On the observational equivalence of continuous-time deterministic and indeterministic descriptions

DOI10.1007/S13194-010-0011-5zbMATH Open1262.03021arXiv1310.1620OpenAlexW2036686173MaRDI QIDQ693104FDOQ693104

Charlotte Werndl

Publication date: 7 December 2012

Published in: European Journal for Philosophy of Science (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: This paper presents and philosophically assesses three types of results on the observational equivalence of continuous-time measure-theoretic deterministic and indeterministic descriptions. The first results establish observational equivalence to abstract mathematical descriptions. The second results are stronger because they show observational equivalence between deterministic and indeterministic descriptions found in science. Here I also discuss Kolmogorov's contribution. For the third results I introduce two new meanings of `observational equivalence at every observation level'. Then I show the even stronger result of observational equivalence at every (and not just some) observation level between deterministic and indeterministic descriptions found in science. These results imply the following. Suppose one wants to find out whether a phenomenon is best modeled as deterministic or indeterministic. Then one cannot appeal to differences in the probability distributions of deterministic and indeterministic descriptions found in science to argue that one of the descriptions is preferable because there is no such difference. Finally, I criticise the extant claims of philosophers and mathematicians on observational equivalence.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1310.1620

zbMATH Keywords

stochastic processesergodic theorydeterminismobservational equivalenceindeterminismclassical physicscontinuous-time descriptions

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

General theory of mathematical modeling (00A71) Physics (00A79) Logic in the philosophy of science (03A10)

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