DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY

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James Ladyman

Professor of Philosophy, University of Bristol

Office: 1.26, 9 Woodland Road

Tel.: (0117) 9287609, internal x87609

Ph.D. in Philosophy, University of Leeds: ‘Structural Realism and the Model-Theoretic Approach to Scientific Theories’; supervisor: Steven French
M.Sc. in History and Philosophy of Science and Mathematics, King's College London, pass with distinction
B.A.(hons) in Pure Mathematics (main) and Philosophy (subsidiary), University of York, first class honours

Philip Leverhulme Prize in Philosophy and Ethics 2005
Choice (American Library Association) Outstanding Academic Text Award for Understanding Philosophy of Science

I was co-editor (with Professor Alexander Bird) of The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, for which I was previously a deputy editor and assistant editor, (2004-2011).
I was Honorary Secretary of The British Society for the Philosophy of Science (2003-2007)

Research

I am interested in most areas of philosophy, but my work has primarily been in philosophy of science. I have worked extensively on scientific realism, constructive empiricism and structural realism (I made the distinction in my 1998 paper between epistemic and ontic forms of structural realism and I have defended the latter). I have also worked on scientific representation and more recently on physicalism, the relationship between the special sciences and physics, naturalised metaphysics, the philosophy of information and computation, and the philosophy of mathematics. I have always been interested in the philosophy of physics, especially quantum mechanics, and work specifically on identity and individuality in quantum mechanics and time-symmetric quantum mechanics. I am currently trying to understand Quantum Field Theory.

I am currently writing a textbook, Philosophy of Physics, and co-editing a collection of papers in philosophy of science with Alexander Bird, Arguing about Science. I am also co-editing a book with Don Ross, Scientific Metaphysics, which will feature papers by Anjan Chakravartty, Daniel Dennett, Michael Friedman, Jenann Ismael, Andrew Melnyk and Mark Wilson, and an introduction by Harold Kincaid. I am also currently writing a paper with Don Ross, to appear in the volume. For a full list of my publications, see below.

Publications

Works in Progress

Books

  • Ladyman, J. (forthcoming), Philosophy of Physics, Acumen.
  • Ladyman, J. (forthcoming), Understanding Philosophy of Science (second edition), Routledge.
  • Bird, A. and Ladyman, J. (eds.) (forthcoming) Arguing about Science, Routledge
  • Kincaid, H., Ladyman, J. and Ross, D. (eds.) (forthcoming) Scientific Metaphysics, Oxford University Press.

Academic Articles

  • Ladyman, J., Linnebo, Ø. and Bigaj, T. ‘Are fermions always entangled?’ Under revision after ‘revise and resubmit’ from Studies in History and Philosophy of Physics
  • Ladyman, J. ‘Science, Metaphysics and Method’ to appear in a special issue of Philosophical Studies

Books

  • Ladyman, J. and Ross, D. (with Spurrett, D. and Collier, J.) (2007), Every Thing Must Go: Metaphysics Naturalised, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  • Ladyman, J. (2002), Understanding Philosophy of Science, Routledge, 302 pages

