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Dr Hilary Greaves

Dr Hilary Greaves
BA, MA Oxf; PhD Rutgers

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Position: Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy

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I am a philosopher with a wide range of research interests. Beginning with the 4th year thesis that I wrote as part of the Oxford Physics and Philosophy degree, I have worked extensively on the interpretation of quantum mechanics - how it is possible to understand quantum mechanics as a description of microscopic reality, without attributing magical properties to the murky notion of "measurement" that my physics colleagues ask their students to put up with. In this connection I have been particularly interested in the so-called "many-worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics, which is gaining currency among physicists and philosophers alike, and in how the quantum probabilities are to be understood within that interpretation. I have also written on several aspects of symmetry in physics, including the notion of time reversal, the so-called "CPT symmetry" that plays a major role in particle physics, and on the conceptual difference (if any) between so-called "local" and "global" symmetries. Outside of physics, I am interested in the notion of epistemic rationality (can epistemic rationality be understood as simply a species of means-ends rationality, where the "ends" being pursued are those of having true beliefs - or is there more to it than that?), and have worked on the application of techniques from decision theory to these issues. I am also increasingly working in ethics, especially in issues that lie at the boundary between ethics and economics, and that arise in the context of the debate over climate change.

Outside the academic world, I am a keen cave explorer; I spent six weeks of one recent summer carrying diving cylinders to the bottom of the deepest cave in the world and back. During weekends and shorter holidays I enjoy doing up my 16th century cottage on the outskirts of Oxford, and more-or-less anything that involves being outdoors and getting tired.