. In this article, we survey systematically the various responses which have been offered to this question, highlighting little-explored connections and open research questions
Interpretation and equivalence; or, equivalence and interpretation
On Internal Structure, Categorical Structure, and Representation
If categorical equivalence is a good criterion of theoretical equivalence, then it would seem that if some class of mathematical structures is represented as a category, then any other class of structures categorically equivalent to it will have the same representational capacities. Hudetz (2019a) has presented an apparent counterexample to this claim; in this note, I argue that the counterexample fails
Equivalence and Convention
The goal of this article is to analyze the role of convention in interpreting physical theories—in particular, how the distinction between the conventional and the nonconventional interacts with judgments of equivalence. We will begin with a discussion of what, if anything, distinguishes those statements of a theory that might be dubbed “conventions.” This will lead us to consider the conventions that are not themselves part of a theory’s content…
On Absolute Units
How may we characterize the intrinsic structure of physical quantities such as mass, length, or electric charge? This article shows that group-theoretic methods—specifically, the notion of a free and transitive group action—provide an elegant way of characterizing the structure of scalar quantities, and uses this to give an intrinsic treatment of vector quantities. It also gives a general account of how different scalar or vector quantities may b…
Philosophy (12 works) · Epistemology (10 works) · Mathematics (7 works) · Philosophy and History of Science (7 works) · Physics (6 works) · Quantum Mechanics and Applications (6 works) · Theoretical physics (5 works) · Quantum mechanics (4 works) · Relativity and Gravitational Theory (4 works) · Computer Science (3 works)