Switch to: Citations

Add references

You must login to add references.
  1. Structural realism: The best of both worlds?John Worrall - 1989 - Dialectica 43 (1-2):99-124.
    The no-miracles argument for realism and the pessimistic meta-induction for anti-realism pull in opposite directions. Structural Realism---the position that the mathematical structure of mature science reflects reality---relieves this tension.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   725 citations  
  • The Analysis of Matter.Bertrand Russell - 1927 - London: Kegan Paul.
    "The Analysis of Matter" is one of the earliest and best philosophical studies of the new physics of relativity and quantum mechanics.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   290 citations  
  • Every Thing Must Go: Metaphysics Naturalized.James Ladyman & Don Ross - 2007 - In James Ladyman & Don Ross (eds.), Every thing must go: metaphysics naturalized. New York: Oxford University Press.
    This book argues that the only kind of metaphysics that can contribute to objective knowledge is one based specifically on contemporary science as it really is, and not on philosophers' a priori intuitions, common sense, or simplifications of science. In addition to showing how recent metaphysics has drifted away from connection with all other serious scholarly inquiry as a result of not heeding this restriction, this book demonstrates how to build a metaphysics compatible with current fundamental physics, which, when combined (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   781 citations  
  • The logical structure of the world.Rudolf Carnap - 1967 - Berkeley,: University of California Press. Edited by Rudolf Carnap.
    Available for the first time in 20 years, here are two important works from the 1920s by the best-known representative of the Vienna Circle.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   161 citations  
  • (2 other versions)Ramseyan humility.David K. Lewis - 2008 - In David Braddon-Mitchell & Robert Nola (eds.), Conceptual Analysis and Philosophical Naturalism. Bradford. pp. 203-222.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   245 citations  
  • Science and Partial Truth: A Unitary Approach to Models and Scientific Reasoning.Newton C. A. Da Costa & Steven French - 2003 - New York, US: Oup Usa.
    Da Costa and French explore the consequences of adopting a 'pragmatic' notion of truth in the philosophy of science. Their framework sheds new light on issues to do with belief, theory acceptance, and the realism-antirealism debate, as well as the nature of scientific models and their heuristic development.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   132 citations  
  • Information, physics, quantum: the search for links.John Archibald Wheeler - 1989 - In Wheeler John Archibald (ed.), Proceedings III International Symposium on Foundations of Quantum Mechanics. pp. 354-358.
    This report reviews what quantum physics and information theory have to tell us about the age-old question, How come existence? No escape is evident from four conclusions: (1) The world cannot be a giant machine, ruled by any preestablished continuum physical law. (2) There is no such thing at the microscopic level as space or time or spacetime continuum. (3) The familiar probability function or functional, and wave equation or functional wave equation, of standard quantum theory provide mere continuum idealizations (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   126 citations  
  • (1 other version)The philosophy of information.Luciano Floridi - 2010 - The Philosophers' Magazine 50:42-43.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   232 citations  
  • The method of levels of abstraction.Luciano Floridi - 2008 - Minds and Machines 18 (3):303–329.
    The use of “levels of abstraction” in philosophical analysis (levelism) has recently come under attack. In this paper, I argue that a refined version of epistemological levelism should be retained as a fundamental method, called the method of levels of abstraction. After a brief introduction, in section “Some Definitions and Preliminary Examples” the nature and applicability of the epistemological method of levels of abstraction is clarified. In section “A Classic Application of the Method ofion”, the philosophical fruitfulness of the new (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   127 citations  
  • Everything you always wanted to know about structural realism but were afraid to ask.Roman Frigg & Ioannis Votsis - 2011 - European Journal for Philosophy of Science 1 (2):227-276.
