Theoretical Equivalence in Physics
History and Philosophy of Physics
2018-10-19 v1
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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Cite
@article{arxiv.1810.08192,
title = {Theoretical Equivalence in Physics},
author = {James Owen Weatherall},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1810.08192},
year = {2018}
}
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24 pages