Academic Articles

  • Ladyman, J., Lambert, J. and Weisner, K. (forthcoming) ‘What is a complex system?’, European Journal of Philosophy of Science
  • Ladyman, J., Linnebo, Ø. and Pettigrew (forthcoming), ‘Identity and Discernibility in Philosophy and Logic’, Review of Symbolic Logic
  • Berenstain, N, and Ladyman, J. (2011), ‘Ontic Structural Realism and Modality’ to appear in Landry and Rickles (eds), forthcoming
  • Ladyman, J. (2011), ‘Structural Realism versus Standard Scientific Realism: The Case of Phlogiston and Dephlogisticated Air’ in Synthese 180 (2): 87-101
  • Ladyman, J. (2011), ‘The scientistic stance: the empirical and materialist stances reconciled’ in Synthese 178 (1): 87-98
  • Ladyman, J. (2011) Scientific Representation: A Long Journey from Pragmatics to Pragmatics in Metascience 20 (3): 417-442
  • Ladyman, J. (2010), ‘Reply to Hawthorne’ in Many Worlds? Everett, quantum theory, and reality, S. Saunders, J. Barrett, A. Kent, and D. Wallace (eds.), Oxford University Press, pp.154-160.
  • French, S. and Ladyman, J. (2010), ‘In Defence of Ontic Structural Realism’ in Alissa and Peter Bokulich (eds) Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science: Scientific Structuralism, Springer, pp. 25-42
  • Ladyman, J. and Ross, D. (2010), Reply in review symposium in Metascience 19 (2): 179-185
  • Ladyman, J. (2010), Review article on Tim Maudlin’s The Metaphysics Within Physics in Erkenntnis 72: 411-416
  • Ladyman, J. and Ross, D. (2010), ‘The Alleged Coupling/Constitution Fallacy and Mature Sciences’, in R.Menary (ed.) The Extended Mind, Cambridge, MA: MIT press, pp. 155-166
  • Ladyman, J. and Bigaj, T. (2009), ‘The Principle of the Identity of Indiscernibles and Quantum Mechanics’ in Philosophy of Science 77 (1): 117-136
  • Ladyman, J. (2009), ‘Weak Physicalism and Special Science Ontology’ in H. Leitgeb and A. Hieke (eds) Reduction, Abstraction, Analysis: Proceedings of the 31st International Wittgenstein-Symposium in Kirchberg 2008, Frankfurt: Ontos Verlag, pp. 113-125
  • Ladyman, J. (2009), ‘What Does it Mean to Say a Physical System Implements a Computation?’, International Journal for Theoretical Computer Science 410: 376-383
  • Brown, R. and Ladyman, J. (2009), ‘Physicalism, Supervenience and the Fundamental Level’, The Philosophical Quarterly, 59: 20-38
  • Ladyman, J. (2008), ‘Structural Realism and the Relationship Between the Special Sciences and Physics’, Philosophy of Science, 75 (5): 744-755
  • Ladyman, J. and Leitgeb, H. (2008), ‘Criteria of Identity and Structuralist Ontology’, in Philosophia Mathematica 16: 388-396
  • Ladyman, J., Presnell, S., and Short, A. (2008), ‘The Use of the Information-Theoretic Entropy in Thermodynamics’, in Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B, 39 (2): 315-324
  • Ladyman, J. (2008), ‘Idealisation’, in M.Curd and S.Psillos (eds), The Routledge Companion to the Philosophy of Science, London: Routledge, pp. 358-366
  • Ladyman, J. (2007), 'The Epistemology of Constructive Empiricism', in Monton, B. (ed.), Images of Empiricism: Essays on Science and Stances with a reply from Bas C. van Fraassen, Mind Association Occasional Series, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 46-61
  • Ladyman, J. (2007), ‘Physics and Computation: The Status of Landauer’s Principle’, in Cooper, S.B., Löwe, B. and Sorbi, A. (eds.), Computation and Logic in the Real World: Third Conference on Computability in Europe, CIE 2007, Sienna, Italy, June 18-23, 2007, Proceedings (Berlin: Springer) pp. 446-454
  • Ladyman, J. (2007), ‘Does Physics Answer Metaphysical Questions’, in Philosophy of Science: Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement: 61 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 179-202
  • Ladyman, J. (2007), ‘Scientific Structuralism: On the Identity and Diversity of Objects in a Structure’, to appear in The Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 81 (1): 23-43
  • Ladyman, J., Presnell, S., Short, A. and Groisman, B. (2007), ‘The connection between logical and thermodynamic irreversibility’, in Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, 38, pp. 58-79
  • Ladyman, J. (2007), ‘Structural Realism’ entry in The Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy
  • Ladyman, J. (2007), ‘Ontological, Epistemological and Methodological Positions’, in Handbook of Philosophy of Science - Focal Issues (Edited by T.Kuipers, Kluwer),  pp.303-376
  • Ladyman, J. (2006), Theories and Theoretical Terms’, in Donald Borchert, ed. Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2nd edition. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA
  • Ladyman, J. (2005), ‘Mathematical Structuralism and the Identity of Indiscernibles’, Analysis, 65, pp. 218-221
  • Ladyman, J. (2005), ‘Wouldn’t it be Lovely: Explanation and Scientific Realism’, review symposium in Metascience, 14, pp. 331-361
  • Ladyman, J. (2004), ‘Supervenience: not local and not two-way’ in Behavioural and Brain Sciences, 27, p. 630
  • Ladyman, J. (2004), ‘Discussion ‑ Empiricism versus Metaphysics’, Philosophical Studies, 121, pp. 133-145
  • Ladyman, J. (2004), ‘Modality and Constructive Empiricism: a reply to van Fraassen’, in The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 55, pp. 755-765
  • French, S. and Ladyman, J. (2003), ‘Remodelling Structural Realism: Quantum Physics and the Metaphysics of Structure’, Synthese, 36, pp. 31-66
  • French, S. and Ladyman, J. (2003), ‘Between Platonism and Phenomenalism: Reply to Cao’, Synthese, 36, pp. 73-78
  • Ladyman, J. (2002), ‘Science, Metaphysics and Structural Realism’, Philosophica, 67, pp. 57-76
  • Bueno, O., French, S. and Ladyman, J. (2002) ‘On Representing the Relationship between the Mathematical and the Empirical,’ in Philosophy of Science, 69, pp. 452-473
  • Ladyman, J. (2000), ‘What's Really Wrong with Constructive Empiricism?: van Fraassen and the Metaphysics of Modality’, in The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 51, pp. 837-856
  • French, S. and Ladyman, J. (1999), ‘Reinflating the Semantic Approach’, International Studies in Philosophy of Science, 13. pp. 99-117
  • Ladyman, J. (1998), ‘What is Structural Realism?’, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 29, pp. 409-424
  • French, S. and Ladyman, J. (1998), ‘A Semantic Perspective on Idealisation in Quantum Mechanics’, N.Shanks (ed.) Idealization in Physics pp. 51-74
  • Ladyman, J., Douven, I., Horsten, L. and van Fraassen, B.C. (1997), ‘In Defence of van Fraassen's Critique of Abductive Reasoning: A reply to Psillos’, in Philosophical Quarterly, 47, pp. 305-321
  • French, S. and Ladyman, J. (1997), ‘Superconductivity and Structures: Revisiting the London Account’, in Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, 28, pp. 363-393

