David Baker - "Interpreting Toy Theories, With an Application to Symmetries"

Talk by David Baker (University of Michigan)
Seminar Website: harvardfop.jac...
KZbin Channel: / @foundationsofphysicsh...
Foundations of Physics @Harvard Seminar Series
August 9, 2022
Abstract: I define ‘toy theories’ as theories whose laws do not permit the existence of observers. In scientific practice, such theories are often treated as if they have a clear physical interpretation, but on standard philosophical accounts of the methodology of interpretation, it isn't obvious how this is possible. I discern three different senses in which a toy theory could possess a meaningful interpretation, and apply this taxonomy to resolve a disagreement between Gordon Belot and David Wallace on the interpretation of symmetries in toy theories.