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Chuang Liu [46]Chuangzhen Liu [1]
  1.  13
    The Logic of Thermostatistical Physics.Gerard G. Emch & Chuang Liu - 2002 - Springer Verlag.
    This book is devoted to a thorough analysis of the role that models play in the practise of physical theory. The authors, a mathematical physicist and a philosopher of science, appeal to the logicians’ notion of model theory as well as to the concepts of physicists.
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  2. Explaining the emergence of cooperative phenomena.Chuang Liu - 1999 - Philosophy of Science 66 (3):106.
    Phase transitions are well-understood phenomena in thermodynamics (TD), but it turns out that they are mathematically impossible in finite SM systems. Hence, phase transitions are truly emergent properties. They appear again at the thermodynamic limit (TL), i.e., in infinite systems. However, most, if not all, systems in which they occur are finite, so whence comes the justification for taking TL? The problem is then traced back to the TD characterization of phase transitions, and it turns out that the characterization is (...)
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  3.  64
    Explaining quantum spontaneous symmetry breaking.Chuang Liu & Gérard G. Emch - 2005 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 36 (1):137-163.
    Two alternative accounts of quantum spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB) are compared and one of them, the decompositional account in the algebraic approach, is argued to be superior for understanding quantum SSB. Two exactly solvable models are given as applications of our account -- the Weiss-Heisenberg model for ferromagnetism and the BCS model for superconductivity. Finally, the decompositional account is shown to be more conducive to the causal explanation of quantum SSB.
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  4. Re-inflating the Conception of Scientific Representation.Chuang Liu - 2015 - International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 29 (1):41-59.
    This article argues for an anti-deflationist view of scientific representation. Our discussion begins with an analysis of the recent Callender–Cohen deflationary view on scientific representation. We then argue that there are at least two radically different ways in which a thing can be represented: one is purely symbolic, and therefore conventional, and the other is epistemic. The failure to recognize that scientific models are epistemic vehicles rather than symbolic ones has led to the mistaken view that whatever distinguishes scientific models (...)
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  5. Laws and models in a theory of idealization.Chuang Liu - 2004 - Synthese 138 (3):363 - 385.
    I first give a brief summary of a critique of the traditional theories of approximation and idealization; and after identifying one of the major roles of idealization as detaching component processes or systems from their joints, a detailed analysis is given of idealized laws – which are discoverable and/or applicable – in such processes and systems (i.e., idealized model systems). Then, I argue that dispositional properties should be regarded as admissible properties for laws and that such an inclusion supplies the (...)
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  6. (1 other version)Infinite systems in SM explanations: Thermodynamic limit, renormalization (semi-) groups, and irreversibility.Chuang Liu - 2001 - Proceedings of the Philosophy of Science Association 2001 (3):S325-.
    This paper examines the justifications for using infinite systems to 'recover' thermodynamic properties, such as phase transitions (PT), critical phenomena (CP), and irreversibility, from the micro-structure of matter in bulk. Section 2 is a summary of such rigorous methods as in taking the thermodynamic limit (TL) to recover PT and in using renormalization (semi-) group approach (RG) to explain the universality of critical exponents. Section 3 examines various possible justifications for taking TL on physically finite systems. Section 4 discusses the (...)
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  7. Approximations, idealizations, and models in statistical mechanics.Chuang Liu - 2004 - Erkenntnis 60 (2):235-263.
    In this paper, a criticism of the traditional theories of approximation and idealization is given as a summary of previous works. After identifying the real purpose and measure of idealization in the practice of science, it is argued that the best way to characterize idealization is not to formulate a logical model – something analogous to Hempel's D-N model for explanation – but to study its different guises in the praxis of science. A case study of it is then made (...)
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  8. The aharonov-Bohm effect and the reality of wave packets.Chuang Liu - 1994 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 45 (4):977-1000.
    The objective of this paper is to show that, instead of quantum probabilities, wave packets are physically real. First, Cartwright's recent argument for the reality of quantum probabilities is criticized. Then, the notion of ‘physically real’ is precisely defined and the difference between wave functions and quantum probabilities clarified. Being thus prepared, some strong reasons are discussed for considering the wave packet to be physically real. Finding the reasons inconclusive, I explain how the Aharonov—Bohm effect delivers the final punch. I (...)
