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SQuaRed-EX: Scientific Quantitativeness Reduced and Explained

SQuaRed-EX：科学定量性的减少和解释

基本信息

批准号：
EP/X022625/1
负责人：
Zee Perry
金额：
$ 26万
依托单位：
University of Birmingham
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Fellowship
财政年份：
2022
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2022 至无数据
项目状态：
未结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FX022625%2F1
关键词：
SQuaRed EX Scientific Quantitativeness Reduced

项目摘要

Physical quantities - things like length, mass, charge, and volume-are commonly represented in science and everyday practice with mathematical entities, like numbers and vectors. We explain why I cannot reach the iced coffee 105cm away from me on the table by citing the fact that my arm is 72cm long and 72 < 105. However, we don't think that the arithmetical '<' relation between the numbers 72 and 105 is directly explaining anything about my arm or the coffee. Rather, these mathematical terms explain indirectly by representing some directly explanatory physical feature of the system itself. A complete account of the physical world should give us an understanding of the underlying "quantitative structure" in virtue of which these mathematical representations are successful. This is the Problem of Quantity. Although researchers in the metaphysics of science and philosophy of physics recognize that the quantitative structure of the world cries out for explanation, attempts to resolve the problem have hitherto relied on taking some quantitative structure to be fundamental, "unexplained primitives" (using these primitives to explain the rest of that quantity's structure). I reject this approach, which I call "quantitative primitivism", and propose a groundbreaking and ambitious approach that allows me to give fully reductive and complete explanations a quantity's structure. The project, "Scientific Quantities: Reductively Explained" or "SQuaRed- EX" aims to 1) develop complete reductive accounts of quantitative structure that use fundamental physical quantities' role in the physical world to explain why they can be so well represented by mathematics, 2) develop extensions of the reductive-explanatory approach to quantities outside of fundamental physics, including quantities in thermodynamics and chemistry, and 3) disseminate these results and the reductive-explanatory approach used to produce them, guiding future research in the field in a more fruitful direction.

物理量--比如长度、质量、电荷和体积--在科学和日常实践中通常用数学实体来表示，比如数字和向量。我们解释为什么我不能达到冰咖啡105厘米远的我在桌子上引用的事实，我的手臂是72厘米长和72 < 105。然而，我们并不认为数字72和105之间的算术“<”关系可以直接解释我的手臂或咖啡。相反，这些数学术语通过代表系统本身的一些直接解释性物理特征来间接解释。对物理世界的完整描述应该使我们理解这些数学表示赖以成功的潜在的“数量结构”。这就是数量的问题。尽管科学形而上学和物理哲学的研究者们认识到世界的数量结构迫切需要解释，但迄今为止，解决这个问题的尝试都依赖于将某种数量结构视为基本的、“无法解释的基元”（用这些基元来解释该数量结构的其余部分）。我拒绝这种方法，我称之为“定量原始主义”，并提出了一个开创性的和雄心勃勃的方法，使我能够充分还原和完整的解释数量的结构。该项目，“科学研究：“还原解释”或“还原红- EX”旨在1）开发定量结构的完整还原解释，使用基本物理量在物理世界中的作用来解释为什么它们可以被数学如此好地表示，2）开发还原解释方法的扩展，以用于基础物理学之外的量，包括热力学和化学中的量，3）传播这些结果和用于产生这些结果的还原解释方法，引导该领域未来的研究朝着更有成效的方向发展。