قراءات إضافية

In philosophy, as in any academic area where there is genuine controversy, the best way to get an understanding of that controversy is to read multiple sources and to read them critically; I have tried to err in favour of readings that disagree with my own take on the subject. The readings I include are at quite varied levels, and I use a star system to indicate this. Unstarred readings are at about the level of this book; single-starred entries are at about the level of an undergraduate degree; double-starred entries are more advanced.

فلسفة العلوم العامة (الفصل الأول)

D. Deutsch, The Fabric of Reality (Viking, 1997). A lively, opinionated, non-technical discussion of falsificationism (and much else).
T. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2nd edition (University of Chicago Press, 1970). (*)
I. Lakatos, ‘Science and Pseudoscience’ and ‘Falsification and the Methodology of Scientific Research Programs,’ in Philosophical Papers vol. 1 (Cambridge, 1978). (*)
J. Ladyman, Understanding Philosophy of Science (Routledge, 2002). A general introduction to the philosophy of science.
J. Ladyman and D. Ross, ‘Scientific Realism, Constructive Empiricism and Structuralism,’ Every Thing Must Go: Metaphysics Naturalised (OXford University Press, 2007), chapter 2. An up-to-date guide to issues in instrumentalism, realism, and structuralism, and a good route into the wider literature. (**)
B. van Fraassen, The Scientific Image (Oxford University Press, 1980). An influential critique of realism, and one of the most important recent attempts to defend an observable/unobservable distinction. (*)

فلسفة الزمان والمكان (الفصلان: الثاني والثالث)

J. Barbour, The End of Time (Oxford University Press, 1999). An insightful and accessible account of the substantivalist/relationist debate, very much from the relationist’s point of view.
J. Barbour, The Discovery of Dynamics (Oxford University Press, 2001). An extended history of space, time, and motion in physics. (*)
J. Bell, ‘How to Teach Special Relativity,’ Speakable and Unspeakable in Quantum Mechanics, 2nd edition (Cambridge University Press, 2004). Classic, though technical, critique of the geometry-first approach to special relativity, and defence of the pedagogical value of the alternative. (**)
H. Brown, Physical Relativity: Space-Time Structure from a Dynamical Viewpoint (Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 95–105. A historical and philosophical exploration of relativity, expounding and defending the dynamics-first approach. (**)
J. Earman, World Enough and Space-Time: Absolute vs Relational Theories of Space and Time (MIT Press, 1989). The standard graduate-level philosophy text on philosophy of spacetime. (**)
N. Huggett, Space from Zeno to Einstein: Classic Readings with a Contemporary Commentary (MIT Press, 1999). Some of the key writings of Newton, Leibniz, and others, accompanied by clear and helpful discussion notes by Huggett.
E. Knox, ‘Newtonian Spacetime Structure in Light of the Equivalence Principle,’ British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 65 (2014) pp. 863–80. Technical article on the interpretation of Newtonian gravity. (**)
T. Maudlin, Philosophy of Physics: Space and Time (Princeton University Press, 2012). Chapters 1–3 present and defend the geometry-first approach to understanding spacetime and motion. Very clear, from a very specific viewpoint (a viewpoint very different from the one I adopt here). (*)
O. Pooley, ‘Substantivalist and Relationist Approaches to Spacetime,’ in R. Batterman (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the Philosophy of Physics (Oxford University Press, 2013), pp. 522–86. A review article: up-to-date reference for the subject. (**)
E. F. Taylor and J. A. Wheeler, Spacetime Physics, 2nd edition (W. H. Freeman, 1992). My favourite of the many introductory books on special relativity; strongly emphasizes the spacetime perspective. (The whole book is available online for free at http://www.eftaylor.com/spacetimephysics/ under a Creative Commons license.) (*)

فلسفة الميكانيكا الإحصائية (الفصل الرابع)

D. Albert, Time and Chance (Harvard University Press, 1999). One of the most influential philosophy books on statistical mechanics in recent years; idiosyncratic but insightful. (*)
S. Carroll, From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time (Dutton, 2010). Ambitious but very accessible discussion of time and irreversibility, covering the topics of this chapter but going beyond to more speculative ideas in cutting-edge physics.
R. Feynman, ‘The Distinction of Past and Future,’ The Character of Physical Law (MIT Press, 1965), chapter 5. Introduction to the issues from a distinguished physicist.
H. Price, Time’s Arrow and Archimedes’ Point (Oxford University Press, 1996). Extended defence of the idea that our distinction between past and future misleads and confuses us.
L. Sklar, Physics and Chance: Philosophical Issues in the Foundations of Statistical Mechanics (Cambridge University Press, 1993). Advanced graduate-level discussion of philosophy of statistical mechanics: a good reference, if slightly out of date by now. (**)
D. Wallace, ‘Inferential vs. Dynamical Conceptions of Physics,’ in

O. Lombardi (ed.), What is Quantum Information? (Cambridge University Press, 2017). Technical presentation of the inferential/dynamical dichotomy, in both statistical and quantum mechanics. (**)

فلسفة ميكانيكا الكم (الفصلان: الخامس والسادس)

S. Aaronson, Quantum Computing Since Democritus (Cambridge University Press, 2013). Often-insightful, often-infuriating, always-worthwhile, idiosyncratic look at quantum mechanics.
D. Albert, Quantum Mechanics and Experience (Harvard University Press, 1994). Reasonably non-technical introduction to the quantum measurement problem, aimed at philosophers.
S. Carroll, Something Deeply Hidden: Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime (Dutton, 2019). Non-technical exposition and defence of the Everett interpretation.
C. Fuchs and A. Peres, ‘Quantum Theory Needs No “Interpretation”,’ Physics Today 53 (2000) pp. 70-1. Brief, clear, forceful advocacy of the instrumentalist approach. See also the letters to the editor, and Fuchs and Peres reply, also in Physics Today 53. (*)
C. Fuchs, N. Mermin, and R. Schack, ‘An Introduction to QBism with an Application to the Locality of Quantum Mechanics,’ American Journal of Physics 82 (2014) pp. 749–54. (*)
R. Healey, The Quantum Revolution in Philosophy (Oxford University Press, 2017). Explores quantum mechanics from a ‘pragmatist’ point of view fairly closely related to the instrumentalist position. (*)
T. Maudlin, Philosophy of Physics: Quantum Theory (Princeton University Press, 2019). Very readable presentation of the measurement problem, followed by detailed (and opinionated) exposition of dynamical-collapse theories, of the de Broglie–Bohm theory, and of the Everett interpretation. Largely ignores probabilistic and/or instrumentalist approaches. (*)
A. Rae, Quantum Physics: Illusion or Reality?, 2nd edition (Cambridge University Press, 2004). A general, accessible introduction to the quantum measurement problem and the range of solutions that have been proposed.
R. Penrose, Shadows of the Mind (Oxford University Press, 1994), chapters 5-6. Self-contained but reasonably demanding introduction to conceptual problems in QM. (*)
D. Wallace, ‘Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics,’ in D. Rickles (ed.), The Ashgate Companion to Contemporary Philosophy of Physics (Ashgate, 2008). Review article, at a reasonably high level (presumes knowledge of quantum mechanics at advanced undergraduate level). (**)
D. Wallace, The Emergent Multiverse: Quantum Theory According to the Everett Interpretation (Oxford University Press, 2012). My own book-length treatment of the Everett interpretation; advanced in places. (**)