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  9. Gauge gravity and the unification of natural forces.Chuang Liu - 2001 - International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 17 (2):143 – 159.
    Physics seems to tell us that there are four fundamental force-fields in nature: the gravitational, the electromagnetic, the weak, and the strong (or interactions). But it also seems to tell us that gravity cannot possibly be a force-field, in the same sense as the other three are. And yet the search for a grand unification of all four force-fields is today one of the hottest pursuits. Is this the result of a simple confusion? This article aims at clarifying this situation (...)
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  10. Classical spontaneous symmetry breaking.Chuang Liu - 2003 - Philosophy of Science 70 (5):1219-1232.
    This paper aims at answering the simple question, “What is spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB) in classical systems?” I attempt to do this by analyzing from a philosophical perspective a simple classical model which exhibits some of the main features of SSB. Related questions include: What does it mean to say that a symmetry is spontaneously broken? Is it broken without any causes, or is the symmetry not broken but merely hidden? Is the principle, “no asymmetry in, no asymmetry out,” violated (...)
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  11. Is there a relativistic thermodynamics? A case study of the meaning of special relativity.Chuang Liu - 1994 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 25 (6):983-1004.
  12. Realism and spacetime: Of arguments against metaphysical realism and manifold realism.Chuang Liu - 1996 - Philosophia Naturalis 33 (2):243--63.
  13.  40
    Deflationism on Scientific Representation.Chuang Liu - 2013 - In Vassilios Karakostas & Dennis Dieks (eds.), EPSA11 Perspectives and Foundational Problems in Philosophy of Science. Cham: Springer. pp. 93--102.
  14. Confirming idealized theories and scientific realism.Chuang Liu - unknown
    Two types of idealization in theory construction are distinguished, and the distinction is used to give a critique of Ron Laymon's account of confirming idealized theories and his argument for scientific realism.
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  15.  52
    Einstein and relativistic thermodynamics in 1952: a historical and critical study of a strange episode in the history of modern physics.Chuang Liu - 1992 - British Journal for the History of Science 25 (2):185-206.
    Over forty years after the foundations of the special theory of relativity had been securely laid, a heated debate, beginning in 1965, about the correct formulation of relativistic thermodynamics raged in the physics literature. Prior to 1965, relativistic thermodynamics was considered one of the most secure relativistic theories and one of the most simple and elegant examples of relativization in physics. It is, as its name apparently suggests, the result of the application of the special theory of relativity to thermodynamics. (...)
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  16.  61
    Symbolic versus Modelistic Elements in Scientific Modeling.Chuang Liu - 2015 - Theoria: Revista de Teoría, Historia y Fundamentos de la Ciencia 30 (2):287.
    In this paper, we argue that symbols are conventional vehicles whose chief function is denotation, while models are epistemic vehicles, and their chief function is to show what their targets are like in the relevant aspects. And we explain why this is incompatible with the deflationary view on scientific modeling. Although the same object may serve both functions, the two vehicles are conceptually distinct and most models employ both elements. With the clarification of this point we offer an alternative account (...)
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  17. Models and theories I: The semantic view revisited.Chuang Liu - 1997 - International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 11 (2):147 – 164.
    The paper, as Part I of a two-part series, argues for a hybrid formulation of the semantic view of scientific theories. For stage-setting, it first reviews the elements of the model theory in mathematical logic (on whose foundation the semantic view rests), the syntactic and the semantic view, and the different notions of models used in the practice of science. The paper then argues for an integration of the notions into the semantic view, and thereby offers a hybrid semantic view, (...)
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  18. Spontaneous symmetry breaking and chance in a classical world.Chuang Liu - 2003 - Philosophy of Science 70 (3):590-608.
