The Nature of a Constant of Nature: The Case of G.
Physics presents us with a symphony of natural constants: , ℏ , , and so forth. Up to this point, constants have received comparatively little philosophical attention. In this article, I provide an account of dimensionful constants, in particular the gravitational constant. I propose that they repre...
| Publicado en: | Philosophy of Science Vol. 90; no. 4; pp. 797 - 817 |
|---|---|
| Autor principal: | |
| Formato: | Artículo |
| Publicado: |
Cambridge University Press
Oct2023
|
| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=173151294&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 173151294 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00318248 PSC jtl: Philosophy of Science issn: 00318248 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Oct2023 vid: 90 iid: 4 pid: 15979 pub: Cambridge University Press artinfo: ui: 173151294 10.1017/psa.2022.96 ppf: 797 ppct: 20 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 249KB tig: atl: The Nature of a Constant of Nature: The Case of G. aug: au: Jacobs, Caspar affil: Merton College, University of Oxford, Merton Street, Oxford OX1 4JD, United Kingdom su: Space-time symmetries Gravitational constant Symphony sug: subj: Space-time symmetries Gravitational constant Symphony ab: Physics presents us with a symphony of natural constants: , ℏ , , and so forth. Up to this point, constants have received comparatively little philosophical attention. In this article, I provide an account of dimensionful constants, in particular the gravitational constant. I propose that they represent interquantity structure in the form of relations between quantities with different dimensions. I use this account of to settle a debate over whether mass scalings are symmetries of Newtonian gravitation. I argue that they are not, but only if we interpret mass anti-quidditistically. This is analogous to anti-haecceitism in the presence of spacetime symmetries. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Philosophy of Science is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Philosophy of Science holder: Cambridge University Press dt: @attributes: year: 2023 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
|---|