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What Is the Paradox of Phase Transitions?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Elay Shech
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Abstract

I present a novel approach to the scholarly debate that has arisen with respect to the philosophical import one should infer from scientific accounts of phase transitions by appealing to a distinction between representation understood as denotation, and faithful representation understood as a type of guide to ontology. It is argued that the entire debate is misguided, for it stems from a pseudo-paradox that does not license the type of claims made by scholars and that what is really interesting about phase transitions is the manner by which they force us to rethink issues regarding scientific representation, idealizations, and realism.

Type
General Philosophy of Science
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 80 , Issue 5 , December 2013 , pp. 1170 - 1181
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

†

Special thanks John Norton, Robert Batterman, John Earman, and Giovanni Valente for helpful discussions and comments on earlier drafts of this article.

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