Philosophy of Physics Seminar (Thursday - Week 6, HT26)

Abstract: In this talk, I present a possible solution to Goodman’s New Riddle of Induction. The solution is based on two assumptions: the first is the assumption that learning is a computational process. The second is an assumption I call data externalism, an extension of content externalism, which states that encoding information requires a causal connection between what is encoded and the data that encode it. These two assumptions, I argue, suffice to show that the New Riddle does not pose an additional challenge beyond Hume’s Old one. These two assumptions, that learning is computational and data externalism, might have interesting implications for physics and philosophy of physics. First, they might be used to define a physically objective notion of complexity. Second, and relatedly, they might show how the concept of a physical observer can emerge from basic physics, and how basic physics restricts the set of physically possible observers and the complexity of what is physically observable.

Registration: If you do not hold a university card, please contact the seminar convenor or admin@philosophy.ox.ac.uk at least two working days before a seminar to register your attendance.