SQuaRed-EX: Scientific Quantitativeness Reduced and Explained
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Birmingham
Department Name: School of Philosophy Theology & Religion
Abstract
Physical quantities - things like length, mass, charge, and volume-are commonly represented in science and everyday practice with mathematical entities, like numbers and vectors. We explain why I cannot reach the iced coffee 105cm away from me on the table by citing the fact that my arm is 72cm long and 72 < 105. However, we don't think that the arithmetical '<' relation between the numbers 72 and 105 is directly explaining anything about my arm or the coffee. Rather, these mathematical terms explain indirectly by representing some directly explanatory physical feature of the system itself. A complete account of the physical world should give us an understanding of the underlying "quantitative structure" in virtue of which these mathematical representations are successful. This is the Problem of Quantity. Although researchers in the metaphysics of science and philosophy of physics recognize that the quantitative structure of the world cries out for explanation, attempts to resolve the problem have hitherto relied on taking some quantitative structure to be fundamental, "unexplained primitives" (using these primitives to explain the rest of that quantity's structure). I reject this approach, which I call "quantitative primitivism", and propose a groundbreaking and ambitious approach that allows me to give fully reductive and complete explanations a quantity's structure. The project, "Scientific Quantities: Reductively Explained" or "SQuaRed- EX" aims to 1) develop complete reductive accounts of quantitative structure that use fundamental physical quantities' role in the physical world to explain why they can be so well represented by mathematics, 2) develop extensions of the reductive-explanatory approach to quantities outside of fundamental physics, including quantities in thermodynamics and chemistry, and 3) disseminate these results and the reductive-explanatory approach used to produce them, guiding future research in the field in a more fruitful direction.
Organisations
Publications

Perry Z
(2024)
On Mereology and Metricality
in Philosophers' Imprint

Perry Z
(2023)
Explanatory Problems for Mass Additivity and Dynamics
in Crítica (México D. F. En línea)

Perry Z
(2023)
Against Quantitative Primitivism
in Philosophy of Science

Perry, Z
(2024)
Routledge Companion for the Philosophy of Time
Description | Aug 2023 "Against Quantitative Primitivism" Society for the Metaphysics of Science, 8th Annual Meeting, Dalhousie University, Halifax NS |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | "Against Quantitative Primitivism" presented to experts at Society for the Metaphysics of Science, 8th Annual Meeting, Dalhousie University, Halifax NS |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | December 2022 "In Special Relativity, there's no speed of light, so what the heck did Michelson measure?! Or, why getting ontology from our models is a mistake" FraMEPhys Models and Modals in Physics Workshop. University of Birmingham. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | "In Special Relativity, there's no speed of light, so what the heck did Michelson measure?! Or, why getting ontology from our models is a mistake" presented to experts at FraMEPhys Models and Modals in Physics Workshop. University of Birmingham. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | June 2023 "Can Dynamics Explain the Quantitative? Prospects for a Nomological Theory of Quantity" Syracuse Philosophy Annual Workshop and Network (SPAWN), Laws of Nature workshop, Syracuse NY (I) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | "Can Dynamics Explain the Quantitative? Prospects for a Nomological Theory of Quantity" presented to experts at Syracuse Philosophy Annual Workshop and Network (SPAWN), Laws of Nature workshop, Syracuse NY (I) |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | March 2023 "Against Quantitative Primitivism" SQuaRed-Ex Quantities, Metaphysics and Reduction Workshop, University of Birmingham. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | "Against Quantitative Primitivism" presented to experts at SQuaRed-Ex Quantities, Metaphysics and Reduction Workshop, University of Birmingham. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | March 2023 - SQuaRed-Ex Quantities, Metaphysics and Reduction Workshop |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | March 2023 - SQuaRed-Ex Quantities, Metaphysics and Reduction Workshop organized and hosted online over Zoom with a panel of expert presentations. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | May 2023 "Can Dynamics Explain the Quantitative? Prospects for a Nomological Theory of Quantity" FraMEPhys Metaphysical Explanation in Physics Conference, University of Birmingham. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | "Can Dynamics Explain the Quantitative? Prospects for a Nomological Theory of Quantity" presented to experts at FraMEPhys Metaphysical Explanation in Physics Conference, University of Birmingham. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | November 2022 "Against Quantitative Primitivism" Philosophy of Science Association Annual Meeting, Pittsburgh |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | "Against Quantitative Primitivism" presented to experts at Philosophy of Science Association Annual Meeting, Pittsburgh |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |