Foundations of Structuralism Project

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Information about:

• Questions for the project
• The Group
• Selected research

Structuralism seminar

• Reading Lists
  • Abstraction principles
  • Identity criteria and philosophical logic
  • Applications to physics
  • Structuralism and metaphysical incompleteness
  • Ontological dependence
  • Permutations and transworld identity
  • Structuralism and the philosophy of maths
• Structuralism Blog

Events

• Upcoming events
• Ontological Dependence Workshop

International Conference

• International Closing Conference

External links

• The University
• The city of Bristol
• Arts & Humanities Research Council

Related Research

• Power Structuralism, a current Oxford University research project

Autumn term 2011

­Permutations and transworld identity

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12 October

• Peter Ainsworth Ontic Structural Realism and the Principle of the Identity of Indiscernibles. Erkenntnis 75 (1):67-84 (2011)

19 October

• Review of the different tenets of structuralism

Read: Ladyman, “Structural Realism”, SEP, Section 4 until the beginning of Section 4.1

• PII: no requirement of intrinsic discernibility [spring 2010]
• PII: no requirement of absolute discernibilty [spring 2010]
• No objects, only structure and/or relations [autumn 2010]
• Objects exist but depend on structure and/or relations [autumn 2010]
• Objects stand in structural relations but have no intrinsic/non-structural properties [spring 2011]
• No haecceities and hence no transworld identity [autumn 2011]

• Different statistics in physics

Read: “Identity and individuality in quantum theory”, SEP

• Boltzmann
• Bose-Einstein
• Fermi-Dirac

• The semantics of quantified modal logic

Read: Lewis, “Counterpart Theory and Quantified Modal Logic,” Journal of Philosophy 65 (1968), 113–126

• Transworld Identity (Kripke)
• Counterpart Theory (Lewis)

26 October, 2nd November: Permutations in statistical mechanics

• Nick Huggett, “Atomic metaphysics”, Journal of Philosophy 1999, pp. 5-24
  Saunders, “On the explanation for quantum statistics”

Session 5 (9th November): Permutations in QM

• French, "Identity and individuality in quantum field theory", SEP
• French, S., & Redhead, M. L. G. (1988), "Quantum Physics and the identity of indiscernibles", British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 39. 233-246
• Michael Redhead & Paul Teller (1992), Particle Labels and the Theory of Indistinguishable Particles in Quantum Mechanics. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 43 (2):201-218.
• Optional further reading:
  Paul Teller, “The ins and outs of counterfactual switching”,

16th November: Visiting speaker Alyssa Ney

• Alyssa Ney, Neo-Positivist Metaphysics (m.s.)

Sessions 7 (23rd November)

• Butterfield and Caulton

Session 8 (30 November, 4pm): The hole argument in GR

• John Norton, “The hole argument”, SEP
• Tim Maudlin (1990). Substances and Space-Time: What Aristotle Would Have Said to Einstein. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 21 (4):531--61.

Session 9 (7 December)

• Jeremy Butterfield (1988). Albert Einstein Meets David Lewis. PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1988:65 - 81
• Oliver Pooley (2006). Points, Particles and Structural Realism. In Dean Rickles, Steven French & Juha Saatsi (eds.), The Structural Foundations of Quantum Gravity. Oxford University Press.

Session 10 (14 December)

• Kate Hodesdon, work in progress: On the set-theoretic hole argument and Putnam's permutation argument

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Next term

• Bigaj, Ladyman, and Linnebo?
• Joanna Wolf, BJPS
• Structuralist approaches to dispositions and properties: ancient and contemporary
  Individuals, objects, and entities