An Introduction to the Philosophy of Physics : Locality, Fields, Energy, and Mass (Hardcover)

Preface.

1. What Is Spatiotemporal Locality?.

The Big Picture.

Causal Relations between Events.

Action by Contact.

Spatial, Temporal, and Spatiotemporal Locality Defined.

Intrinsic Properties and Noncausal Connections.

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2. Fields to the Rescue?.

The Electric Force.

The Electric Field and its Possible Interpretations.

Potentials.

Lines of Force.

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3. Dispositions and Causes:.

Introduction.

Dispositions, Categorical Bases, and Subjunctive Conditionals.

Are the Categorical Bases in Themselves Unknowable?.

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4. Locality and Scientific Explanation:.

Is Action at a Distance Impossible?.

Brute Facts and Ultimate Explanations.

Which Facts are Brute?.

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5. Fields, Energy, and Momentum:.

Introduction.

The Argument from Conserved Quantities.

Why Energy's Ontological Status Matters.

Energy in Classical Physics.

Energy in the Fields.

Energy Flow and the Poynting Vector.

A Moral Regarding the Testability of Theories.

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6. Is There Nothing But Fields?.

Is Electric Charge Real?.

Faraday's Picture.

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7. Relativity and the Unification of Electricity and Magnetism:.

Unification in Physics.

How Relativity Unifies Electricity and Magnetism.

Einstein's Argument from Asymmetry.

The Interdependence of Philosophy and Physics.

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8. Relativity, Energy, Mass, and the Reality of Fields:.

Classical Physics and the "Relativity of Motion".

Relativistic Invariants and the Unification that Relativity Achieves: Space and Time.

Relativistic Invariants and the Unification that Relativity Achieves: Energy and Momentum.

Mass and the Meaning of "E = mc2".

Fields -- at Last!.

Erasing the Line between Scientific Theory and its Philosophical Interpretation.

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9. Quantum Metaphysics:.

Is Quantum Mechanics Complete?.

The Bell Inequalities.

For Whom the Bell Tolls.

Wrestling with Nonlocality.

Entanglement, Reduction, and Intrinsic Properties.

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Final Exam.

References.

Index.