Scopes and Limits of Modality in Quantum Mechanics

We develop an algebraic frame for the simultaneous treatment of actual and possible properties of quantum systems. We show that, in spite of the fact that the language is enriched with the addition of a modal operator to the orthomodular structure, contextuality remains a central feature of quantum systems.Comment: 9 pages, no figure

Supervenience, Logic, and Empirical Content: Commentary on Hans Halvorson, The Logic in Philosophy of Science

Halvorson’s book’s real achievement is that it is both a source and a challenge, and not just for philosophers of science. I will begin with some notes to add to Halvorson’s discussion of supervenience and definability. Then secondly I will engage the book’s way of dealing with empirical content. Extension of formal methods to the relation of theory to world, as mediated by experiment and measurement, seems to me crucial to its value, and I will make three suggestions for this. Then thirdly I will turn to the tantalizing hints Halvorson gives us of an overall view of logic and language, and speculate about how that would answer questions about scientific representation and more specifically about the object language / metalanguage relation

Supervenience, Logic, and Empirical Content: Commentary on Hans Halvorson, The Logic in Philosophy of Science

Halvorson’s book’s real achievement is that it is both a source and a challenge, and not just for philosophers of science. I will begin with some notes to add to Halvorson’s discussion of supervenience and definability. Then secondly I will engage the book’s way of dealing with empirical content. Extension of formal methods to the relation of theory to world, as mediated by experiment and measurement, seems to me crucial to its value, and I will make three suggestions for this. Then thirdly I will turn to the tantalizing hints Halvorson gives us of an overall view of logic and language, and speculate about how that would answer questions about scientific representation and more specifically about the object language / metalanguage relation

Appearance vs. Reality as a Scientific Problem

The history of science is replete with ideals that involve some criterion of completeness. One such criterion requires that physics explain how the appearances are produced in reality. This paper argues that it is scientifically acceptable to reject this criterion, along with all other completeness criteria that have been proposed for modern science

Detection and prevention of financial abuse against elders

This article is made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund. Copyright @ The Authors. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 3.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/ by/3.0/legalcode.Purpose – This paper reports on banking and finance professionals' decision making in the context of elder financial abuse. The aim was to identify the case features that influence when abuse is identified and when action is taken. Design/methodology/approach – Banking and finance professionals (n=70) were shown 35 financial abuse case scenarios and were asked to judge how certain they were that the older person was being abused and the likelihood of taking action. Findings – Three case features significantly influenced certainty of financial abuse: the nature of the financial problem presented, the older person's level of mental capacity and who was in charge of the client's money. In cases where the older person was more confused and forgetful, there was increased suspicion that financial abuse was taking place. Finance professionals were less certain that financial abuse was occurring if the older person was in charge of his or her own finances. Originality/value – The research findings have been used to develop freely available online training resources to promote professionals' decision making capacity (www.elderfinancialabuse.co.uk). The resources have been advocated for use by Building Societies Association as well as CIFAS, the UK's Fraud Prevention Service.The research reported here was funded by the UK cross council New Dynamicsof Ageing Programme, ESRC Reference No. RES-352-25-0026, with Mary L.M. Gilhooly asPrincipal Investigator. Web-based training tools, developed from the research findings, weresubsequently funded by the ESRC follow-on fund ES/J001155/1 with Priscilla A. Harries asPrincipal Investigator

Teleportation of a state in view of the quantum theory of measurement

We give a description of the teleportation of an unknown quantum state which takes into account the action of the measuring device and manifestly avoids any reference to the postulate of the state vector collapse.Comment: 4 pages, in Revtex, ver. 3.

In Defense of the Epistemic Imperative

Sample (2015) argues that scientists ought not to believe that their theories are true because they cannot fulfill the epistemic obligation to take the diachronic perspective on their theories. I reply that Sample’s argument imposes an inordinately heavy epistemic obligation on scientists, and that it spells doom not only for scientific theories but also for observational beliefs and philosophical ideas that Samples endorses. I also delineate what I take to be a reasonable epistemic obligation for scientists. In sum, philosophers ought to impose on scientists only an epistemic standard that they are willing to impose on themselves