Manuscripts

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Cosmological Induction: A Familiar Philosophical Foe

Although Hume’s problem of induction is well known, it has not been implemented explicitly in cosmology. This paper fills that lacuna in the literature and explains why the problem is particularly acute for multiverse cosmological models.

Sleeping Beauty and Bertrand's Box

The literature is implicitly united in identifying and attacking (or defending) a single crucial premise from each of the two competing positions regarding the Sleeping Beauty problem. I create a unique defense for the key premise of the “halfer” position, which in turn results in a novel attack against the “thirder” position. I then display a potential application of this solution to other problems in philosophy of science via an extension of the Sleeping Beauty problem to quantum mechanics.

The Material Intricacies of Coulomb's 1785 Electric Torsion Balance Experiment

(With Elay Shech) Contemporary scholars are engaged in a debate over whether Charles Augustin Coulomb’s results that he presented in his 1785 and 1787 memoirs to the Paris Academy of Sciences were attained experimentally or theoretically. In this paper, we study Coulomb’s famous 1785 electric torsion balance experiment through analysis of relevant texts and, more importantly, through a replication that is more faithful to Coulomb’s original design than previous attempts. We show that, despite recent claims, (1) it has so far proved impossible to obtain the same results reported by Coulomb in his paper of 1785, (2) Coulomb’s published results are most likely atypical, and (3) electric torsion balance experiments degenerate quickly when parameters are altered by small amounts.

Galileo's Two-Bucket Experiment

(Revise and resubmit) I examine an experiment that Galileo devised and discussed, but did not publish, namely the two-bucket experiment from the Added Day of his Two New Sciences. Galileo presents the experiment to investigate the force of impact. The purpose of this project is to discover precisely what role the experiment plays in Galileo’s investigation. This involves, firstly, determining whether Galileo accurately depicts the outcome of the experiment. To this end, the two-bucket experiment is recreated, and the findings suggest that while Galileo’s account closely approximates the results of the recreation, particular discrepancies leave significant room for doubt concerning the story told by Galileo. Secondly, given the just-described outcome, an explanation for the discord is sought, with particular attention being paid to its ramifications for the overall narrative of the Added Day. The status of Galileo’s experimentation has long been a source of debate (with Koyré’s famous experimentation thesis on one side and Drake’s archival work and the recent experimental history of science movement on the other). The results of the present project are developed within the context of this debate.