Are models our tools not our masters
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10809863 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Caitlin Jacobs (0000-0001-6903-0468, Leiden University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 202 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Publication date | 2023-10-08 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Synthese (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0039-7857 • E-ISSN: 1573-0964 |
| Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s11229-023-04352-7 |
| OpenAlex | W4387456029 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 38 |
It is often claimed that one can avoid the kind of underdetermination that is a typical consequence of symmetries in physics by stipulating that symmetry-related models represent the same state of affairs (Leibniz Equivalence). But recent commentators (Dasgupta in Philos Perspect 25:115–160, 2011; Pooley in: Knox and Wilson (eds) The Routledge companion to the philosophy of physics, Routledge, Milton Park, 2021; Pooley and Read in Br J Philos Sci, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1086/718274 ; Teitel in J Philos 119:233–278, 2021) have responded that claims about the representational capacities of models are irrelevant to the issue of underdetermination, which concerns possible worlds themselves. In this paper I distinguish two versions of this objection: (1) that a theory’s formalism does not (fully) determine the space of physical possibilities, and (2) that the relevant notion of possibility is not physical possibility. I offer a refutation of each
Epistemology · Equivalence (formal languages) · Formalism (music) · Homogeneous space · Linguistics · Metaphysics · Philosophy of language · Philosophy of science · Physics · Theoretical physics · Underdetermination · Mathematics · Philosophy · Philosophy and History of Science · Quantum Mechanics and Applications · Relativity and Gravitational Theory
Interpreting Quantum Theories
The Unmeasurability of Absolute Velocities from the Point of View of Epistemological Internalism
What theoretical equivalence could not be
How to Be a Spacetime Substantivalist
Measuring Absolute Velocity
Absolute Velocities Are Unmeasurable
Emergent spacetime and empirical (in)coherence
The Bare Necessities
Invariance, intrinsicality and perspicuity
Invariance or equivalence
Sophistry about symmetries
Isolated systems and their symmetries, part I
Invariance, Interpretation, and Motivation
Laws, Symmetry, and Symmetry Breaking
Scientific Realism Made Effective
What Price Spacetime Substantivalism? The Hole Story
Symmetry as an Epistemic Notion (Twice Over)
Empirical Consequences of Symmetries
The Hole Truth
On the Mathematics and Metaphysics of the Hole Argument
Regarding the ‘Hole Argument’
Understanding Electromagnetism
Sophistication about Symmetries
Determinism and Modality
A Puzzle about Laws, Symmetries and Measurability
Holes, Haecceitism and Two Conceptions of Determinism
New Work for Counterpart Theorists
Symmetry and the Metaphysics of Physics
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2024 - 2026 (3) |
| Highly cited | No |