Department of Philosophy: People: Core Faculty: Mathias Frisch

Mathias Frisch (PhD, University of California at Berkeley) is an Associate Professor of Philosophy. His primary research interests are in the philosophy of science, the philosophy of physics, and in metaphysics. His book Inconsistency, Asymmetry, and Non-Locality: A Philosophical Investigation of Classical Electrodynamics (Oxford University Press 2005) discusses conceptual problems of particle-field theories, such as the role of consistency as a criterion for scientific theory-choice and the source of the temporal asymmetry associated with electromagnetic radiation. Frisch's current work examines the role of causal assumptions in physical theorizing and the relation between the causal asymmetry and other physical asymmetries. Frisch also is interested in theories of explanation and the role of models in scientific theorizing.

E-mail: mfrisch@umd.edu

Personal Web Page: http://www.philosophy.umd.edu/Faculty/mfrisch/index.html

Representative Publications

Inconsistency, Asymmetry, and Non-Locality: A Philosophical Investigation of Classical Electrodynamics, Oxford University Press (2005).

“Causation, Counterfactuals and Entropy,” in Russell's Republic: The Place of Causation in the Constitution of Reality, eds. Huw Price and Richard Corry, Oxford University Press (forthcoming).

“Lorentz’s Cautious Realism," Studies in the History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, (December 2005).

"Non-Locality in Classical Electrodynamics." British Journal for the Philosophy of Science (March 2002).

"(Dis-)Solving the Puzzle of the Arrow of Radiation," British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 51 (September 2000), 381-410.

"Van Fraassen's Dissolution of Putnam's Model-Theoretic Argument," Philosophy of Science, 66 (March 1999), 158-164.