Substance and method : studies in philosophy of science / Chuang Liu.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Liu, Chuang, 1958- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Science--Philosophy.

Science.

Science--Methodology.

Physical Description:

xi, 533 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm

Place of Publication:

Singapore ; Hackensack, NJ : World Scientific, [2016]

Contents:

Fictional models in science

The hypothetical versus the fictional

What is wrong with the new fictionalism of scientific models?

Re-inflating the conception of scientific representation

Idealization, confirmation, and scientific realism

Laws and models in a theory of idealization

Approximation and its measures

Approximation, idealization, and the laws of nature

Coordination of space and unity of science

Gauge gravity and the unification of natural forces

Models and theories II: issues and applications

Models and theories I: the semantic view revisited

Explaining quantum spontaneous symmetry breaking

Review: symmetries in physics: philosophical reflections

Classical spontaneous symmetry breaking

Spontaneous symmetry breaking and chance in a classical world

Approximations, idealizations, and models in statistical mechanics

Infinite systems in SM explanations: thermodynamic limit, renormalization (semi-) groups, and irreversibility

Explaining the emergence of cooperative phenomena

A possible unified understanding of probabilistic objects

Particularism and holism revisited

Potential, propensity and categorical realism

The Aharonov-Bohm effect and the reality of wave packets

Realism and spacetime: of arguments against metaphysical realism and manifold realism

Gauge invariance, Cauchy problem, indeterminism, and symmetry breaking

Is there a relativistic thermodynamics? a case study of the meaning of special relativity.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9789814632188

981463218X

OCLC:

940520271