Jonathan Bain
Associate Professor of Philosophy of Science
Technology, Culture and Society
- Phone: (718) 260-3688
- Email: jbain@duke.poly.edu
- Location: LC124
- Website:
- CV/Resume: cv.pdf
Education
University of Pittsburgh, Class of 1998
Ph.D., History and Philosophy of Science
University of Pittsburgh, Class of 1996
M.S., Physics
University of Pittsburgh, Class of 1996
M.A, History and Philosophy of Science
University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA), Class of 1989
B.S. (cum laude), Applied Mathematics/Physics
Experience
Polytechnic Institute of NYU
Associate Professor of Philosophy of Science
From: September 2005 to present
Polytechnic University
Assistant Professor of Philosophy of Science
From: September 1999 to September 2005
University of California-Riverside
Visiting Assistant Professor, Philosophy Department
From: September 1998 to September 1999
Courses Taught
HI2253-From Heat Engines to Black Holes
PL2283-Philosophy of Relativity
PL2293-Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics
PL3263-Physics, Information and Computation
STS2233W-Magic, Medicine and Science
STS2003-Science, Technology and Society
MA1114-Intro to Category Theory
PL3074-Philosophy of Mathematics
PL2084-Science and Pseudoscience
PL3114-Special Topic: Minds and Machines
Research Interests
- Philosophy of physics
- History and philosophy of science
Awards + Distinctions
- Othmer Junior Faculty Fellowship, Othmer Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies, Polytechnic University, 2004-2006.
Event Participation
Recent/Up-coming Presentations:
- 'Pragmatists and Purists on CPT Invariance in Relativistic Quantum Field Theory', European Philosophy of Science Association Conference, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland, August 2013.
- 'Pragmatists and Purists on CPT Invariance in Relativistic Quantum Field Theory', 17th U.K. and European Meeting on the Foundations of Physics, Ludwig-Maximillians University, Munich, Germany, July 2013.
- 'Pragmatists and Purists on CPT Invariance in Relativistic Quantum Field Theory', British Society for Phil of Sci Annual Conference, University of Exeter, Exeter, U.K., July 2013.
- 'The Emergence of Spacetime in Condensed Matter Approaches to Quantum Gravity', Reflections on Space, Time and Their Quantum Nature, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics, Potsdam, Germany, Nov. 2012.
- 'Emergence in Effective Field Theories', Philosophy of Science Association, San Diego, CA, Nov. 2012.
- 'Emergence in Effective Field Theories', Society for Exact Philosophy, Columbus, OH, Oct. 2012.
- 'Principles of Quantum Gravity in the Condensed Matter Approach', British Society for Phil of Sci, Stirling, U.K., July 2012.
- 'Concepts of Emergence Appropriate for Effective Field Theories', Emergence and Effective Field Theories, Perimeter Institute, Waterloo, Canada, Oct 2011.
Professional Societies
- Philosophy of Science Association
- British Society for the Philosophy of Science
- European Philosophy of Science Association
- Society for Exact Philosophy
- American Philosophical Association
Hometown
New York, NY
Affiliations
Affiliated Professor, Department of Philosophy, NYU
Journal Articles
- 'Emergence in Effective Field Theories', forthcoming in European Journal for Philosophy of Science.
- 'Effective Field Theories', in Batterman, B. (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Physics (Oxford University Press, 2013): 224-254.
- 'The Emergence of Spacetime in Condensed Matter Approaches to Quantum Gravity', Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics (2012): DOI 10.1016/j.shpsb.2012.05.001.
- 'CPT Invariance, the Spin-Statistics Connection, and the Ontology of Relativistic Quantum Field Theories', Erkenntnis (2011): DOI 10.1007/s10670-011-9324-9
- "Category-Theoretic Structure and Radical Ontic Structural Realism", Synthese (2011): DOI 10.1007/s11229-011-9896-6.
- 'Quantum Field Theories in Classical Spacetimes and Particles', Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 42 (2011): 98-106.
- 'Relativity and Quantum Field Theory', in Petkov, V. (ed.) Space, Time, and Spacetime - Physical and Philosophical Implications of Minkowski's Unification of Space and Time (Springer, 2010): 129-146.
- 'Condensed Matter Physics and the Nature of Spacetime', in Dieks, D. (ed.) The Ontology of Spacetime, Vol. 2 (Elsevier Press, 2008): 301-329.
- 'Spacetime Structuralism', in Dieks, D. (ed.) The Ontology of Spacetime, Vol. 1 (Elsevier Press, 2006): 37-66.
- Essay Review: Hattich, F., Quantum Processes: A Whiteheadian Interpretation of Quantum Field Theory, in Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 36, (2005): 680-690.
- 'Theories of Newtonian Gravity and Empirical Indistinguishability', Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 35 (2004): 345-376.
- 'Einstein Algebras and the Hole Argument', Philosophy of Science 70 (2003): 1073-1085.
- 'What Should Philosophers of Science Learn from the History of the Electron?', (with J. D. Norton) in Buchwald, J. and A. Warwick (eds.), Histories of the Electron: The Birth of Microphysics, (MIT Press, 2001): 451-465.
- 'Against Particle/Field Duality: Asymptotic Particle States and Interpolating Fields in Interacting QFT (or: Who's Afraid of Haag's Theorem?)', Erkenntnis 53 (2000b): 375-406.
- 'The Coordinate-Independent 2-component Spinor Formalism and the Conventionality of Simultaneity', Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 31 (2000a): 201-226.
- 'Weinberg on QFT: Demonstrative Induction and Underde-termination', Synthese 117 (1999): 1-30.
- 'Whitehead's Theory of Gravity', Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 29 (1998): 547-574.
Other Publications
Book Reviews:
- Rickles, D. (ed.) The Ashgate Companion to the Philosophy of Physics, Metascience 18 (2009): 347-357.
- Healey, R. Gauging What's Real: The Conceptual Foundations of Contemporary Gauge Theories, Philosophy of Science 75 (2008): 479-485.
- Arabatzis, T. Representing Electrons, in International Studies in Philosophy of Science 20, no. 3 (2006): 347-357.
- Pesic, P., Seeing Double: Shared Identities in Physics, Philosophy, and Literature, in ISIS 93, no. 4 (2002): 670-671.
- Jammer, M., Concepts of Mass in Contemporary Physics and Philosophy, in Physics Today 53, no. 12 (2000): 67-68.
Biography
Jon Bain was born in New York City and grew up in Hawaii. He is currently an associate professor of philosophy of science at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University, with an affiliation in NYU's Department of Philosophy. He received a PhD in history and philosophy of science from the University of Pittsburgh in 1998, and an MS in physics from Pitt in 1996. Prior to NYU-Poly, he taught in the Philosophy Department at the University of California-Riverside. His research interests include philosophy of spacetime, scientific realism, and philosophy of quantum field theory.
More specifically, he's interested in the ontological and metaphysical commitments of theories in contemporary physics; in other words, in how such theories can be interpreted. His current research involves debates over the nature of particles in quantum field theories, the concept of emergence in effective field theories, and general issues concerning the notion of structure and how it might be represented in theories in physics.