Preface ......................................................... v
Acknowledgement ............................................... vii
Part 1 Models and Fiction ...................................... 1
1 Fictional Models in Science .................................. 3
2 The Hypothetical versus the Fictional ....................... 31
3 What Is Wrong with the New Fictionalism of Scientific
Models? ..................................................... 49
4 Re-inflating the Conception of Scientific Representation .... 68
Part 2 Idealization and Approximation ......................... 95
5 Idealization, Confirmation, and Scientific Realism .......... 97
6 Laws and Models in a Theory of Idealization ................ 118
7 Approximation and Its Measures ............................. 141
8 Approximation, Idealization, and the Laws of Nature ........ 156
Part 3 Theory and Unification ................................ 185
9 Coordination of Space and Unity of Science ................. 187
10 Gauge Gravity and the Unification of Natural Forces ........ 212
11 Models and Theories II: Issues and Applications ............ 229
12 Models and Theories I: The Semantic View Revisited ......... 247
Part 4 Meaning of Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking .............. 265
13 Explaining Quantum Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking ........... 267
14 Review: Symmetries in Physics: Philosophical Reflections
(CUP, 2003) ................................................ 294
15 Classical Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking .................... 298
16 Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking and Chance in a Classical
World ...................................................... 312
Part 5 Infinite Systems and Emergent Phenomena ............... 331
17 Approximations, Idealizations, and Models in Statistical
Mechanics .................................................. 333
18 Infinite Systems in SM Explanations: Thermodynamic Limit,
Renormalization (Semi-) Groups, and Irreversibility ........ 362
19 Explaining the Emergence of Cooperative Phenomena .......... 382
Part 6 Quantum Phenomena and Realism ......................... 397
20 A Possible Unified Understanding of Probabilistic Objects .. 399
21 Particularism and Holism Revisited ......................... 414
22 Potential, Propensity and Categorical Realism .............. 429
23 The Aharonov-Bohm Effect and the Reality of Wave Packets ... 453
Part 7 Space-Time Theories and Realism ........................ 477
24 Realism and Spacetime: Of Arguments Against Metaphysical
Realism and Manifold Realism ............................... 481
25 Gauge Invariance, Cauchy Problem, Indeterminism, and
Symmetry Breaking .......................................... 503
26 Is There a Relativistic Thermodynamics? A Case Study of
the Meaning of Special Relativity .......................... 512
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