    Everything you always wanted to know about structural realism but were afraid to ask Content Type Journal Article Pages 227-276 DOI 10.1007/s13194-011-0025-7 Authors Roman Frigg, Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London, WC2A 2AE UK Ioannis Votsis, Philosophisches Institut, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Universitätsstraße 1, Geb. 23.21/04.86, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany Journal European Journal for Philosophy of Science Online ISSN 1879-4920 Print ISSN 1879-4912 Journal Volume Volume 1 Journal Issue Volume 1, Number 2.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   99 citations  
  • On the current status of the issue of scientific realism.Richard Boyd - 1983 - Erkenntnis 19 (1-3):45 - 90.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   160 citations  
  • A defence of informational structural realism.Luciano Floridi - 2008 - Synthese 161 (2):219-253.
    This is the revised version of an invited keynote lecture delivered at the "1st Australian Computing and Philosophy Conference". The paper is divided into two parts. The first part defends an informational approach to structural realism. It does so in three steps. First, it is shown that, within the debate about structural realism, epistemic and ontic structural realism are reconcilable. It follows that a version of OSR is defensible from a structuralist-friendly position. Second, it is argued that a version of (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   88 citations  
  • Outline of a theory of strongly semantic information.Luciano Floridi - 2004 - Minds and Machines 14 (2):197-221.
    This paper outlines a quantitative theory of strongly semantic information (TSSI) based on truth-values rather than probability distributions. The main hypothesis supported in the paper is that the classic quantitative theory of weakly semantic information (TWSI), based on probability distributions, assumes that truth-values supervene on factual semantic information, yet this principle is too weak and generates a well-known semantic paradox, whereas TSSI, according to which factual semantic information encapsulates truth, can avoid the paradox and is more in line with the (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   96 citations  
  • (1 other version)Structural realism and the meaning of theoretical terms.Grover Maxwell - 1970 - Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science 4:181-192.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   104 citations  
  • Against digital ontology.Luciano Floridi - 2009 - Synthese 168 (1):151 - 178.
    The paper argues that digital ontology (the ultimate nature of reality is digital, and the universe is a computational system equivalent to a Turing Machine) should be carefully distinguished from informational ontology (the ultimate nature of reality is structural), in order to abandon the former and retain only the latter as a promising line of research. Digital vs. analogue is a Boolean dichotomy typical of our computational paradigm, but digital and analogue are only “modes of presentation” of Being (to paraphrase (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   45 citations  
  • The Semantic or Model-Theoretic View of Theories and Scientific Realism.Anjan Chakravartty - 2001 - Synthese 127 (3):325-345.
    The semantic view of theoriesis one according to which theoriesare construed as models of their linguisticformulations. The implications of thisview for scientific realism have been little discussed. Contraryto the suggestion of various champions of the semantic view,it is argued that this approach does not makesupport for a plausible scientific realism anyless problematic than it might otherwise be.Though a degree of independence of theory fromlanguage may ensure safety frompitfalls associated with logical empiricism, realism cannot be entertained unless models or (abstractedand/or idealized) (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   59 citations  
  • The World in the Data.James A. C. Ladyman & Don A. Ross - 2013 - In Don Ross, James Ladyman & Harold Kincaid (eds.), Scientific metaphysics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 108-150.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   49 citations  
  • Theories, perception and structural realism.Grover Maxwell - 1970 - In Robert G. Colodny (ed.), The Nature and Function of Scientific Theories: Essays in Contemporary Science and Philosophy. University of Pittsburgh Press. pp. 3-34.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   55 citations  
  • Shared structure need not be shared set-structure.Elaine Landry - 2007 - Synthese 158 (1):1 - 17.
    Recent semantic approaches to scientific structuralism, aiming to make precise the concept of shared structure between models, formally frame a model as a type of set-structure. This framework is then used to provide a semantic account of (a) the structure of a scientific theory, (b) the applicability of a mathematical theory to a physical theory, and (c) the structural realist’s appeal to the structural continuity between successive physical theories. In this paper, I challenge the idea that, to be so used, (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   49 citations  
  • Rainforest realism: A Dennettian theory of existence.D. Ross - 2000 - In Don Ross, Andrew Brook & David Thompson (eds.), Dennett’s Philosophy: A Comprehensive Assessment. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. pp. 147-168.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   47 citations  
  • Lossy laws.David Braddon-Mitchell - 2001 - Noûs 35 (2):260–277.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   47 citations  
  • Scientific methodology and the causal theory of perception.Grover Maxwell - 1972 - In Herbert Feigl (ed.), New readings in philosophical analysis. New York,: Appleton-Century-Crofts. pp. 289-314.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   28 citations  
  • Syntactical Informational Structural Realism.Majid Davoody Beni - 2018 - Minds and Machines 28 (4):623-643.