    This essay explores the nature of spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB) in connection with a cluster of interrelated concepts such as Curie's symmetry principle, ergodicity, and chance and stability in classical systems. First, a clarification of the two existing senses of SSB is provided and an argument developed for a proposal for SSB, in which not only the possibilities but also the actual breakings are referred to. Second, a detailed analysis is given of classical SSB that answers the questions: (i) how (...)
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  19. The arrow of time in quantum gravity.Chuang Liu - 1993 - Philosophy of Science 60 (4):619-637.
    This essay is a philosophical evaluation of some of the findings of Wald and Penrose in which they claim to have supported an arrow (or the irreversibility) of time in quantum gravity. First, the notion of lawlike irreversibility (or anisotropy) of time is spelled out, then the general situation in quantum mechanics is briefly discussed. Finally, the findings in quantum gravity are evaluated against such a background. My conclusion is that the arrow of time found in quantum gravity is at (...)
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  20.  66
    (1 other version)Infinite idealization and contextual realism.Chuang Liu - 2018 - Synthese:1-34.
    The paper discusses the recent literature on abstraction/idealization in connection with the “paradox of infinite idealization.” We use the case of taking thermodynamics limit in dealing with the phenomena of phase transition and critical phenomena to broach the subject. We then argue that the method of infinite idealization is widely used in the practice of science, and not all uses of the method are the same. We then confront the compatibility problem of infinite idealization with scientific realism. We propose and (...)
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  21. Fictionalism, Realism, Empiricism on Scientific Models.Chuang Liu - 2014
    This paper defends an approach to modeling and models in science that is against model fictionalism of a recent stripe (the “new fictionalism” that takes models to be abstract entities that are analogous to works of fiction). It further argues that there is a version of fictionalism on models to which my approach is neutral and which only makes sense if one adopts a special sort of antirealism (e.g. constructive empiricism). Otherwise, my approach strongly suggests that one stays away from (...)
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  22.  15
    La representación del espacio mediante coordenadas cartesianas y la unidad de la ciencia.Chuang Liu - 2006 - Discusiones Filosóficas 7 (10):17-32.
    En este artículo, exploro una metáfora engeometría que nos ayuda a entender mejorel debate sobre la unidad y la desunidad dela ciencia, a saber, la posibilidad de poner unsistema global de coordenadascartesianas sobreuna variedad .Explicaré las razones por las que ésta es unabuena metáfora capaz de mostrar lo quesignifica launificación para la ciencia. Posteriormente,examinaré una parte de la literatura sobre eldebate unidad/desunidad y mostraré cómoesta metáfora puede iluminar algunos de losargumentos y puntos de vista.n this essay, I explore a metaphor (...)
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  23. Symbols versus Models.Chuang Liu - 2013
    In this paper I argue against a deflationist view that as representational vehicles symbols and models do their jobs in essentially the same way. I argue that symbols are conventional vehicles whose chief function is denotation while models are epistemic vehicles whose chief function is showing what their targets are like in the relevant aspects. It is further pointed out that models usually do not rely on similarity or some such relations to relate to their targets. For that referential relation (...)
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  24. Relativistic Thermodynamics: Its History and Foundations.Chuang Liu - 1991 - Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh
    Relativistic Thermodynamics of equilibrium processes has remained a strange chapter in the history of modern physics. It was established by Planck in 1908 as a simple application of Einstein's special theory of relativity. Einstein himself made substantial contributions and its final product remained officially unchallenged until 1965. In 1952, however, at the end of his career, Einstein challenged the theory in his correspondence with von Laue. Many of his unpublished suggestions anticipated the major works in the debate of the 1960s. (...)
     
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  25.  36
    Kripke’s Gödel case: Descriptive ambiguity and its experimental interpretation.Chao Ding & Chuang Liu - 2022 - Theoria: Revista de Teoría, Historia y Fundamentos de la Ciencia 37 (3):291-308.
    Kripke has taken the Gödel case as a counterexample for reference descriptivism. Machery et al. question the validity of Kripke’s case and had conducted empirical studies to show its inadequacy. Experimental data suggest intuitions on this matter vary both across and within cultures. However, there is a descriptive ambiguity, we argue, in Kripke’s Gödel case, for people associate different types of descriptions with proper names, such as the description of brute facts and the description of social facts. We argue in (...)
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  26.  76
    Gauge invariance, Cauchy problem, indeterminism, and symmetry breaking.Chuang Liu - 1996 - Philosophy of Science 63 (3):79.
    The concepts in the title refer to properties of physical theories and this paper investigates their nature and relations. The first three concepts, especially gauge invariance and indeterminism, have been widely discussed in connection to spacetime theories and the hole argument. Since the gauge invariance principle is at the crux of the issue, this paper aims at clarifying the nature of gauge invariance. I first explore the following chain of relations: gauge invariance $\Rightarrow $ the conservation laws $\Rightarrow $ the (...)
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  27.  66
    Potential, propensity, and categorical realism.Chuang Liu - 1996 - Erkenntnis 45 (1):45 - 68.
    I argue that categorical realism, contrary to what most believe today, holds for quantum (and indeed for all) objects and substances. The main argument consists of two steps: (i) the recent experimental verification of the AB effect gives strong empirical evidence for taking quantum potentials as physically real (or substantival), which suggests a change of the data upon which any viable interpretation of quantum theory must rely, and (ii) quantum potentials may be consistently taken as the categorical properties of quantum (...)
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  28. Fictional Models in Science.Chuang Liu - 2013
    In this paper, I begin with a discussion of Giere’s recent work arguing against taking models as works of fiction. I then move on to explore a spectrum of scientific models that goes from the obviously fictional to the not so obviously fictional. And then I discuss the modeling of the unobservable and make a case for the idea that despite difficulties of defining them, unobservable systems are modeled in a fundamentally different way than the observable systems. While idealization and (...)
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  29.  72
    Against the New Fictionalism: A Hybrid View of Scientific Models.Chuang Liu - 2016 - International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 30 (1):39-54.
    This article develops an approach to modelling and models in science—the hybrid view—that is against model fictionalism of a recent stripe. It further argues that there is a version of fictionalism about models to which my approach is neutral and which makes sense only if one adopts a special sort of antirealism. Otherwise, my approach strongly suggests that one stay away from fictionalism and embrace realism directly.
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  30.  13
    Coins and Electrons: A Unified Understanding of Probabilistic Objects.Chuang Liu - 2000 - Poznan Studies in the Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities 71:243-260.
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  31.  54
    Coordination of space and unity of science.Chuang Liu - unknown
    In this essay, I explore a metaphor in geometry for the debate between the unity and the disunity of science, namely, the possibility of putting a global coordinate system (or a chart) on a manifold. I explain why the former is a good metaphor that shows what it means (and takes in principle) for science to be unified. I then go through some of the existing literature on the unity/disunity debate and show how the metaphor sheds light on some of (...)
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  32.  7
    Decoherence and Idealization in Quantum Measurement.Chuang Liu - 1998 - Poznan Studies in the Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities 63:75-98.
  33. How we can be free from physics.Chuang Liu - unknown
    Our discussion in the first five sections shows that little new can be said about compatibilism, that van Inwagen's argument for incompatibilism still stands, and that the view of free agency for a libertarian has little chance unless she believes that agency contains elements that are not within the natural order. Borrowing from a suggestion from Russell we expanded the Nozick-Kane model of libertarian free agency and connected it to the Wignerian interpretation of quantum measurement. As such, free decisions and (...)
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  34.  21
    Idealization, Confirmation, and Scientific Realism.Chuang Liu - unknown
    The paper first raises the problem concerning the confirmation of idealized theories in science and its relationship to scientific realism. Then a solution by Laymon is discussed. It is then argued that two different types of idealization need to be distinguished and that only one of them produces false theories. But then, such “theories” are really theory-maps, which point to theories at the end of improvements. Finally, Laymon’s account is modified in accordance with the above insight.
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  35.  37
    Models and theories II: Issues and applications.Chuang Liu - 1998 - International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 12 (2):111 – 128.
    This paper is the second of a two-part series on models and theories, the first of which appeared in International Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Vol. 11, No. 2, 1997. It further explores some of themes of the first paper and examines applications, including: the relations between “similarity” and “isomorphism”, and between “model” and “interpretation”, and the notion of structural explanation.
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  36.  12
    Substance and method: studies in philosophy of science.Chuang Liu - 2015 - Hackensack, NJ: World Scientific.
    Fictional models in science -- The hypothetical versus the fictional -- What is wrong with the new fictionalism of scientific models? -- Re-inflating the conception of scientific representation -- Idealization, confirmation, and scientific realism -- Laws and models in a theory of idealization -- Approximation and its measures -- Approximation, idealization, and the laws of nature -- Coordination of space and unity of science -- Gauge gravity and the unification of natural forces -- Models and theories II: issues and applications (...)
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  37.  48
    (1 other version)Spontaneous symmetry breaking and chance.Chuang Liu - unknown
    In this paper I explore the nature of spontaneous symmetry breaking in connection with a cluster of interrelated concepts such as Curie's symmetry principle, chance, and stability.
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  38.  43
    Spontaneous symmetry breaking (II): Variations in complex models.Chuang Liu - unknown
    This paper, part II of a two-part project, continues to explore the meaning of spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB) by applying and expanding the general notion we obtained in part I to some more complex and, from the physics point of view, more important models (in condensed matter physics and in quantum field theories).
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  39.  39
    The Hypothetical versus the Fictional.Chuang Liu - unknown
    In this essay I argue against the idea that modeling in science is analogous to fiction making in literary works by pointing out that a typical move in the former, which is widely acknowledged in philosophy literature as a signal for fictionalization, is never present in works of fiction. I further argue that the reason for such a disparity is profound and profoundly against conceiving modeling as fictionalization. I then explain the difference between the hypothetical and the fictional, and argue (...)
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  40.  68
    The meaning of spontaneous symmetry breaking (I): From a simple classical model.Chuang Liu - unknown
    This paper, part I of a two-part project, aims at answering the simple question 'what is spontaneous symmetry breaking?' by analyzing from a philosophical perspective a simple classical model. Related questions include: what does it mean to break a symmetry spontaneously? Is the breaking causal, or is the symmetry not broken but merely hidden? Is the meta-principle, 'no asymmetry in, no asymmetry out,' violated? And what is the role in this of random perturbations (or fluctuations)?
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  41.  25
    Variations on A Theme by Duhem.Chuang Liu - unknown
    This paper contains four variations on Duhem's theme about the contrast between the abstract French mind and the concrete British mind. The first variation brings out the real contrast between two types of methods and their results: the A method or models and the C method or models. The second variation gives a critical discussion of the Callender-Cohen deflationary contruel of scientific representation. The third variation discusses Russell's structuralism in connection to the theme. And the fourth variation critically discusses the (...)
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  42.  24
    Fixed-Time Feedback Control of the Hydraulic Turbine Governing System.Caoyuan Ma, Chuangzhen Liu & Xuezi Zhang - 2018 - Complexity 2018:1-9.
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  43.  8
    Scientific explanation and methodology of science: selected papers from the International Conference on SEMS 2012 Shanxi University, Taiyuan, China, 17-19 September 2012.Guichun Guo & Chuang Liu (eds.) - 2014 - New Jersey: World Scientific.
    This volume contains the contributed papers of invitees to SEMS 2012 who have also given talks at the conference. The invitees are experts in philosophy of science and technology from Asia (besides China), Australia, Europe, Latin America, North America, as well as from within China. The papers in this volume represent the latest work of each researcher in his or her expertise; and as a result, they give a good representation of the cutting-edge researches in diverse areas in different parts (...)
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  44. Holism vs. particularism: A lesson from classical and quantum physics. [REVIEW]Chuang Liu - 1996 - Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 27 (2):267-279.
    The present essay aims at broadening the recent discussion on the issue of holism vs. particularism in quantum physics. I begin with a clarification of the relation between the holism/particularism debate and the discussion of supervenience relation. I then defend particularism in physics (including quantum physics) by considering a new classification of properties of physical systems. With such a classification, the results in the Bell theorem are shown to violate spatial separability but not physical particularism.
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