All possible perspectives: a defence of Eddington's selective subjectivism

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• Dean Rickles (University of Sydney)
• Wednesday 10 October 2012, 13:00-14:30
• Seminar Room 2, Department of History and Philosophy of Science.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Vashka dos Remedios.

Eddington’s astrophysical acumen is beyond doubt. However, for much of his later life he was developing a highly original and rather audacious philosophical picture of physical science according to which all fundamental laws, including the constants and parameters appearing therein, are epistemological in origin. This picture (blending observer selection bias and structuralism) was, with a few notable exceptions, roundly condemned by philosophers and physicists alike. In this talk I attempt a (partial) defence of Eddington’s philosophy of science, focusing on the centrality of observation and observables in his work and on the overlap between this and recent work on the interpretation of general relativity.

This talk is part of the CamPoS (Cambridge Philosophy of Science) seminar series.

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