16 found
Order:
  1. Modelling Deep Indeterminacy.George Darby & Martin Pickup - 2021 - Synthese 198:1685–1710.
    This paper constructs a model of metaphysical indeterminacy that can accommodate a kind of ‘deep’ worldly indeterminacy that arguably arises in quantum mechanics via the Kochen-Specker theorem, and that is incompatible with prominent theories of metaphysical indeterminacy such as that in Barnes and Williams (2011). We construct a variant of Barnes and Williams's theory that avoids this problem. Our version builds on situation semantics and uses incomplete, local situations rather than possible worlds to build a model. We evaluate the resulting (...)
    Direct download (5 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   15 citations  
  2. Relational Holism and Humean Supervenience.George Darby - 2012 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 63 (4):773-788.
    It has been widely noted that Humean supervenience , according to which everything supervenes on intrinsic properties of point-sized things and the spatiotemporal relations between them, is at odds with the nonlocal character of quantum mechanics, according to which not everything supervenes on intrinsic properties of point-sized things and the spatiotemporal relations between them. In particular, a standard view is that the parts of a composite quantum system instantiate further relations which are not accounted for in Lewis's Humean mosaic. But (...)
    Direct download (10 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   34 citations  
  3. Quantum Mechanics and Metaphysical Indeterminacy.George Darby - 2010 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 88 (2):227-245.
    There has been recent interest in formulating theories of non-representational indeterminacy. The aim of this paper is to clarify the relevance of quantum mechanics to this project. Quantum-mechanical examples of vague objects have been offered by various authors, displaying indeterminate identity, in the face of the famous Evans argument that such an idea is incoherent. It has also been suggested that the quantum-mechanical treatment of state-dependent properties exhibits metaphysical indeterminacy. In both cases it is important to consider the details of (...)
    Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   39 citations  
  4. In Defense of the Metaphysics of Entanglement.David Glick & George Darby - 2020 - In David Glick, George Darby & Anna Marmodoro (eds.), The Foundation of Reality: Fundamentality, Space, and Time. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    Quantum entanglement has long been thought to be have deep metaphysical consequences. For example, it has been claimed to show that Humean supervenience is false or to involve a novel form of ontological holism. One way to avoid confronting the metaphysical consequences is to adopt some form of antirealism. In this paper we discuss two prominent strands in recent literature—wavefunction realism and “Super-Humeanism”—that appear quite different, but, as we see it, are instances of a more general strategy. In effect, what (...)
    Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   4 citations  
  5. Thinking About Science, Reflecting on Art: Bringing Aesthetics and Philosophy of Science Together.Otávio Bueno, Steven French, George Darby & Dean Rickles (eds.) - 2017 - New York: Routledge.
    _Thinking about Science, Reflecting on Art: Bringing Aesthetics and Philosophy of Science togethe_r is the first book to systematically examine the relationship between the philosophy of science and aesthetics. With contributions from leading figures from both fields this edited collection engages with such questions as: Does representation function in the same way in science and in art? What important characteristic do scientific models share with literary fictions? What is the difference between interpretation in the sciences and in the arts? Can (...)
    No categories
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   5 citations  
  6. (1 other version)Lewis's Principle of Recombination: Reply to Efird and Stoneham.George Darby & Duncan Watson - 2010 - Dialectica 64 (3):435-445.
    According to Lewis's modal realism, all ways the world could be are represented by possible worlds, and all possible worlds represent some way the world could be. That there are just the right possible worlds to represent all and only the ways the world could be is to be guaranteed by the principle of recombination. Lewis sketches the principle (put roughly: anything can co-exist with anything else), but does not spell out a precise version that generates just the right possibilities. (...)
    Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   13 citations  
  7. Deep Indeterminacy in Physics and Fiction.George Darby, Martin Pickup & Jon Robson - 2017 - In Otávio Bueno, Steven French, George Darby & Dean Rickles (eds.), Thinking About Science, Reflecting on Art: Bringing Aesthetics and Philosophy of Science Together. New York: Routledge.
