Weatherall, James Owen (2018) Theoretical Equivalence in Physics. [Preprint]

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Abstract

I review the philosophical literature on the question of when two physical theories are equivalent. This includes a discussion of empirical equivalence, which is often taken to be necessary, and sometimes taken to be sufficient, for theoretical equivalence; and "interpretational" equivalence, which is the idea that two theories are equivalent just in case they have the same interpretation. It also includes a discussion of several formal notions of equivalence that have been considered in the recent philosophical literature, including (generalized) definitional equivalence and categorical equivalence. The article concludes with a brief discussion of the relationship between equivalence and duality.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Weatherall, James Owen weatherj@uci.edu 0000-0003-1461-7821
Keywords:	Theoretical equivalence, empirical equivalence, categorical equivalence, definitional equivalence, Morita equivalence, duality, interpretational equivalence, physics
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Physics General Issues > Structure of Theories
Depositing User:	James Owen Weatherall
Date Deposited:	19 Oct 2018 01:29
Last Modified:	19 Oct 2018 01:29
Item ID:	15166
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Physics General Issues > Structure of Theories
Date:	2018
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/15166

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