230 citations · 1.2k across the 49 of their papers we have counts for
8 papers · 1 filter
Against Pointillisme about Mechanics
Jeremy Butterfield
This paper forms part of a wider campaign: to deny pointillisme. That is the doctrine that a physical theory's fundamental quantities are defined at points of space or of spacetime…
Against Pointillisme about Geometry
Jeremy Butterfield
This paper forms part of a wider campaign: to deny pointillisme. That is the doctrine that a physical theory's fundamental quantities are defined at points of space or of spacetime…
On Symplectic Reduction in Classical Mechanics
Jeremy Butterfield
This paper expounds the modern theory of symplectic reduction in finite-dimensional Hamiltonian mechanics. This theory generalizes the well-known connection between continuous symm…
On Symmetry and Conserved Quantities in Classical Mechanics
Jeremy Butterfield
This paper expounds the relations between continuous symmetries and conserved quantities, i.e. Noether's ``first theorem'', in both the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian frameworks for cl…
Between Laws and Models: Some Philosophical Morals of Lagrangian Mechanics
Jeremy Butterfield
I extract some philosophical morals from some aspects of Lagrangian mechanics. (A companion paper will present similar morals from Hamiltonian mechanics and Hamilton-Jacobi theory.…
On the Persistence of Homogeneous Matter
Jeremy Butterfield
Some recent philosophical debate about persistence has focussed on an argument against perdurantism that discusses rotating perfectly homogeneous discs (the `rotating discs argumen…