73 found
Order:
Disambiguations
Jeffrey A. Barrett [71]Jeffrey Alan Barrett [5]
  1.  59
    The Quantum Mechanics of Minds and Worlds.Jeffrey Alan Barrett - 1999 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press.
    Jeffrey Barrett presents the most comprehensive study yet of a problem that has puzzled physicists and philosophers since the 1930s.
    Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   132 citations  
  2. Self-Assembling Networks.Jeffrey A. Barrett, Brian Skyrms & Aydin Mohseni - 2019 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 70 (1):1-25.
    We consider how an epistemic network might self-assemble from the ritualization of the individual decisions of simple heterogeneous agents. In such evolved social networks, inquirers may be significantly more successful than they could be investigating nature on their own. The evolved network may also dramatically lower the epistemic risk faced by even the most talented inquirers. We consider networks that self-assemble in the context of both perfect and imperfect communication and compare the behaviour of inquirers in each. This provides a (...)
    Direct download (8 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   13 citations  
  3. Self-assembling Games.Jeffrey A. Barrett & Brian Skyrms - 2017 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 68 (2):329-353.
    We consider how cue-reading, sensory-manipulation, and signaling games may initially evolve from ritualized decisions and how more complex games may evolve from simpler games by polymerization, template transfer, and modular composition. Modular composition is a process that combines simpler games into more complex games. Template transfer, a process by which a game is appropriated to a context other than the one in which it initially evolved, is one mechanism for modular composition. And polymerization is a particularly salient example of modular (...)
    Direct download (5 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   20 citations  
  4. Propositional content in signals.Brian Skyrms & Jeffrey A. Barrett - 2019 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 74 (C):34-39.
    Propositional content arises from the practice of signaling with information transfer when a signaling process settles into some sort of a pattern, and eventually what we call meaning or propositional content crystallizes out. We give an evolutionary account of this process.
    Direct download (4 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   12 citations  
  5. Dynamic partitioning and the conventionality of kinds.Jeffrey A. Barrett - 2007 - Philosophy of Science 74 (4):527-546.
    Lewis sender‐receiver games illustrate how a meaningful term language might evolve from initially meaningless random signals (Lewis 1969; Skyrms 2006). Here we consider how a meaningful language with a primitive grammar might evolve in a somewhat more subtle sort of game. The evolution of such a language involves the co‐evolution of partitions of the physical world into what may seem, at least from the perspective of someone using the language, to correspond to canonical natural kinds. While the evolved language may (...)
    Direct download (8 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   49 citations  
  6.  47
    The Conceptual Foundations of Quantum Mechanics.Jeffrey Alan Barrett - 2019 - Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
    This book provides an introduction to the conceptual foundations of quantum mechanics, from classical mechanics and a discussion of the quantum phenomena that undermine our classical intuitions about how the physical world works, to the quantum measurement problem and alternatives to the standard von Neumann-Dirac formulation.
    No categories
    Direct download (3 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   6 citations  
  7.  76
    Self-Assembling Games.Jeffrey A. Barrett & Brian Skyrms - unknown
    We consider how cue-reading, sensory-manipulation, and signaling games may initially evolve from ritualized decisions and how more complex games may evolve from simpler games by polymerization, template transfer, and modular composition. Modular composition is a process that combines simpler games into more complex games. Template transfer, a process by which a game is appropriated to a context other than the one in which it initially evolved, is one mechanism for modular composition. And polymerization is a particularly salient example of modular (...)
    No categories
    Direct download (3 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   19 citations  
  8. The Evolution of Coding in Signaling Games.Jeffrey A. Barrett - 2009 - Theory and Decision 67 (2):223-237.
    Signaling games with reinforcement learning have been used to model the evolution of term languages (Lewis 1969, Convention. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; Skyrms 2006, “Signals” Presidential Address. Philosophy of Science Association for PSA). In this article, syntactic games, extensions of David Lewis’s original sender–receiver game, are used to illustrate how a language that exploits available syntactic structure might evolve to code for states of the world. The evolution of a language occurs in the context of available vocabulary and syntax—the (...)
    Direct download (4 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   31 citations  
  9. Everett’s pure wave mechanics and the notion of worlds.Jeffrey A. Barrett - 2011 - European Journal for Philosophy of Science 1 (2):277-302.
