Get Started Reading Recent Classics on the Philosophy of Physics

…than $200. Nevertheless, let it be known that an electronic copy of this book does is circulating on the inter-tubes. If you look around a bit, you’ll likely be able to find and download a copy for free. Just throwing that out there. See also my advice about reading on the cheap, and about learning GR online. This list was inspired by a recent post over at It’s Only a Theory — further suggestions are more than welcome. Happy reading! (*) Added Fe…

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Happy 2009! Five Tutorials for Philosophers of Physics

…icks to ease the experience. Get Started Reading Books and Articles on the Cheap. Trying to save money this year? Stop paying so much to read! Get Started Learning General Relativity Online. Free general relativity — what more could you ask for in 2009? Get Started Improving Your Philosophical Apparel. Get a new look for the new year. Here are a few unique options for philosophers. Happy new year; we’ll see you in 2009! Soul Physics is authored by…

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Improving the Peer Review Process

…review over at Backreaction. My favorite two of her many suggestions are: Online interface for anonymous author-reviewer communication. Why keep the slow (and frankly archaic) editor-mediated communication between author and reviewer, when everyone has access to the interwebs? An anonymized online interface would be quicker, easier, and more useful. In particular, it would allow for quick clarificatory questions, and even back-and-forth discussio…

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Beyond the CPT theorem

…heorem or something like it? It is widely believe that the CPT may fail in generic extensions of quantum theory. In particular, the requirement of a unitary representation of the Poincaré group is pretty strong, and may not hold in the kind of general context of interest in quantum gravity. Just search for CPT-violation on the arxiv to see what I mean. But there is a sense in which something “like” a CPT theorem probably will hold in physics beyon…

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Accuracy, Applicability, and Tarskian Semantics

…a of truth itself. Truth is just the notion that specific instances of the generic form of semantics I oppose most commonly employ in their respective foundations—that genus of semantics that attributes semantic content to a theoretical representation based on the accuracy of the fit of its predictions to the results of the empirical, quantitative measurements made on the system it purports to model. In other words, my argument is with accounts of…

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