Laws of Nature as Constraints

Adlam, Emily

doi:10.48550/arxiv.2109.13836

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

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“…In order to formalise this modal structure, we will employ the framework developed in [6,8], which characterises laws of nature in modal terms as constraints. This approach is inspired by the increasing prominence of constraint-based laws in physics, as surveyed in [6,8]; a very similar account of lawhood in terms of constraints was also recently given by [19]. To characterise constraints we again make use of the notion of a Humean mosaic.…”

Section: Constraintsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Henceforth we will define the 'objective modal structure' of reality in terms of laws of nature, in accordance with the view that laws of nature can be regarded as a form of objective modal structure, which is advocated in refs [13,29,48] amongst others. In order to formalise this modal structure, we will employ the framework developed in [6,8], which characterises laws of nature in modal terms as constraints. This approach is inspired by the increasing prominence of constraint-based laws in physics, as surveyed in [6,8]; a very similar account of lawhood in terms of constraints was also recently given by [19].…”

Section: Constraintsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Operational Theories as Structural Realism

Adlam¹

2022

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We undertake a reconstruction of the epistemic significance of research on operational theories in quantum foundations. We suggest that the space of operational theories is analogous to the space of possible worlds employed in the possible world semantics for modal logic, so research of this sort can be understood as probing modal structure. Thus we argue that operational axiomatisations of quantum mechanics may be interpreted as a novel form of structural realism; we discuss the consequences of this interpretation for the philosophy of structural realism and the future of operational theories.

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