Episode Synopsis "35: "There is no measurement problem for Humeans", Chris Dorst"
The measurement problem highlights a deeply puzzling feature of quantum mechanics: nature seems to obey one law when not measured and a completely different law when measured. But how does nature "recognise" measurement contexts?! What explains these shifts in how nature operates? For the Humean about laws, i.e., one who maintains that nature unthinkingly acts and the laws describe, these issues lose their bite. So perhaps there just is no measurement problem for Humeans! But if true, does this count for or against Humeanism? Listen and decide!Here's a link to the paperSee also this paper by Hicks and Schaffer for detail on derivative properties featuring in fundamental laws, an idea that features centrally in Dorst's discussion. Support the Show.
Listen "35: "There is no measurement problem for Humeans", Chris Dorst"
More episodes of the podcast Condensed Matter
- 36: "The Singularity: A Philosophical Analysis", David Chalmers
- 35: "There is no measurement problem for Humeans", Chris Dorst
- 34: "The Limits of Modality", Sam Cowling
- 33: "Biochemical Functions", Francesca Bellazzi (deep dive featuring the author!)
- 32: "Substance", Donnchadh O'Conaill (deep dive featuring the author!)
- 31: "Biological Individuality and the Foetus Problem", Will Morgan (deep dive featuring the author!)
- 30: “How Skeptical is Quine’s “Modal Skepticism”?”, John Divers
- Ep. 29: "Modal Conventionalism", Ross Cameron
- Ep. 28: "Panpsychism", Thomas Nagel (CM classic!)
- Ep. 27: “Modal dispositionalism and necessary perfect masks”, Barbara Vetter and Ralf Busse
- Ep. 26: "An Apology for Naturalized Metaphysics", James Ladyman (deep dive featuring the author!)
- Ep. 25 "The Governing Conception of Laws", Nina Emery (deep dive featuring the author!)
- Ep. 24: “Going Beyond the Fundamental: Feminism in Contemporary Metaphysics”, Elizabeth Barnes
- Ep. 23: "Governing Without a Fundamental Direction of Time", Chen and Goldstein
- Ep. 22: "Aristotelian Supervenience", John Heil
- Episode 21: "Causal Content and Global Laws: Grounding Modality in Experimental Practice", Jenann Ismael
- Episode 20: "Disagreement in Metaphysics", Timothy WIlliamson
- Episode 19: "Realism Without Parochialism", Phillip Bricker
- Episode 18: "Metaphysics After Carnap: the Ghost Who Walks?", Huw Price
- Episode 17: "Social kinds are essentially mind-dependent", Rebecca Mason
- Episode 16: "Calculus and counterpossibles in science", Brian McLoone
- Episode 15: "The rationality of metaphysics", E.J. Lowe
- Episode 14: "Where Do You Get Your Protein? Or: Biochemical Realization", Tuomas Tahko (deep dive featuring the author!)
- Episode 13: "Norms and Modality", Amie Thomasson
- Episode 12: "What Everyone Should Say about Symmetries (and How Humeans Get to Say It)", Michael Townsen Hicks (deep dive featuring the author!)
- Episode 11: “Nomothetic Explanation and Humeanism about Laws of Nature”, Harjit Bhogal
- Episode 10: "Realism and the Absence of Value", Shamik Dasgupta
- Episode 9: "Megarian Variable Actualism", Toby Friend (deep dive featuring the author!)
- Episode 8: "Sideways music", Ned Markosian
- Episode 7: "The Ground Between the Gaps", Jonathan Schaffer
- Episode 6: "Conceptualizing causal powers: activity, capacity, essence, necessitation", Ruth Groff
- Episode 5: "There Are No Ahistorical Theories of Function", Justin Garson
- Episode 4: "Troubles with Theoretical Virtues: Resisting Theoretical Utility Arguments in Metaphysics", Otávio Bueno and Scott Shalkowski
- Episode 3: "Ramseyan Humility", David Lewis
- Episode 2: "Fundamental Powers, Evolved Powers, and Mental Powers", Alexander Bird; "Evolved Powers, Artefact Powers, and Dispositional Explanations", Barbara Vetter
- Episode 1: "How scientific models can explain", Alisa Bokulich
- Episode 0: Introducing Condensed Matter