I am also interested in the nature of fundamental properties
and laws. One of my older papers (which, incidentally,
got me this job but went otherwise almost unnoticed;
strange because it’s a good paper:-) deals with
zero-value physical quantities such as zero mass, zero
spin, etc. I argue that some such properties are not
mere “privations”; there is, for example,
a real difference between having zero baryon charge
and having no baryon charge at all.
Finally, I am interested in general philosophy of science,
cosmology, and (serious) music.
Recent publications include:
“Persistence and Multilocation in Spacetime,”
in D. Dieks (ed.), The Ontology of Spacetime, Vol. 2.
Elsevier, forthcoming in 2008.
“About Stage Universalism,”
Philosophical Quarterly 57 (2007): 21–39.
“Times of Our Lives: Negotiating the Presence
of Experience,” American Philosophical Quarterly
42 (2005): 295–309.
“On Vagueness, 4D and Diachronic Universalism,” The Australasian
Journal of Philosophy 83 (2005): 523–531.
“Special Relativity, Coexistence and Temporal Parts: A Reply to Gilmore,” Philosophical
Studies 124 (2005): 1–40.
“Presentism and Relativity: A Critical Notice,”
The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 54 (2003): 327–346.
Co-authored with Michel Janssen.
“What is a Law of Nature? The Broken-Symmetry Story,” The Southern
Journal of Philosophy 40 (2002): 459–473.
“Laws of Physics and the Universe,” in Yuri Balashov and Vladimir
Vizgin, eds., Einstein Studies in Russia. Boston; Basel; Berlin: Birkhäuser,
2002, pp. 107–148.
“Persistence and Space-Time: Philosophical Lessons of the Pole and Barn,” The
Monist 83 (2000), 321–340.
“Enduring and Perduring Objects in Minkowski Space-Time,” Philosophical
Studies 99 (2000): 129–166.
“Zero-Value Physical Quantities,” Synthese 119 (1999): 253–286.
“Relativistic Objects,” Noûs 33 (1999): 644–662.
