The Topology of Intertheoretic Reduction - a podcast by MCMP Team

Samuel C. Fletcher (Irvine) gives a talk at the MCMP conference "Reduction and Emergence in the Sciences" (14-16 November, 2013) titled "The Topology of Intertheoretic Reduction". Abstract: The standard accounts of reductive limiting relations between theories tend to focus on the limits of particular laws instead of limits of models. To bring limiting relations in line with the modern semantical view of theories, I propose topologizing the space of models of a potential reductive theory pair. I stress that justifying why a particular topology is appropriate for a given reduction relation is crucial, as it may perform much of the work in demonstrating a particular reduction’s success or failure. To illustrate, I consider the reduction of general relativity to (geometrized) Newtonian gravitation.

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