    Indeterminacy in its various forms has been the focus of a great deal of philosophical attention in recent years. Much of this discussion has focused on the status of vague predicates such as ‘tall’, ‘bald’, and ‘heap’. It is determinately the case that a seven-foot person is tall and that a five-foot person is not tall. However, it seems difficult to pick out any determinate height at which someone becomes tall. How best to account for this phenomenon is, of course, (...)
    Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   3 citations  
  8.  36
    A minimalist Humeanism?: Michael Esfeld and Dirk-André Deckert: A minimalist ontology of the natural world. New York: Routledge, 2017, 182pp, US$140.00 HB.George Darby - 2018 - Metascience 27 (3):433-437.
    No categories
    Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   3 citations  
  9. Lewis's worldmate relation and the apparent failure of Humean supervenience.George Darby - 2009 - Dialectica 63 (2):195-204.
    This paper considers two aspects of Lewis 's metaphysics to which spatiotemporal relations appear central, with the aim of showing them to be less so. First, Lewis reluctantly characterises what it is for two things to be part of the same possible world in terms of an analogically spatiotemporal category of relations, rather than a wider natural external category. But Lewis 's reason for restricting himself to the narrower category is unpersuasive. Second, Humean supervenience is formulated with spatiotemporal relations at (...)
    Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   6 citations  
  10. The situations-based approach to deep worldly indeterminacy.George Darby & Martin Pickup - 2022 - In Valia Allori (ed.), Quantum Mechanics and Fundamentality: Naturalizing Quantum Theory between Scientific Realism and Ontological Indeterminacy. Cham: Springer.
    This paper concerns metaphysical indeterminacy and, in particular, the issue of whether quantum mechanics gives motivation for thinking the world contains it. In a previous paper (Darby G, Pickup M. Synthese 198:1685–1710, 2021), we have offered one way to think about metaphysical indeterminacy which we take to avoid some issues arising from certain features of quantum mechanics (such as the Kochen-Specker theorem). This approach has recently been criticised by Corti (Synthese, forthcoming), and we take this opportunity to respond. Our paper (...)
    Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  11.  65
    The Foundation of Reality: Fundamentality, Space, and Time.David Glick, George Darby & Anna Marmodoro (eds.) - 2020 - Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    Are space and time fundamental features of our world or might they emerge from something else? The Foundation of Reality brings together metaphysicians and philosophers of physics working on space, time, and fundamentality to address this timely question.
    Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  12. There Is More to a Paradox Than Credence.George Darby & Jürgen Landes - 2014 - Thought: A Journal of Philosophy 3 (2):99-109.
    Besides the usual business of solving paradoxes, there has been recent philosophical work on their essential nature. Lycan characterises a paradox as “an inconsistent set of propositions, each of which is very plausible.” Building on this definition, Paseau offers a numerical measure of paradoxicality of a set of principles: a function of the degrees to which a subject believes the principles considered individually (all typically high) and of the degree to which the subject believes the principles considered together (typically low). (...)
    Direct download (6 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  13.  74
    Entanglement and the Metaphysician on the Clapham Omnibus.George Darby - 2015 - Topoi 34 (2):387-396.
    This paper explores some of the consequences of quantum entanglement for the mainstream metaphysician. The basic idea that entanglement has metaphysical consequences in the form of some kind of “holism” is familiar in the philosophy of physics literature, and finds its way into recent metaphysics, in discussions of failure of Humean supervenience, monism and emergence, for example. The principle aim here is to highlight some questions of detail that occur when attempting to make contact with those metaphysical debates as they (...)
    Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  14.  17
    Ibn Wahshiya in Mediaeval Spanish Literature.George Darby - 1941 - Isis 33:433-438.
    Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  15.  32
    What logic? Which reality?: Joseph E. Brenner: Logic in Reality, Springer, 2008, pp. xxii + 362, £117.00 HB.George Darby - 2010 - Metascience 19 (1):109-112.
    No categories
    Direct download (3 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  16. What’s Wrong with Microphysicalism?: Andreas Hüttemann. [REVIEW]George Darby - 2011 - Humana Mente 4 (19).
    No categories
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark