This white paper outlines the plans of the History Philosophy Culture Working Group of the Next G... more This white paper outlines the plans of the History Philosophy Culture Working Group of the Next Generation Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration.
It has recently been argued that robustness is not a sufficient criterion for deeming a cosmologi... more It has recently been argued that robustness is not a sufficient criterion for deeming a cosmological simulation reliable. These arguments, however, focused on a form of robustness called “convergence studies”, which only constitute what Orzack and Sober (1993) refer to as “internal robustness”, i.e., robustness found within a single model, as opposed to that obtained by comparing the predictions of distinct models. The questions thus arises: can a stronger form of robustness be found in cosmology and astrophysics? And how would it fare compared to convergence studies? Code comparisons, which compare the outcomes of simulations based on different codes, seem at first sight a natural candidate for such a role. In this paper, I will argue however that a tension within code comparisons in astrophysics prevents them to constitute an instance of robustness analysis, for the effort to make targets comparable undermines the preservation of the diversity needed for robustness analysis.
Although logical empiricism is now mostly decried, their naturalist claim that a theory’s content... more Although logical empiricism is now mostly decried, their naturalist claim that a theory’s content can be read off from its structure, with no philosophical considerations needed, still supports many strategies to escape cases of underdetermination. The appeal to theoretical equivalence or to theoretical virtues, for instance, assume that there is a neutral standpoint from which the structure of the theories can be analyzed, the physically relevant separated from the superfluous, and a comparison made between their theoretical content and virtues. In my dissertation, I argue that the methodological principle underlying these strategies, according to which theories with no superfluous structure should be preferred, is unpractical, for what constitutes relevant structure is determined by epistemic considerations about the aim of scientific theories. In chapter 2, I analyze the claim that theories with ordinary bosons and fermions are theoretically equivalent to theories with exotic ‘pa...
Physical cosmology, the study of the large-scale structure of the universe and its evolution, has... more Physical cosmology, the study of the large-scale structure of the universe and its evolution, has become a central area of research in fundamental physics. Theoretical and observational developments have led to acceptance of a “standard model” describing the history of the universe in impressive detail. These developments raise a number of challenging foundational questions that have stimulated the emerging field of philosophy of cosmology. Many of these questions are closely tied to discussions in general philosophy of science and philosophy of physics, whereas others are distinctive to the field. This bibliography aims to provide an orientation for both kinds of questions. As philosophy of cosmology is an emerging field, the literature in this area is sparse. Hence this bibliography includes two kinds of references that do not explicitly address philosophy of cosmology. First, it identifies several philosophical papers regarding other scientific fields, with the thought that these...
The Cold Dark Matter model faces many controversies at small scales, as simulations fail to repro... more The Cold Dark Matter model faces many controversies at small scales, as simulations fail to reproduce the observed properties of dark matter (DM) halos. Since rival DM models differ on their predictions about the structure of DM halos, understanding their mass distribution is crucial for determining the nature of DM. However, only numerical approaches to determining what a hypothesis implies for the mass distribution are possible. Hence, simulations are a crucial part of evaluating DM rival models, as is assessing their reliability. I argue that robustness analysis is not a sufficient criterion for the trustworthiness of cosmological simulations.
Transversal: International Journal for the Historiography of Science
Duhem’s philosophy of science is difficult to classify according to more contemporary categories ... more Duhem’s philosophy of science is difficult to classify according to more contemporary categories like instrumentalism and realism. On the one hand, he presents an account of scientific methodology which renders theories as mere instruments. On the other hand, he acknowledges that theories with particular theoretical virtues (e.g., unity, simplicity, novel predictions) offer a classification of experimental laws that “corresponds to real affinities among the things themselves.” In this paper, we argue that Duhem’s philosophy of science was motivated by an anti-sceptical tendency, according to which we can confidently assert that our theories reveal truths about nature while, at the same time, admitting that anti-scepticism should be moderated by epistemic humility. Understanding Duhem’s epistemological position, which was unique amongst French philosophers of science in the beginning of the 20th century, requires a careful examination of his accounts of representation, explanation, a...
The problem of indiscernibility has been treated early on in the literature as the metaphysical i... more The problem of indiscernibility has been treated early on in the literature as the metaphysical issue of whether or not standard quantum mechanics allows for a particle ontology. Such an approach had not yield any satisfactory conclusion. To some extent, there is a parallel situation in quantum field theory. The issue of unitarily inequivalence has been treated from a metaphysical standpoint in the recent literature, as also challenging the possibility of a particle ontology. We argued that the issue of quantum indiscernibility has been more fruitfully dealt with within the physics itself, by sorting out physically relevant states on the basis of some symmetry considerations. We suggested that the issue of unitarily inequivalence in quantum field theory could well benefit from a parallel treatment. We proposed to privilege the symmetries of Minkowski spacetime in order to determine the physically relevant representations.
Transversal: International Journal for the Historiography of Science 2 (June, 2017) – Table of Co... more Transversal: International Journal for the Historiography of Science 2 (June, 2017) – Table of Contents
This white paper outlines the plans of the History Philosophy Culture Working Group of the Next G... more This white paper outlines the plans of the History Philosophy Culture Working Group of the Next Generation Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration.
