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AGPhil: Arbeitsgruppe Philosophie der Physik

AGPhil 6: Models, Theories, Explanation

AGPhil 6.3: Vortrag

Dienstag, 26. Februar 2013, 17:45–18:15, SR 113

The Explanatory Capability of Physical Theories — •Radin Dardashti — Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy, Munich, Germany

At any given time there are certain aspects of our well-confirmed physical theories that we cannot explain. For instance, the dimensionality of space and time or the specific group structure of the standard model of particle physics. These are taken to be brute facts and they have to be specified before the theory unfolds its explanatory powers. Attempts to explain these aspects have been limited to anthropic reasoning which has been argued against elsewhere. The aim of this paper is to consider the possibility to use results from mathematical physics to give non-anthropic explanations of certain brute facts. We will start by specifying a minimalistic approach towards accounts of scientific explanation. This will be followed by a specification of the notion of brute facts before presenting the proposed approach towards a better understanding of these brute facts. The approach will be exemplified for the specific case of the dimensionality of space and time within the theory of General Relativity.