Eddy Keming Chen
  • Home
  • Research
  • Teaching
  • Events
    • Science Without Numbers, 40 Years Later
    • Rutgers-Columbia Workshop on Metaphysics of QFT
    • Rutgers Workshop on Structural Realism
    • MAPS
  • Contact
Picture
Curriculum Vitae
​I am an assistant professor in the philosophy department at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). My primary research interests are philosophy of physics, philosophy of science, and metaphysics. I also have interests in philosophy of mind, decision theory, formal epistemology, philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of religion, and Chinese philosophy.

I am also an Associate Editor at the journal Foundations of Physics, a fellow of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics, and an affiliated faculty member of the UCSD Chinese studies program. I received a Ph.D in philosophy, a M.Sc in mathematics, and a graduate certificate in cognitive science from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ in 2019. ​
​
On this website, you can find my CV as well as information about my research, teaching, talks, and some of the events I organized.
​​
Outside philosophy, I enjoy traveling, skiing, and standup paddleboarding. I also have a side interest in using films to popularize philosophical and scientific ideas. Currently, I'm co-writing a screenplay about a time-travel romance (partly based on this fascinating article in the SEP). 
​
​
You can contact me here. 


Book

Laws of Physics
​
Cambridge Elements in Philosophy of Physics, Cambridge University Press, in preparation

Preprints
​
Our Knowledge of the Past: Some Puzzles about Time's Arrow and Self-Locating Probabilities [arXiv]​

Quantum States of a Time-Asymmetric Universe: Wave Function, Density Matrix, and Empirical Equivalence [arXiv]

Uniform Probability Distribution Over All Density Matrices (with Roderich Tumulka) [arXiv]

An Intrinsic Theory of Quantum Mechanics: Progress in Field's Nominalistic Program, Part I [arXiv]

Journal Articles

Fundamental Nomic Vagueness [arXiv preprint] [Presentation slides] [Video] 
The Philosophical Review, forthcoming

Welcome to the Fuzzy-Verse (popular version of "Fundamental Nomic Vagueness") [Penultimate] [Magazine]
[Featured on the cover as "
The Flaw at the Heart of Reality: Why precise mathematical laws can never fully explain the universe"]
New Scientist, Issue 3298, Sep 5th, 2020 


From Time Asymmetry to Quantum Entanglement: The Humean Unification [arXiv] [Journal]
Noûs, 2020
​

​Realism about the Wave Function [arXiv] [Journal]
Philosophy Compass, 2019

Quantum Mechanics in a Time-Asymmetric Universe: On the Nature of the Initial Quantum State [arXiv] [Journal]
The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 2018 

Surreal Decisions (with Daniel Rubio) [Penultimate] [Journal]
​​Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 2018 

​​Our Fundamental Physical Space: An Essay on the Metaphysics of the Wave Function [Penultimate] [Journal]
The Journal of Philosophy, 2017

​​Great Expectations: Introducing Surreal Decision Theory (with Daniel Rubio) [Proceedings]
​​Proceedings of the 5th International Workshop on Logic, Rationality, and Interaction (LORI-V), ​Springer-Verlag, 2015

​​Publications in Edited Volumes: 

The Past Hypothesis and the Nature of Physical Laws [arXiv]
Barry Loewer, Eric Winsberg, and Brad Weslake (eds.), Time’s Arrows and the Probability Structure of the World, Harvard University Press, forthcoming

​Time's Arrow in a Quantum Universe: On the Status of Statistical Mechanical Probabilities [arXiv] [Book]
Valia Allori (ed.),
Statistical Mechanics and Scientific Explanation: Determinism, Indeterminism and Laws of Nature, World Scientific, 2020
​​
Bell's Theorem, Quantum Probabilities, and Superdeterminism [
arXiv]
Eleanor Knox and Alastair Wilson (eds.), The Routledge Companion to the Philosophy of Physics, Routledge, forthcoming

The Cosmic Void: Ontological Nihilism and Many Worlds [PhilPapers]
Sara Bernstein and Tyron Goldschmidt (eds.), Non-Being: New Essays on the Metaphysics of Nonexistence, Oxford University Press, forthcoming

Book Reviews:

Richard Healey, The Quantum Revolution in Philosophy [Penultimate] [Journal]
The Philosophical Review, 2020

Other Works in Progress: 

Philosophy of Physics, Phillosophy of Science, and Metaphysics:
Minimal Primitivism about Laws of Nature (with Sheldon Goldstein)

The Best Summary of the Quantum World: The Universal Wave Function as a Humean Law 

Decision Theory:
Surreal Decisions II: Infinite State Space (with Daniel Rubio) 

Philosophy of Religion:
Evil and the Quantum Multiverse (with Daniel Rubio)


Chinese Philosophy: 
A Hybrid Voluntarist Interpretation of Xunzi 


Philosophy of Mind: 
Comparativism about the Mind: From Metaphysics of Quantities to the Nature of Mentality  

Dissertation: 

Essays on the Metaphysics of Quantum Mechanics (Supervisors: Barry Loewer and David Albert) [Rutgers University Repository]
Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA, 2019

Links
​

​From Ants to Quantum Non-Locality (with Isaac Wilhelm) 
  • Philosophy Phriday, The Daily Ant, July 2017.​
​
Google Scholar 

PhilPapers    

​Orcid.org/0000-0001-5144-0952

Citation Information

Please cite my last name as "Chen."
Example of an in-text citation: "Chen (2019) distinguishes between the strong and the weak nomological interpretations of the wave function."
Example of a bibliographic entry: Chen, E. K. (2019). Realism about the wave function. Philosophy Compass, 14(7): e12611. 
9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093-0119 
​eddykemingchen@ucsd.edu
  • Home
  • Research
  • Teaching
  • Events
    • Science Without Numbers, 40 Years Later
    • Rutgers-Columbia Workshop on Metaphysics of QFT
    • Rutgers Workshop on Structural Realism
    • MAPS
  • Contact