It has recently been argued that robustness is not a sufficient criterion for deeming a cosmologi... more It has recently been argued that robustness is not a sufficient criterion for deeming a cosmological simulation reliable. These arguments, however, focused on a form of robustness called “convergence studies”, which only constitute what Orzack and Sober (1993) refer to as “internal robustness”, i.e., robustness found within a single model, as opposed to that obtained by comparing the predictions of distinct models. The questions thus arises: can a stronger form of robustness be found in cosmology and astrophysics? And how would it fare compared to convergence studies? Code comparisons, which compare the outcomes of simulations based on different codes, seem at first sight a natural candidate for such a role. In this paper, I will argue however that a tension within code comparisons in astrophysics prevents them to constitute an instance of robustness analysis, for the effort to make targets comparable undermines the preservation of the diversity needed for robustness analysis.
Although logical empiricism is now mostly decried, their naturalist claim that a theory’s content... more Although logical empiricism is now mostly decried, their naturalist claim that a theory’s content can be read off from its structure, with no philosophical considerations needed, still supports many strategies to escape cases of underdetermination. The appeal to theoretical equivalence or to theoretical virtues, for instance, assume that there is a neutral standpoint from which the structure of the theories can be analyzed, the physically relevant separated from the superfluous, and a comparison made between their theoretical content and virtues. In my dissertation, I argue that the methodological principle underlying these strategies, according to which theories with no superfluous structure should be preferred, is unpractical, for what constitutes relevant structure is determined by epistemic considerations about the aim of scientific theories. In chapter 2, I analyze the claim that theories with ordinary bosons and fermions are theoretically equivalent to theories with exotic ‘pa...
Physical cosmology, the study of the large-scale structure of the universe and its evolution, has... more Physical cosmology, the study of the large-scale structure of the universe and its evolution, has become a central area of research in fundamental physics. Theoretical and observational developments have led to acceptance of a “standard model” describing the history of the universe in impressive detail. These developments raise a number of challenging foundational questions that have stimulated the emerging field of philosophy of cosmology. Many of these questions are closely tied to discussions in general philosophy of science and philosophy of physics, whereas others are distinctive to the field. This bibliography aims to provide an orientation for both kinds of questions. As philosophy of cosmology is an emerging field, the literature in this area is sparse. Hence this bibliography includes two kinds of references that do not explicitly address philosophy of cosmology. First, it identifies several philosophical papers regarding other scientific fields, with the thought that these...
The Cold Dark Matter model faces many controversies at small scales, as simulations fail to repro... more The Cold Dark Matter model faces many controversies at small scales, as simulations fail to reproduce the observed properties of dark matter (DM) halos. Since rival DM models differ on their predictions about the structure of DM halos, understanding their mass distribution is crucial for determining the nature of DM. However, only numerical approaches to determining what a hypothesis implies for the mass distribution are possible. Hence, simulations are a crucial part of evaluating DM rival models, as is assessing their reliability. I argue that robustness analysis is not a sufficient criterion for the trustworthiness of cosmological simulations.
Transversal: International Journal for the Historiography of Science
Duhem’s philosophy of science is difficult to classify according to more contemporary categories ... more Duhem’s philosophy of science is difficult to classify according to more contemporary categories like instrumentalism and realism. On the one hand, he presents an account of scientific methodology which renders theories as mere instruments. On the other hand, he acknowledges that theories with particular theoretical virtues (e.g., unity, simplicity, novel predictions) offer a classification of experimental laws that “corresponds to real affinities among the things themselves.” In this paper, we argue that Duhem’s philosophy of science was motivated by an anti-sceptical tendency, according to which we can confidently assert that our theories reveal truths about nature while, at the same time, admitting that anti-scepticism should be moderated by epistemic humility. Understanding Duhem’s epistemological position, which was unique amongst French philosophers of science in the beginning of the 20th century, requires a careful examination of his accounts of representation, explanation, a...
The problem of indiscernibility has been treated early on in the literature as the metaphysical i... more The problem of indiscernibility has been treated early on in the literature as the metaphysical issue of whether or not standard quantum mechanics allows for a particle ontology. Such an approach had not yield any satisfactory conclusion. To some extent, there is a parallel situation in quantum field theory. The issue of unitarily inequivalence has been treated from a metaphysical standpoint in the recent literature, as also challenging the possibility of a particle ontology. We argued that the issue of quantum indiscernibility has been more fruitfully dealt with within the physics itself, by sorting out physically relevant states on the basis of some symmetry considerations. We suggested that the issue of unitarily inequivalence in quantum field theory could well benefit from a parallel treatment. We proposed to privilege the symmetries of Minkowski spacetime in order to determine the physically relevant representations.
Transversal: International Journal for the Historiography of Science 2 (June, 2017) – Table of Co... more Transversal: International Journal for the Historiography of Science 2 (June, 2017) – Table of Contents
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