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SUMMARY:Unifying theories: some lessons from the Cartwright-Smith exchange
  - Nic Teh (University of Notre Dame)
DTSTART:20160309T130000Z
DTEND:20160309T143000Z
UID:TALK63657@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:31287
DESCRIPTION:I examine the Cartwright-Smith debate over the disunity of cla
 ssical physics as a test case for understanding the relationship between a
  formal strategy called Schematic Unification (SU) and \n'horizontal' Theo
 retical Unification (TU). I then argue that (i) Smith's charge of incohere
 nce against Cartwright is unsuccessful\; and (ii) the abstract unification
  proposed by Smith (which turns out to be a form of SU) falls short of sec
 uring TU for classical physics. On the other hand\, Cartwright's deflation
 ary attitude towards SU seems to neglect some of its genuine virtues: as w
 e shall see\, it can play an important role in theory/model construction a
 nd in formulating contrastive explanations.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 2\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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