Roots theories and racist interpretations

Categories of Theories and Interpretations

In this paper we study categories of theories and interpretations. In these categories, notions of sameness of theories, like synonymy, bi-interpretability and mutual interpretability, take the form of isomorphism. We study the usual notions like monomorphism and product in the various theories. We provide some examples to separate notions across categories. In contrast, we show that, in some c...

Perspective Switching Using Theories and Interpretations

An important aspect of intelligence is the ability to switch perspectives. In the course of reasoning about a particular subject matter, it can be convenient to change from one perspective of the subject matter to another perspective, which is often at a different level of abstraction. For example, in some situations it may be advantageous to view a building as a collection of floors and in oth...

Realist, Instrumentalist, and Quietist Interpretations of Scientific Theories

Questions concerning how we are to interpret our best scientific theories, make sense of what they are telling us, or even just connect them systematically to the world around us have a remarkably long intellectual pedigree. And they have most often been motivated not by the sorts of rarified puzzles we encounter in the course of trying to decide how we could even possibly understand claims abo...

Edge States in Gauge Theories: Theory, Interpretations and Predictions

Gauge theories on manifolds with spatial boundaries are studied. It is shown that observables localized at the boundaries (edge observables) can occur in such models irrespective of the dimensionality of spacetime. The intimate connection of these observables to charge fractionation, vertex operators and topological field theories is described. The edge observables, however, may or may not exis...

Attributing Harm to Racist Speech