    Everett (1957a, b, 1973) relative-state formulation of quantum mechanics has often been taken to involve a metaphysical commitment to the existence of many splitting worlds each containing physical copies of observers and the objects they observe. While there was earlier talk of splitting worlds in connection with Everett, this is largely due to DeWitt’s (Phys Today 23:30–35, 1970) popular presentation of the theory. While the thought of splitting worlds or parallel universes has captured the popular imagination, Everett himself favored the (...)
    Direct download (6 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   25 citations  
  10. Numerical simulations of the Lewis signaling game: Learning strategies, pooling equilibria, and the evolution of grammar.Jeffrey A. Barrett - unknown
    David Lewis (1969) introduced sender-receiver games as a way of investigating how meaningful language might evolve from initially random signals. In this report I investigate the conditions under which Lewis signaling games evolve to perfect signaling systems under various learning dynamics. While the 2-state/2- term Lewis signaling game with basic urn learning always approaches a signaling system, I will show that with more than two states suboptimal pooling equilibria can evolve. Inhomogeneous state distributions increase the likelihood of pooling equilibria, but (...)
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   30 citations  
  11.  24
    How signaling conventions are established.Calvin T. Cochran & Jeffrey A. Barrett - 2021 - Synthese 199 (1-2):4367-4391.
    We consider how human subjects establish signaling conventions in the context of Lewis-Skyrms signaling games. These experiments involve games where there are precisely the right number of signal types to represent the states of nature, games where there are more signal types than states, and games where there are fewer signal types than states. The aim is to determine the conditions under which subjects are able to establish signaling conventions in such games and to identify a learning dynamics that approximates (...)
    No categories
    Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   5 citations  
  12.  51
    Self-Assembling Games and the Evolution of Salience.Jeffrey A. Barrett - 2023 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 74 (1):75-89.
    This article considers how a generalized signalling game may self-assemble as the saliences of the agents evolve by reinforcement on those sources of information that in fact lead to successful action. On the present account, generalized signalling games self-assemble even as the agents co-evolve meaningful representations and successful dispositions for using those representations. We will see how reinforcement on successful information sources also provides a mechanism whereby simpler games might compose to form more complex games. Along the way, I consider (...)
    Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   4 citations  
  13.  46
    Typical worlds.Jeffrey A. Barrett - 2017 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 58:31-40.
  14.  74
    Approximate Truth and Descriptive Nesting.Jeffrey Alan Barrett - 2008 - Erkenntnis 68 (2):213-224.
    There is good reason to suppose that our best physical theories, quantum mechanics and special relativity, are false if taken together and literally. If they are in fact false, then how should they count as providing knowledge of the physical world? One might imagine that, while strictly false, our best physical theories are nevertheless in some sense probably approximately true. This paper presents a notion of local probable approximate truth in terms of descriptive nesting relations between current and subsequent theories. (...)
    Direct download (7 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   24 citations  
  15.  37
    Entanglement and disentanglement in relativistic quantum mechanics.Jeffrey A. Barrett - 2014 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 48 (2):168-174.
  16. Empirical adequacy and the availability of reliable records in quantum mechanics.Jeffrey A. Barrett - 1996 - Philosophy of Science 63 (1):49-64.
    In order to judge whether a theory is empirically adequate one must have epistemic access to reliable records of past measurement results that can be compared against the predictions of the theory. Some formulations of quantum mechanics fail to satisfy this condition. The standard theory without the collapse postulate is an example. Bell's reading of Everett's relative-state formulation is another. Furthermore, there are formulations of quantum mechanics that only satisfy this condition for a special class of observers, formulations whose empirical (...)
    Direct download (8 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   29 citations  
  17. On the Faithful Interpretation of Pure Wave Mechanics.Jeffrey A. Barrett - 2011 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 62 (4):693-709.
    Given Hugh Everett III's understanding of the proper cognitive status of physical theories, his relative-state formulation of pure wave mechanics arguably qualifies as an empirically acceptable physical theory. The argument turns on the precise nature of the relationship that Everett requires between the empirical substructure of an empirically faithful physical theory and experience. On this view, Everett provides a weak resolution to both the determinate record and the probability problems encountered by pure wave mechanics, and does so in a way (...)
    Direct download (9 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   16 citations  
  18.  38
    On the Evolution of Compositional Language.Jeffrey A. Barrett, Calvin Cochran & Brian Skyrms - 2020 - Philosophy of Science 87 (5):910-920.
