Research interests
I have very general interests in the philosophy of science and foundations of physics but my research focuses primarily on the foundations of spacetime physics. Classical philosophical questions about the nature of spacetime have revolved around whether spacetime is a kind of physical substance, or some sort of relationship between physical substances.
I have been focusing on an adjacent set of questions about the relationship between spacetime and dynamical laws, specifically in Einstein's theories of special and general relativity. In particular: does the geometrical structure of spacetime play some role in explaining the form of the dynamical laws governing matter? Or is it the formal properties of dynamical laws that explain the geometrical structure of our world's spacetime? Philosophers of science and metaphysicians more generally have recognised many different kinds of explanation so, in either case, what kind of explanation is involved in appeals to geometrical structure in science? And, crucially, what is the resulting picture we obtain of spacetime's geometry? Is this a causal(-like) structure? Or is it an abstract/mathematical structure that somehow gets mixed up in the behaviour of physical stuff?
Along the way to answering these sorts of questions I have been thinking about a distinction introduced by Einstein between "constructive" and "principle" theories, as well as the much more common distinction between "kinematical" and "dynamical" theories. I would like to determine whether the former distinction is helpful for the purpose of choosing between different interpretations of our best physical theories, and whether the latter distinction is "objective" or merely conventional. And if it is objective, what is its basis?
Besides all of this, I am very interested in political theory and philosophy, history, the philosophy of history, buddhist philosophy, and more. In my view, philosophy is at its best when it exists in dialogue with other disciplines, on the boundary between the empirical and the speculative.
