During my 1st Year, 3rd Period of my M.Sc. Logic (UvA), I did a research project I want to pursue in the thin, though currently wider than ever, intersection between Philosophy of Science and Category Theory. I proposed this research project to both Dr. Enrico Cinti (researcher in Philosophy of Science at the ILLC and University of Geneva) and Prof. Benno van den Berg (lecturer of Category Theory (Lecture)), more on the bureaucratic state of the project can be found on the Structuralism & Categories (Supervisor’s Page), I will here mainly focus on its content and relation with my past work.
The current updated version of the project can be found here: Overleaf: S&C Main.
In this page I present the general procedure that led me to the writing of the project, I start by presenting the Main Literature References, and by outlining the Calendar I follow for the reading and writing phases.
Main Literature References
I organise the reading so that there will be an open dialogue with a little group of other students of the M.Sc. Logic (UvA) who are planning to do research in this field.
- Structuralism:
- SEP: Structural Realism, Ladyman
- Additional: SEP: Structuralism in Physics
- Additional for Mathematicians: Leitgeb, H., Ladyman, J. (2007), Criteria of Identity and Structuralist Ontology
- Additional: Horsten, L. (2010), Having an Interpretation
- SEP: Structural Realism, Ladyman
- Syntactic & Semantic View on theories:
- Theoretical Equivalence:
- Categorical Structuralism & Morita Equivalence:
Calendar
The calendar I write here has as constrains not only those listed in Bureaucracy but also, and more importantly, those for my PhD Applications in the US; and this is because I plan to use this research project to produce the writing sample I will need to write for such applications. This will though not affect the general submission date, which will anyway be set during January
- November
- 1st Week: 28.10 - 3.11
- I familiarised with the literature on Structuralism and have understood its applications in different contexts, from Sciences to Mathematics but also with Philosophy of Mind (see Philosophy of Cognition (Lecture), assignment 1).
- I have then decided to keep the generality of the project as high as possible, in order to attempt claims in different fields.
- I also wrote down the general index of the project.
- 2nd Week: 4.11 - 10.11
- I write down a syntactical distinction of intrinsic and extrinsic properties and give a formal definition to structuralism.
- In particular I motivate how my formal understanding of it relates with the literature I read.
- I also focus on giving a formal account of Leitgeb, H., Ladyman, J. (2007), Criteria of Identity and Structuralist Ontology.
- I reconsider and rewrite my arguments in Structure on Models, Horsten, L. (2010), Having an Interpretation, Halvorson, H. (2012), What Scientific Theories Could not Be and Halvorson, H. (2013), The semantic view, if plausible, is syntactic.
- I read: Halvorson, H., Barrett, T. (2015), Glymour and Quine on Theoretical Equivalence.
- I write down a syntactical distinction of intrinsic and extrinsic properties and give a formal definition to structuralism.
- 3rd Week: 11.11 - 17.11
- 4th Week: 18.11 - 24.11
- 5th Week: 25.11 - 1.12
- 1st Week: 28.10 - 3.11
- December
- 1st Week: 2.12 - 8.12
- I have a written sample that can be submitted for the PhD Applications in the US of about 20 - 25 pages. I discuss with the supervisors if this is sufficient for both submissions, see Bureaucracy.
- 2nd Week: 9.12 - 15.12
- 3rd Week: 16.12 - 22.12
- 4th Week: 23.12 - 29.12
- 5th Week: 30.12 - 5.1
- 1st Week: 2.12 - 8.12
- January
- 1st Week: 6.1 - 12.1
- 2nd Week: 13.1 - 19.1
- 3rd Week: 20.1 - 26.1
- 4th Week: 27.1 - 2.2