Philosophy of Physics:
Varieties of Structuralism

HPS 3005, Winter 2018

Jan 9
No reading

Jan 16
Worrall, J. (1989). Structural realism: The best of both worlds? (Miller)
Laudan, L. (1981). A confutation of convergent realism. (Adrian)

Jan 23
Poincare, H. (2010) Science and Hypothesis. Ch. X. (Patrick)
Brading, K. and E. Crull (2013). Epistemic structural realism and Poincare's philosophy of science. (Zhixiang)

Jan 30
Russell, B. (1927). The Analysis of Matter. (Ch. XIV, XX, XXIV, XXV) (Soroush)
Demopolous, W. and M. Friedman (1989). The concept of structure in Russell's The Analysis of Matter. (Marissa)

Feb 6
Suppes, P. (1960). A comparison of the meaning and uses of models in mathematics and the empirical sciences. (Miller)
da Costa, N. C. A. and S. French (1990). The model-theoretic approach in the philosophy of science. (Adrian)

Feb 13
Ladyman, J. (1998). What is structural realism? (Charlotte)
McKenzie, K. (2017). Ontic structural realism. (Miller)

Feb 20
Reading Week - No Class

Feb 27
French, S. (2016) Eschewing Entities: Outlining a Biology Based Form of Structural Realism. (Zhixiang)
Ross, D. (2008) Ontic Structural Realism and Economics. (Soroush)

Mar 6
French and Rickles (2003) Understanding permutation symmetry. (Mark)
Saunders (2003) Physics and Leibniz' principles. (Patrick)

Mar 13
Cao, T. Y. (2003). Can we dissolve physical entities into mathematical structures? (Mark)
Chakravartty, A. (2003). The structuralist conception of objects. (Charlotte)

Mar 20
French, S. (2014). The elimination of objects. (Adrian)
French, S. (2014). Mathematics, `Physical Structure,' and the Nature of Causation. (Marissa)

Mar 27
Meeting with Noah in JHB 401. Details TBA.

Apr 3
Final discussion of course themes and student paper proposals.

Optional Additional Readings
Newman, M. H. A. (1928). Mr. Russell's causal theory of perception.
Lutz, S. (2017). Newman's objection is dead; long live Newman's objection!.
Suppe, F. (2000). Understanding scientific theories: An assessment of developments, 1969-1998.
Winther, R. G. (2015). The structure of scientific theories. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Halvorson, H. (2012). What scientific theories could not be.
Fraassen, B. C. V. (2014). One or two gentle remarks about Hans Halvorson's critique of the semantic view.
Halvorson, H. (2013). The semantic view, if plausible, is syntactic.
Lutz, S. (2012). On a straw man in the philosophy of science: A defense of the received view.
French, S. (2000). The reasonable effectiveness of mathematics: Partial structures and the application of group theory to physics.
Brading, K. and E. Landry (2005). A minimal construal of scientific structuralism.
Landry, E. (2007). Shared structure need not be shared set-structure.
Frigg, R. and I. Votsis (2011). Everything you always wanted to know about structural realism but were afraid to ask.
Cao, T. Y. (2003). Structural Realism and the Interpretation of Quantum Field Theory.
Psillos, S. (2006). The structure, the whole structure, and nothing but the structure?
van Fraassen, B. C. (2007). Scientific structuralism: Structuralism(s) about science: Some common problems.
Sterpetti, F. (2016) Scientific Realism, the Semantic View and Evolutionary Biology.
Bain, J. and Norton, J. (2001) What should philosophers of science learn from the history of the electron?
Roberts, B. (2016) Group Structural Realism.
French, S. (2014) Scenes from the Lost History of Structuralism.
Lewis, D. (1984) Putnam's Paradox.
Brading, K. and E. Landry (2006). Scientific structuralism: Presentation and representation.
van Fraassen, B. C. (2006). Representation: The problem for structuralism.