2000 HSS/PSA Program 1 - History of Science Society

PSA Abstracts
their O and C-value differences can be explained in terms of the factors idealized.
A conception of realism emerges where the laws are true but misrepresent reality,
have false C-value predictions, are not accepted because of their truth or
approximate truth, and are acceptable only if the differences are explained.
Michael Dickson Indiana University
Quantum Logic Is Alive (And It Is True Or It Is False)
Is the quantum-logic interpretation dead? Its near total absence from current
discussions about the interpretation of quantum theory suggests so. While
mathematical work on quantum logic continues largely unabated, interest in
the quantum-logic interpretation (as found in (Hooker, 1979), for example)
seems to be almost nil, at least in Anglo-American philosophy of physics.
This paper has the immodest purpose of changing that fact. I shall argue that
while the quantum-logic interpretation faces challenges, it remains a live option.
The usual objections either miss the mark, or admit a reasonable answer, or
fail to decide the issue conclusively.
Mauro Dorato University of Rome III, Italy
On Becoming, Cosmic Time And Rotating Universes
In the literature on the compatibility between the time of our experience and the
time of physics, the special theory of relativity (STR) has curiously enjoyed
central stage. In this paper, I claim that it is time to bring into the discussion the
general theory of relativity. I begin by suggesting a new analysis of the
misunderstood notion of becoming, which I developed from hints in
Gödel’s published and unpublished material. I then discuss Gödel’s
argument for the ideality of time, based on his own “rotating” solution to
Einstein’s field equation. I conclude that the recent endorsements of such an
argument by Yourgrau and Savitt fail: once we understand the notion of becoming
in the right way, there is no reason to consider it as being incompatible with
physical time. My way of looking at becoming should also dissolve the centuryold
debate between the tensed and the tenseless theory of time.
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Phil Dowe University of Tasmania
Causal Loops and the Independence of Causal Facts
Swinburne (The Concept of God) and Mellor (ch 12, Real Time II) reject the
possibility of causal loops on the grounds that they are incompatible with the