Book Reviews

  •  Review of The Metaphysics within Physics by Tim Maudlin in Erkenntnis (2010) 72, pp.411-416
  • Review of A Metaphysics for Scientific Realism by Anjan Chakravartty in Notre Dame Journal of Philosophy (2009)
  • Review of Beyond the Hoax by Alan Sokal in The Philosopher’s Magazine (2008)
  • Review of Identity in Physics: A Historical, Philosophical, and Formal Analysis by Steve French, Notre Dame Journal of Philosophy (2007)
  • Review of A New History of Western Philosophy by Anthony Kenny, in The Times Higher Educational Supplement, April 8th 2005, volume 1664
  • Review of Fundamentals of Philosophy edited by John Shand, and 101 Ethical Dilemmas by Martin Cohen in The Times Higher Educational Supplement, October 25th 2004, volume 1663, p.27
  • Review of An Introduction to the Philosophy of Physics by Marc Lange, in Mind (2004), 113, pp. 562-565
  • Review of Myths We Live By by Mary Midgley, in The Times Higher Educational Supplement, October 24th 2003, volume 1612, p.29
  • Review of Philosophy in the Next Century by Anthony O’Hear, in Times Higher Educational Supplement, October 11th 2002, volume 1559, p. 28
  • Review of Unifying Scientific Theories: Physical Concepts and Mathematical Structures by Margaret Morrison, in The Journal of Economic Methodology, (2002), 10, pp. 91-96
  • Review of Quantum Philosophy: Understanding and Interpreting Contemporary Science, and Understanding Quantum Mechanics, by Roland Omnès, in Metascience, (2001), 10, pp. 99-103
  • Review of Harmless Naturalism by Robert Almeder, in Philosophical Books, (2000), 41, pp. 123-125Review of A Novel Case for Scientific Realism by Jarrett Leplin, in The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science (1999), p. 50
  • Review of Intellectual Impostures by Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont, in Imprints (1999), 3, pp. 265-276
  • Review of Representing the World by Scientific Theories: The Case for Scientific Realism by H.C.D.G. De Regt, in The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science (1996), 47, pp. 487-490

 

Other Activities

I have been actively campaigning against the so-called 'Impact Agenda'. Apart from a lot of angry letters to the Times Higher Education Supplement, I have contributed the following:

  • Article in The Pearson Centre for Policy and Learning’s Blue Skies: new thinking about the future of higher education, ‘A five-point plan for the future of higher education’ (2011).
  • Article in Science in Parliament, ‘How HEFCE and the Reasearch Councils are Undermining Science and the National Interest’ (2011, volume 68).
  • Article in The Philosophers’ Magazine on the inaccessibility of philosophy (second quarter 2011, issue 53, pp. 55-60).
  • Guest blog on The New Statesman, ‘The New College is a business designed to profit from fear’ (June 2011).
  • Guest blog on The New Statesman, ‘Don’t play politics with academic freedom’ (March 2011).
  • Article in The Oxford Magazine on the impact agenda (Michaelmas term 2009, issue 294, pp. 4-6).
  • Article in Philosophy Now on Specialisation in Philosophy.