Academic

For my physics papers (as in, my professional publications), see my page on the arXiv.

Here are some of the essays that I’ve written for my degrees (philosophy of science, philosophy of physics, economics). You can also find some of them on my academia.edu-account.

My academic interest has mostly been in the foundations of physics and history and philosophy of science. In particular, on the physics side of things, I always very much enjoyed what (quantum) information theory has to say about (quantum) physics. On the philosophical/historical side of things, I am very keen on the question to what extent the recurring structures in forms of knowledge representation, scientific theories in particular but not exclusively, can be seen as expressions of contingent limits to human cognition, in a transcendentalist (but not, of course, strictly Kantian) vein. I think that the answer to this question is “yes” and that, if we are careful enough to pick a useful meaning for “human cognition”, studying this question not only helps us improve our understanding of how humans (can) go about making sense of the world they live in, it also yields a mature approach to theory development. Unsurprisingly, my interest in quantum information theory, in particular, stems exactly from this last conviction, so ideally in my work as a physicist I manage to follow this mature approach (so far I certainly have not…)

On the cost of being uncertain, my undergrad thesis in economics.

Coasian reasoning and mental models in D. C. North’s theory of institutional economics around 1990, for a course on History of Economic Thought.

On the possibility of providing satisfactory reconstructions of Quantum Mechanics using information theoretic concepts, one of my Oxford hand-ins.

Individuation in moderate structural realism about spacetime, another one.

The implications of Kant’s Dialectic for the question of the world’s temporal extension, another Oxford essay that I haven’t prepared for submission but on a topic that I still found very interesting.

Conditions for the Ontic Treatment of Mathematics, longer undergrad essay on Einstein’s criticism of Quantum Mechanics interpreted through (my version of) the mental models framework.

Sounds from Noise, short undergrad essay on Iannis Xenakis for a  course on Science, Art and Philosophy.