    Luciano Floridi’s informational structural realism takes a constructionist attitude towards the problems of epistemology and metaphysics, but the question of the nature of the semantical component of his view remains vexing. In this paper, I propose to dispense with the semantical component of ISR completely. I outline a Syntactical version of ISR. The unified entropy-based framework of information has been adopted as the groundwork of SISR. To establish its realist component, SISR should be able to dissolve the latching problem. We (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   8 citations  
  • Epistemic Informational Structural Realism.Majid Davoody Beni - 2016 - Minds and Machines 26 (4):323-339.
    The paper surveys Floridi’s attempt for laying down informational structural realism. After considering a number of reactions to the pars destruens of Floridi’s attack on the digital ontology, I show that Floridi’s enterprise for enriching the ISR by borrowing elements from the ontic form of structural realism is blighted by a haunting inconsistency. ISR has been originally developed by Floridi as a restricted and level dependent form of structural realism which remains mainly bonded within the borders of a Kantian perspective. (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   10 citations  
  • Algorithmic randomness in empirical data.James W. McAllister - 2003 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 34 (3):633-646.
    According to a traditional view, scientific laws and theories constitute algorithmic compressions of empirical data sets collected from observations and measurements. This article defends the thesis that, to the contrary, empirical data sets are algorithmically incompressible. The reason is that individual data points are determined partly by perturbations, or causal factors that cannot be reduced to any pattern. If empirical data sets are incompressible, then they exhibit maximal algorithmic complexity, maximal entropy and zero redundancy. They are therefore maximally efficient carriers (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   14 citations  
  • The Downward Path to Epistemic Informational Structural Realism.Majid Davoody Beni - 2018 - Acta Analytica 33 (2):181-197.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   4 citations  
  • Empirical data sets are algorithmically compressible: Reply to McAllister.Charles Twardy, Steve Gardner & David L. Dowe - 2005 - Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science, Part A 36 (2):391-402.
    James McAllister’s 2003 article, “Algorithmic randomness in empirical data” claims that empirical data sets are algorithmically random, and hence incompressible. We show that this claim is mistaken. We present theoretical arguments and empirical evidence for compressibility, and discuss the matter in the framework of Minimum Message Length (MML) inference, which shows that the theory which best compresses the data is the one with highest posterior probability, and the best explanation of the data.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   7 citations  
  • Computation, Laws and Supervenience.Terrance Tomkow - manuscript
    The Computational Theory of the Laws of Nature entails that the accessibility relation for nomological necessity is not symmetric or transitive. This means that nomologically possible worlds need not share our world's laws. This subverts a standard style of argument against Humean Supervenience.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   2 citations  
  • Compressibility and the Algorithmic Theory of Laws.Billy Wheeler - 2019 - Principia: An International Journal of Epistemology 23 (3):461-485.
    The algorithmic theory of laws claims that the laws of nature are the algorithms in the best possible compression of all empirical data. This position assumes that the universe is compressible and that data received from observing it is easily reproducible using a simple set of rules. However, there are three sources of evidence that suggest that the universe as a whole is incompressible. The first comes from the practice of science. The other two come from the nature of the (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  • The Computational Theory of the Laws of Nature.Terrance Tomkow - manuscript
    A new account of the of the laws of nature based upon Algorithmic Information Theory.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  • Philosophy of Information and Pragmatistic Understanding of Information.Jakob Krebs - 2011 - Etica and Politica / Ethics and Politics (2):235-245.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation