Questions tagged [philosophy-of-physics]
If your question is more physics and less philosophy, consider asking it on Physics.SE (possibly with the soft-question tag).
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A couple of questions on Wheeler's "it from bit" and "pregeometry" ideas
Physicist John A Wheeler proposed an interesting idea which he summarized in a phrase "it from bit" which basically proposes that the universe and its laws of physics (including the most ...
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Quantum indistinguishability and Descartes's idea of the essence
Maybe I misunderstand something, but is the quantum indistinguishability of identical particles related to Descartes and Spinoza's idea that if two things share the same essence or attributes, then ...
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Do all non-physicalist theories of consciousness face the interaction problem?
Do all non-physicalist theories of consciousness face the interaction problem?
I'm not just talking about dualism here, but the main critique of dualism is that it's incompatible with the known laws ...
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In what way does philosophy of measurement impact measurement in practice in physics and metrology?
This question is very similar to a question I asked here on physics stack exchange, but I hope to be a bit more specific and concise.
I recently came across the book "Foundations of Measurement&...
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Is "water seeks its own level" an argument from Aristotelian physics? [closed]
The aphorism “water seeks its own level”, first articulated by Samuel Rowbotham in 1849, has been repurposed in contemporary flat-earth discourse. In particular Eric Dubay, whose 2004 digital ...
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Could Nature ever allow the conditions for its own annihilation to exist?
I apologize if this question sounds overly abstract — I am asking it in good faith, from a philosophical and physical standpoint.
Could Nature ever allow the conditions for its own annihilation to ...
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Why are some forms of order more likely than others in the universe?
In the universe, we observe that matter, energy, and other quantities are rarely distributed in perfectly uniform or random looking ways. Instead, nature seems to favor certain patterns and ...
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Does time flow? [closed]
Numerous questions have been asked here about the nature of time, its existence and its origins, etc. Over on Physics Stack Exchange I have previously asked about the relativity of time, and obviously ...
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Are physical coin toss sequences really equally unlikely?
Suppose you have a coin that you just finished tossing 1,000 times and about 50% of the time it landed on heads, and 50% of the time it landed on tails, so you deem it to be fair.
Now, you are asked ...
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Does modern physics hold "force" to be a analytic construct, not a "thing"? [closed]
I have been trying to develop a naive ontology of the physical world from first principles, and I am currently exploring the idea that "force" is not a thing-in-reality.
I can begin by ...
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Is physics just mathematized natural philosophy?
Originally, physics and (more generally) [natural] science as a whole, was a part of philosophy, natural philosophy to be more exact. But with the onset of the scientific revolution, natural ...
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Can empiricism itself be insufficient in answering the problem of fundamental physical constants
( i posted this question on physics SE first, got advised to post it here, that post got closed, so I deleted it )
I believe I have figured out a provable shortcoming, rather limit, of the whole ...
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Limits to Thomas Kuhn's theory of science
I'm wondering about the following two related questions. I would like references for further reading, counterpoints to my thoughts, and as much examples as possible. Many thanks in advance!
I'm a ...
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Is theoretical physicist Nima Arkani-Hamed a platonist?
In this interview video of physicist Nima Arkani-Hamed (https://ep-news.web.cern.ch/content/interview-nima-arkani-hamed) he says that he has always been a firm believer in a platonic reality where ...
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Is Max Tegmark's Mathematical Universe Hypothesis equivalent with considering all possible Lagrangians as real?
Max Tegmark proposed that all mathematically possible universes exist (https://arxiv.org/abs/0704.0646), however he gave no concrete realization of his proposal, leaving it just as a philosophical ...
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