    We present here a hierarchical model for the evolution of compositional language. The model has the structure of a two-sender/one-receiver Lewis signaling game augmented with executive agents who m...
    Direct download (3 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   5 citations  
  19.  71
    On the Coevolution of Theory and Language and the Nature of Successful Inquiry.Jeffrey A. Barrett - 2014 - Erkenntnis 79 (S4):1-14.
    Insofar as empirical inquiry involves the coevolution of descriptive language and theoretical commitments, a satisfactory model of empirical knowledge should describe the coordinated evolution of both language and theory. But since we do not know what conceptual resources we might need to express our future theories or to provide our best future faithful descriptions of the world, we do not now know even what the space of future descriptive options might be. One strategy for addressing this shifting-resource problem is to (...)
    No categories
    Direct download (6 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   10 citations  
  20. Are our best physical theories (probably and/or approximately) true?Jeffrey A. Barrett - 2003 - Philosophy of Science 70 (5):1206-1218.
    There is good reason to suppose that our best physical theories are false: In addition to its own internal problems, the standard formulation of quantum mechanics is logically incompatible with special relativity. I will also argue that we have no concrete idea what it means to claim that these theories are approximately true.
    Direct download (11 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   17 citations  
  21. The persistence of memory: Surreal trajectories in Bohm's theory.Jeffrey A. Barrett - 2000 - Philosophy of Science 67 (4):680-703.
    In this paper I describe the history of the surreal trajectories problem and argue that in fact it is not a problem for Bohm's theory. More specifically, I argue that one can take the particle trajectories predicted by Bohm's theory to be the actual trajectories that particles follow and that there is no reason to suppose that good particle detectors are somehow fooled in the context of the surreal trajectories experiments. Rather than showing that Bohm's theory predicts the wrong particle (...)
    Direct download (12 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   18 citations  
  22.  82
    Quantum Randomness and Underdetermination.Jeffrey A. Barrett & Simon M. Huttegger - 2020 - Philosophy of Science 87 (3):391-408.
    We consider the nature of quantum randomness and how one might have empirical evidence for it. We will see why, depending on one’s computational resources, it may be impossible to determine whether...
    Direct download (3 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   3 citations  
  23.  81
    Faithful description and the incommensurability of evolved languages.Jeffrey A. Barrett - 2010 - Philosophical Studies 147 (1):123 - 137.
    Skyrms-Lewis signaling games illustrate how meaningful language may evolve from initially meaningless random signals (Lewis, Convention 1969; Skyrms 2008). Here we will consider how incommensurable languages might evolve in the context of signaling games. We will also consider the types of incommensurability exhibited between evolved languages in such games. We will find that sequentially evolved languages may be strongly incommensurable while still allowing for increasingly faithful descriptions of the world.
    Direct download (5 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   12 citations  
  24. Algorithmic Randomness and Probabilistic Laws.Jeffrey A. Barrett & Eddy Keming Chen - manuscript
    We consider two ways one might use algorithmic randomness to characterize a probabilistic law. The first is a generative chance* law. Such laws involve a nonstandard notion of chance. The second is a probabilistic* constraining law. Such laws impose relative frequency and randomness constraints that every physically possible world must satisfy. While each notion has virtues, we argue that the latter has advantages over the former. It supports a unified governing account of non-Humean laws and provides independently motivated solutions to (...)
    Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  25.  76
    The evolution, appropriation, and composition of rules.Jeffrey A. Barrett - 2018 - Synthese 195 (2):623-636.
    This paper concerns how rule-following behavior might evolve in the context of a variety of Skyrms–Lewis signaling game, how such rules might subsequently evolve to be used in new contexts, and how such appropriation allows for the composition of evolved rules. We will also consider how the composition of simpler rules to form more complex rules may be significantly more efficient than evolving the complex rules directly. And we will review an example of rule following by pinyon and scrub jays (...)
    No categories
    Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   5 citations  
  26.  62
    Rule-Following and the Evolution of Basic Concepts.Jeffrey A. Barrett - 2014 - Philosophy of Science 81 (5):829-839.
    This article concerns how rule-following behavior might evolve, how an old evolved rule might come to be appropriated to a new context, and how simple concepts might coevolve with rule-following behavior. In particular, we consider how the transitive inferential rule-following behavior exhibited by pinyon and scrub jays might evolve in the context of a variety of the Skyrms-Lewis signaling game, then how such a rule might come to be appropriated to carry out inferences regarding stimuli different from those involved in (...)
