30 found
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  1.  75
    Individuals Across The Sciences.Thomas Pradeu & Alexandre Guay (eds.) - 2016 - New York, État de New York, États-Unis: Oxford University Press.
    What are individuals? How can they be identified? These are crucial questions for philosophers and scientists alike. Criteria of individuality seem to differ markedly between metaphysics and the empirical sciences - and this might well explain why no work has hitherto attempted to relate the contributions of metaphysics, physics and biology on this question. This timely volume brings together various strands of research into 'individuality', examining how different sciences handle the issue, and reflecting on how this scientific work relates to (...)
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  2. (1 other version)Right out of the box: how to situate metaphysics of science in relation to other metaphysical approaches.Alexandre Guay & Thomas Pradeu - 2020 - Synthese 197 (5):1847-1866.
    Several advocates of the lively field of “metaphysics of science” have recently argued that a naturalistic metaphysics should be based solely on current science, and that it should replace more traditional, intuition-based, forms of metaphysics. The aim of the present paper is to assess that claim by examining the relations between metaphysics of science and general metaphysics. We show that the current metaphysical battlefield is richer and more complex than a simple dichotomy between “metaphysics of science” and “traditional metaphysics”, and (...)
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  3. Lagrangian possibilities.Alexandre Guay & Quentin Ruyant - 2024 - Synthese 203 (4):1-22.
    Natural modalities are often analysed from an abstract point of view where they are associated with putative laws of nature. However, the way possibilities are represented in physics is more complex. Lagrangian mechanics, for instance, involves two different layers of modalities: kinematical and dynamical possibilities. This paper examines the status of these two layers, both in the classical and quantum case. The quantum case is particularly problematic: we identify four possible interpretive options. The upshot is that a close inspection of (...)
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  4. A new look at emergence. Or when after is different.Alexandre Guay & Olivier Sartenaer - 2016 - European Journal for Philosophy of Science 6 (2):297-322.
    In this paper, we put forward a new account of emergence called “transformational emergence”. Such an account captures a variety of emergence that can be considered as being diachronic and weakly ontological. The fact that transformational emergence actually constitutes a genuine form of emergence is motivated. Besides, the account is free of traditional problems surrounding more usual, synchronic versions of emergence, and it can find a strong empirical support in a specific physical phenomenon, the fractional quantum Hall effect, which has (...)
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  5.  73
    To Be Continued: The Genidentity of Physical and Biological Processes.Alexandre Guay & Thomas Pradeu - 2016 - In Thomas Pradeu & Alexandre Guay (eds.), Individuals Across The Sciences. New York, État de New York, États-Unis: Oxford University Press. pp. 317-347.
    The concept of genidentity has been proposed as a way to better understand identity through time, especially in physics and biology. The genidentity view is utterly anti-substantialist in so far as it suggests that the identity of X through time does not presuppose whatsoever the existence of a permanent “core” or “substrate” of X. Yet applications of this concept to real science have been scarce and unsatisfying. In this paper, our aim is to show that a well-defined concept of functional (...)
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  6. Introduction. Progressive Steps toward a Unified Conception of Individuality across the Sciences.Alexandre Guay & Thomas Pradeu - 2016 - In Thomas Pradeu & Alexandre Guay (eds.), Individuals Across The Sciences. New York, État de New York, États-Unis: Oxford University Press. pp. 1-21.
    This chapter introduces the main issues and themes of the volume. Approaches to individuality from metaphysics and philosophy of science are contrasted. Recent philosophical developments regarding concepts of biological and physical individuality are exposed. These research trends show how philosophy of physics and philosophy of biology address differently the question of what an individual is. Five main divergences are identified: the centrality of part-whole questions, the issue of identical individuals, the importance of the Principle of the Identity of Indiscernibles and, (...)
     
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  7.  90
    What Price Changing Laws of Nature?Olivier Sartenaer, Alexandre Guay & Paul Humphreys - 2020 - European Journal for Philosophy of Science 11 (1):1-19.
    In this paper, we show that it is not a conceptual truth about laws of nature that they are immutable (though we are happy to leave it as an open empirical question whether they do actually change once in a while). In order to do so, we survey three popular accounts of lawhood—(Armstrong-style) necessitarianism, (Bird-style) dispositionalism and (Lewis-style) ‘best system analysis’—and expose the extent, as well as the philosophical cost, of the amendments that should be enforced in order to leave (...)
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  8. Emergent Quasiparticles. Or How to Get a Rich Physics from a Sober Metaphysics.Alexandre Guay & Olivier Sartenaer - 2018 - In Melinda Fagan, Otávio Bueno & Ruey-Lin Chen (eds.), Individuation, Process, and Scientific Practices. New York, USA: Oxford University Press. pp. 214-235.
    Among the very architects of the recent re-emergence of emergentism in the physical sciences, Robert B. Laughlin certainly occupies a prominent place. Through a series of works beginning as early as his Nobel lecture in 1998, a lecture given after having been awarded, together with Störmer and Tsui, the Nobel prize in physics for its contribution in the elucidation of the fractional quantum Hall effect, Laughlin openly and relentlessly advocated a strongly anti-reductionistic view of physics – and, more particularly, of (...)
     
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  9.  92
    Why is the transference theory of causation insuffcient? The challenge of the Aharonov-Bohm effect.Vincent Ardourel & Alexandre Guay - 2018 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 63:12-23.
    The transference theory reduces causation to the transmission of physical conserved quantities, like energy or momenta. Although this theory aims at applying to all felds of physics, we claim that it fails to account for a quantum electrodynamic effect, viz. the Aharonov-Bohm effect. After having argued that the Aharonov-Bohm effect is a genuine counter-example for the transference theory, we offer a new physicalist approach of causation, ontic and modal, in which this effect is embedded.
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  10.  61
    A partial elucidation of the gauge principle.Alexandre Guay - 2008 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 39 (2):346-363.
    The elucidation of the gauge principle ‘‘is the most pressing problem in current philosophy of physics’’ said Michael Redhead in 2003. This paper argues for two points that contribute to this elucidation in the context of Yang–Mills theories. (1) Yang–Mills theories, including quantum electrodynamics, form a class. They should be interpreted together. To focus on electrodynamics is potentially misleading. (2) The essential role of gauge and BRST symmetries is to provide a local field theory that can be quantized and would (...)
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  11. Symmetry and its formalisms: Mathematical aspects.Brian Hepburn & Alexandre Guay - 2009 - Philosophy of Science 76 (2):160-178.
    This article explores the relation between the concept of symmetry and its formalisms. The standard view among philosophers and physicists is that symmetry is completely formalized by mathematical groups. For some mathematicians however, the groupoid is a competing and more general formalism. An analysis of symmetry that justifies this extension has not been adequately spelled out. After a brief explication of how groups, equivalence, and symmetries classes are related, we show that, while it’s true in some instances that groups are (...)
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  12.  86
    The Uses of Analogies in Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Science.Yves Gingras & Alexandre Guay - 2011 - Perspectives on Science 19 (2):154-191.
    The object of this paper is to look at the extent and nature of the uses of analogy during the ªrst century following the so-called scientiªc revolution. Using the research tool provided by JSTOR we systematically analyze the uses of “analog” and its cognates (analogies, analogous, etc.) in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London for the period 1665–1780. In addition to giving the possibility of evaluating quantitatively the proportion of papers explicitly using analogies, this approach makes it (...)
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  13.  40
    Une objectivité kaléidoscopique : construire l'image scientifique du monde.Pierre-Alain Braillard, Alexandre Guay, Cyrille Imbert & Thomas Pradeu - 2011 - Philosophie 110 (3):46-71.
    Dans Science, Perception and Reality, Sellars distingue l’image manifeste de l’homme et l’image scientifique de l’homme. La première est obtenue à partir de la façon dont nous prenons conscience de nous-mêmes comme humains dans le monde. La seconde correspond à ce que les différentes sciences nous amènent à postuler sur la manière dont l’homme est constitué. Van Fraassen, lui, étend au monde ces concepts...
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  14. La symétrie de jauge comme sonde philosophique.Alexandre Guay - 2013 - In Soazig Le Bihan (ed.), Précis de philosophie de la physique. pp. 295-308.
  15. Épistémologie.Alexandre Guay & Frédéric Bouchard - 2015 - In J. Prud’Homme, P. Doray & F. Bouchard (eds.), Sciences, technologies et sociétés de A à Z. [Montréal, Québec]: Les Presses de l'Université de Montréal. pp. 85-87.
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  16. Essai introductif : la crédibilité de l’expertise en contexte de risque.Alexandre Guay - 2018 - In Risque et expertise. Besançon, France: Presses universitaires de Franche-Comté. pp. 15-25.
    Dans cet essai, je compte me concentrer sur certains aspects épistémologiques de l’expertise car le risque engendre de nouveaux et difficiles défis dans ce domaine. Ma question sera d’identifier et de circonscrire des facteurs qui diminuent la confiance qu’un agent cognitif pourrait avoir envers un expert et ce, en contexte de risque. Ceci n’exclut bien sûr pas que d’autres aspects (par exemple sociaux et politiques) soient importants et je renvoie le lecteur à la vaste littérature sur le sujet. De manière (...)
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  17. La métaphysique de la nature comme une boucle de rétroaction.Alexandre Guay - 2022 - In Raphaël Künstler & Claudine Tiercelin (eds.), Métaphysique et sciences: nouveaux problèmes. Paris: Hermann. pp. 183-197.
     
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  18.  5
    Autour des Principia Mathematica de Russell et Whitehead.Alexandre Guay - 2012 - 21000 Dijon, France: Éditions Universitaires de Dijon.
    Il y a cent ans paraissaient un ouvrage de logique qui a marqué considérablement les études dans ce domaine tout au long du XXe siècle, soit que l’on en poursuivit le projet, soit, au contraire, que l’on en critiqua la démarche. Les Principia Mathematica de Russell et Whitehead sont donc une œuvre majeure sur laquelle il n’était par inutile de revenir en ce début du XXIe siècle. Certes la question à laquelle ils étaient censés répondre, c'est-à-dire celle d’un fondement rigoureux (...)
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  19. The arbitrariness of local gauge symmetry.Alexandre Guay - 2004
    This paper shows how the study of surpluses of structure is an interesting philosophical task. In particular I explore how local gauge symmetry in quantized Yang-Mills theories is the by-product of the specific dynamical structure of interaction. It is shown how in non relativistic quantum mechanics gauge symmetry corresponds to the freedom to locally define global features of gauge potentials. Also discussed is how in quantum field theory local gauge symmetry is replaced by BRST symmetry. This last symmetry is apparently (...)
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  20. Appareil, image et particule.Alexandre Guay - 2007 - In Marion Froger, Sylvestra Mariniello & Jean-Louis Déotte (eds.), Appareil et Intermédialité. l’Harmattan.
    This chapter (in French) compares the ways to access to events in science and in art. In particular, the Déotte's concept of "appareil" is discussed. To be published in Jean-Louis Déotte and Sylvestra Mariniello (ed.), Appareil et Intermédialité, L'Harmattan, 2007.
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  21.  13
    De l'utilité de la métaphysique des sciences.Alexandre Guay - 2016 - Revue Philosophique De Louvain 114 (hors série):28-33.
  22. Geometrical aspects of local gauge symmetry.Alexandre Guay - 2004
    This paper is an analysis of the geometrical interpretation of local gauge symmetry for theories of the Yang-Mills type.
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  23. La philosophie de la physique sans le temps.Alexandre Guay - 2018 - In Joseph Famerée & Paulo Rodrigues (eds.), The Genesis of concepts and the confrontation of rationalities: Theology, Philosophy, Science. pp. 105-121.
     
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  24. Philosophie de la physique.Alexandre Guay - 2005
    This document (in French) is an introduction to the philosophy of physics that I wrote for Anouk Barberousse (ed.), Manuel des Issambres, Gallimard, to be published.
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  25.  5
    Risque et expertise.Alexandre Guay (ed.) - 2018 - Besançon, France: Presses universitaires de Franche-Comté.
    Le risque comme l’expertise sont des sujets d’une rare richesse, comme le confirme la vaste littérature sur ces questions. Lorsqu’ils sont croisés, les difficultés que chacun d’entre eux soulève s’en trouvent renforcées. Le présent ouvrage est le produit des sixièmes conférences Pierre Duhem qui avaient pour thème : risque et expertise. Il rassemble les textes originaux de l’économiste Marc Fleurbaey et du philosophe Sven Ove Hansson, ainsi que les échanges qu’ils ont eu avec les commentateurs Mikaël Cozic, Minh Ha-Duong et (...)
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  26.  22
    Science, philosophie, société.Alexandre Guay & Stéphanie Ruphy (eds.) - 2017 - Besançon, France: Presses universitaires de Franche-Comté.
    La transformation du mode de production des connaissances scientifiques va de pair avec une évolution significative des attentes de la société vis-à-vis des sciences, et soulève pour le philosophe de nouvelles questions : qu’est-ce qui est vraiment nouveau dans le régime actuel de production des connaissances ? Quel rôle et quelle responsabilité pour le chercheur face à la demande croissante d’expertise scientifique ? Quelle attitude avoir face à des avancées technologiques touchant à la nature même de l’Homme ? Le citoyen (...)
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  27.  22
    Symétrie: Reflexions Sur les Formes Naturelles.Alexandre Guay - 2004 - Dissertation, Universite de Montreal (Canada)
    This thesis is a philosophical analysis, and in particular an ontological one, of symmetries in modern physics. In the first two chapters, the thesis analyzes the foundation of the concept of symmetry, which is defined as an invariance under a possible change to the system being studied. In the rest of the thesis, various philosophical problems concerning particular symmetries are discussed. This begins in the third chapter with an analysis of the formalization of the definition of symmetry given above in (...)
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  28. Why Yang-Mills theories?Alexandre Guay - 2006
    The elucidation of the gauge principle ``is the most pressing problem in current philosophy of physics" Redhead. This paper argues two points that contribute to this elucidation in the context of Yang-Mills theories. 1) Yang-Mills theories, including quantum electrodynamics, form a class. They should be interpreted together. To focus on electrodynamics is a mistake. 2) The essential role of gauge and BRST surplus is to provide a local theory that can be quantized and would be equivalent to the quantization of (...)
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  29.  38
    Conceptual Foundations of Yang–Mills Theories. [REVIEW]Alexandre Guay - 2008 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 39 (3):687-693.
    Essay review of Gauging What’s Real: The Conceptual Foundations of Contemporary Gauge Theories R. Healey. Oxford University Press (2007). To be published in the Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, 39(3):687-693, 2008.
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  30.  32
    Symétries, brisures de symétries et complexité en mathématiques, physique et biologieLuciano Boi, dir. Bern, Peter Lang (coll. «Philosophia Naturalis et Geometricalis»), 2006, 297 p. [REVIEW]Alexandre Guay - 2009 - Dialogue 48 (4):900-902.
    Compte rendu de L. Boi, Symétries, brisures de symétries et complexité en mathématiques, physique et biologie, Peter Lang.
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