    Direct download (6 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   8 citations  
  27.  98
    Pure wave mechanics and the very idea of empirical adequacy.Jeffrey A. Barrett - 2015 - Synthese 192 (10):3071-3104.
    Hugh Everett III proposed his relative-state formulation of pure wave mechanics as a solution to the quantum measurement problem. He sought to address the theory’s determinate record and probability problems by showing that, while counterintuitive, pure wave mechanics was nevertheless empirically faithful and hence empirical acceptable. We will consider what Everett meant by empirical faithfulness. The suggestion will be that empirical faithfulness is well understood as a weak variety of empirical adequacy. The thought is that the very idea of empirical (...)
    Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   7 citations  
  28.  10
    Situated observation in Bohmian mechanics.Jeffrey A. Barrett - 2021 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 88 (C):345-357.
  29.  77
    Epistemology and the Structure of Language.Jeffrey A. Barrett & Travis LaCroix - 2020 - Erkenntnis 87 (2):953-967.
    We are concerned here with how structural properties of language may come to reflect features of the world in which it evolves. As a concrete example, we will consider how a simple term language might evolve to support the principle of indifference over state descriptions in that language. The point is not that one is justified in applying the principle of indifference to state descriptions in natural language. Instead, it is that one should expect a language that has evolved in (...)
    Direct download (3 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   2 citations  
  30.  76
    Quantum Worlds.Jeffrey A. Barrett - 2016 - Principia: An International Journal of Epistemology 20 (1):45-60.
    Because of the conceptual difficulties it faces, quantum mechanics provides a salient example of how alternative metaphysical commitments may clarify our understanding of a physical theory and the explanations it provides. Here we will consider how postulating alternative quantum worlds in the context of Hugh Everett III’s pure wave mechanics may serve to explain determinate measurement records and the standard quantum statistics. We will focus on the properties of such worlds, then briefly consider other metaphysical options available for interpreting pure (...)
    Direct download (5 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   5 citations  
  31.  18
    A Structural Interpretation Of Pure Wave Mechanics.Jeffrey A. Barrett - 2010 - Humana Mente 4 (13).
  32.  38
    Language games and the emergence of discourse.Jeffrey A. Barrett & Jacob VanDrunen - 2022 - Synthese 200 (2):1-15.
    Wittgenstein used the notion of a language game to illustrate how language is interwoven with action. Here we consider how successful linguistic discourse of the sort he described might emerge in the context of a self-assembling evolutionary game. More specifically, we consider how discourse and coordinated action might self-assemble in the context of two generalized signaling games. The first game shows how prospective language users might learn to initiate meaningful discourse. The second shows how more subtle varieties of discourse might (...)
    No categories
    Direct download (3 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  33. The preferred-basis problem and the quantum mechanics of everything.Jeffrey A. Barrett - 2005 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 56 (2):199-220.
    argued that there are two options for what he called a realistic solution to the quantum measurement problem: (1) select a preferred set of observables for which definite values are assumed to exist, or (2) attempt to assign definite values to all observables simultaneously (1810–1). While conventional wisdom has it that the second option is ruled out by the Kochen-Specker theorem, Vink nevertheless advocated it. Making every physical quantity determinate in quantum mechanics carries with it significant conceptual costs, but it (...)
    Direct download (10 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   10 citations  
  34. The single-mind and many-minds versions of quantum mechanics.Jeffrey A. Barrett - 1995 - Erkenntnis 42 (1):89-105.
    There is a long tradition of trying to find a satisfactory interpretation of Everett's relative-state formulation of quantum mechanics. Albert and Loewer recently described two new ways of reading Everett: one we will call the single-mind theory and the other the many-minds theory. I will briefly describe these theories and present some of their merits and problems. Since both are no-collapse theories, a significant merit is that they can take advantage of certain properties of the linear dynamics, which Everett apparently (...)
    Direct download (4 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   8 citations  
  35.  53
    The Evolution of Simple Rule-Following.Jeffrey A. Barrett - 2013 - Biological Theory 8 (2):142-150.
    We are concerned here with explaining how successful rule-following behavior might evolve and how an old evolved rule might come to be successfully used in a new context. Such rule-following behavior is illustrated in the transitive judgments of pinyon and scrub-jays (Bond et al., Anim Behav 65:479–487, 2003). We begin by considering how successful transitive rule-following behavior might evolve in the context of Skyrms–Lewis sender–receiver games (Lewis, Convention. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1969; Skyrms, Philos Sci 75:489–500, 2006). We then consider (...)
    Direct download (3 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   6 citations  
  36. On the Evolution of Truth.Jeffrey A. Barrett - 2016 - Erkenntnis 81 (6):1323-1332.
    This paper is concerned with how a simple metalanguage might coevolve with a simple descriptive base language in the context of interacting Skyrms–Lewis signaling games Lewis. We will first consider a metagame that evolves to track the successful and unsuccessful use of a coevolving base language, then we will consider a metagame that evolves a truth predicate for expressions in a coevolving base language. We will see how a metagame that tracks truth provides an endogenous way to break the symmetry (...)
    Direct download (4 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   4 citations  
  37. On what it takes to be a world.David Z. Albert & Jeffrey A. Barrett - 1995 - Topoi 14 (1):35-37.
    A many-worlds interpretation is of quantum mechanics tells us that the linear equations of motion are the true and complete laws for the time-evolution of every physical system and that the usual quantum-mechanical states provide complete descriptions of all possible physical situations. Such an interpretation, however, denies the standard way of understanding quantum-mechanical states. When the pointer on a measuring device is in a superposition of pointing many different directions, for example, we are to understand this as many pointers, each (...)
    Direct download (4 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   9 citations  
  38. Relativistic Quantum Mechanics through Frame‐Dependent Constructions.Jeffrey A. Barrett - 2005 - Philosophy of Science 72 (5):802-813.
    This paper is concerned with the possibility and nature of relativistic hidden-variable formulations of quantum mechanics. Both ad hoc teleological constructions of spacetime maps and frame-dependent constructions of spacetime maps are considered. While frame-dependent constructions are clearly preferable, they provide neither mechanical nor causal explanations for local quantum events. Rather, the hiddenvariable dynamics used in such constructions is just a rule that helps to characterize the set of all possible spacetime maps. But while having neither mechanical nor causal explanations of (...)
    Direct download (11 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   9 citations  
  39.  70
    On the nature of measurement records in relativistic quantum field theory.Jeffrey A. Barrett - unknown
    A resolution of the quantum measurement problem would require one to explain how it is that we end up with determinate records at the end of our measurements. Metaphysical commitments typically do real work in such an explanation. Indeed, one should not be satisfied with one's metaphysical commitments unless one can provide some account of determinate measurement records. I will explain some of the problems in getting determinate records in relativistic quantum field theory and pay particular attention to the relationship (...)
    Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   10 citations  
  40. A Quantum-Mechanical Argument for Mind–Body Dualism.Jeffrey A. Barrett - 2006 - Erkenntnis 65 (1):97-115.
    I argue that a strong mind–body dualism is required of any formulation of quantum mechanics that satisfies a relatively weak set of explanatory constraints. Dropping one or more of these constraints may allow one to avoid the commitment to a mind–body dualism but may also require a commitment to a physical–physical dualism that is at least as objectionable. Ultimately, it is the preferred basis problem that pushes both collapse and no-collapse theories in the direction of a strong dualism in resolving (...)
    Direct download (6 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   8 citations  
  41.  60
    On the Coevolution of Basic Arithmetic Language and Knowledge.Jeffrey A. Barrett - 2013 - Erkenntnis 78 (5):1025-1036.
    Skyrms-Lewis sender-receiver games with invention allow one to model how a simple mathematical language might be invented and become meaningful as its use coevolves with the basic arithmetic competence of primitive mathematical inquirers. Such models provide sufficient conditions for the invention and evolution of a very basic sort of arithmetic language and practice, and, in doing so, provide insight into the nature of a correspondingly basic sort of mathematical knowledge in an evolutionary context. Given traditional philosophical reflections concerning the nature (...)
    Direct download (4 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   5 citations  
  42.  82
    Truth and Probability in Evolutionary Games.Jeffrey A. Barrett - unknown
    This paper concerns two composite Lewis-Skyrms signaling games. Each consists in a base game that evolves a language descriptive of nature and a metagame that coevolves a language descriptive of the base game and its evolving language. The first composite game shows how a pragmatic notion of truth might coevolve with a simple descriptive language. The second shows how a pragmatic notion of probability might similarly coevolve. Each of these pragmatic notions is characterized by the particular game and role that (...)
    No categories
    Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   3 citations  
  43. The distribution postulate in Bohm's theory.Jeffrey A. Barrett - 1995 - Topoi 14 (1):45-54.
    On Bohm''s formulation of quantum mechanics particles always have determinate positions and follow continuous trajectories. Bohm''s theory, however, requires a postulate that says that particles are initially distributed in a special way: particles are randomly distributed so that the probability of their positions being represented by a point in any regionR in configuration space is equal to the square of the wave-function integrated overR. If the distribution postulate were false, then the theory would generally fail to make the right statistical (...)
    Direct download (4 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   7 citations  
  44.  67
    Computer implication and the Curry paradox.Wayne Aitken & Jeffrey A. Barrett - 2004 - Journal of Philosophical Logic 33 (6):631-637.
    There are theoretical limitations to what can be implemented by a computer program. In this paper we are concerned with a limitation on the strength of computer implemented deduction. We use a version of the Curry paradox to arrive at this limitation.
    Direct download (7 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   7 citations  
  45. The suggestive properties of quantum mechanics without the collapse postulate.Jeffrey A. Barrett - 1994 - Erkenntnis 41 (2):233 - 252.
    Everett proposed resolving the quantum measurement problem by dropping the nonlinear collapse dynamics from quantum mechanics and taking what is left as a complete physical theory. If one takes such a proposal seriously, then the question becomes how much of the predictive and explanatory power of the standard theory can one recover without the collapse postulate and without adding anything else. Quantum mechanics without the collapse postulate has several suggestive properties, which we will consider in some detail. While these properties (...)
    Direct download (5 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   7 citations  
  46. Description and the Problem of Priors.Jeffrey A. Barrett - 2014 - Erkenntnis 79 (6):1343-1353.
    Belief-revision models of knowledge describe how to update one’s degrees of belief associated with hypotheses as one considers new evidence, but they typically do not say how probabilities become associated with meaningful hypotheses in the first place. Here we consider a variety of Skyrms–Lewis signaling game (Lewis in Convention. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1969; Skyrms in Signals evolution, learning, & information. Oxford University Press, New York, 2010) where simple descriptive language and predictive practice and associated basic expectations coevolve. Rather than (...)
    Direct download (6 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   3 citations  
  47.  60
    Humean learning (how to learn).Jeffrey A. Barrett - forthcoming - Philosophical Studies:1-17.
    David Hume’s skeptical solution to the problem of induction was grounded in his belief that we learn by means of custom. We consider here how a form of reinforcement learning like custom may allow an agent to learn how to learn in other ways as well. Specifically, an agent may learn by simple reinforcement to adopt new forms of learning that work better than simple reinforcement in the context of specific tasks. We will consider how such a bootstrapping process may (...)
    No categories
    Direct download (3 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  48.  32
    The Mind Matters: Consciousness and Choice in a Quantum World.Jeffrey A. Barrett & David Hodgson - 1994 - Philosophical Review 103 (2):350.
  49.  51
    Stability and Paradox in Algorithmic Logic.Wayne Aitken & Jeffrey A. Barrett - 2007 - Journal of Philosophical Logic 36 (1):61-95.
    There is significant interest in type-free systems that allow flexible self-application. Such systems are of interest in property theory, natural language semantics, the theory of truth, theoretical computer science, the theory of classes, and category theory. While there are a variety of proposed type-free systems, there is a particularly natural type-free system that we believe is prototypical: the logic of recursive algorithms. Algorithmic logic is the study of basic statements concerning algorithms and the algorithmic rules of inference between such statements. (...)
    Direct download (8 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   4 citations  
  50.  63
    Introduction.Jeffrey A. Barrett - 1995 - Topoi 14 (1):1-6.
    On Bohm's formulation of quantum mechanics particles always have determinate positions and follow continuous trajectories. Bohm's theory, however, requires a postulate that says that particles are initially distributed in a special way: particles are randomly distributed so that the probability of their positions being represented by a point in any regionR in configuration space is equal to the square of the wave-function integrated overR. If the distribution postulate were false, then the theory would generally fail to make the right statistical (...)
    Direct download (5 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   4 citations  
1 — 50 / 73