John Roberts
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA  
Academic 2002-03
Representation and Modalities in Physics

John T. Roberts is an alumnus of the Pitt Philosophy Department and is now Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  To date, most of his work has been on laws of nature.  While at the Center, he worked on a series of connected papers concerning general issues in the philosophy of physics:  how the theoretical concepts of fundamental physical theories get endowed with content; what one must do in order to produce an intelligible interpretation of such a theory; what role is played by physical laws within such theories; and what constraints should be imposed on philosophical accounts of physical laws.  His cat Tina is constantly trying to get him to spend more time working on the history of early modern philosophy.  Though he resists her nagging most of the time, he did complete a paper on Leibniz’s views of space and time during his stay at the Center.  When the philosophizing day is done, he enjoys contra dancing (which has nothing to do with Nicaraguan rebels) and Cajun dancing (which has something to do with Cajuns).

June 2008
I finally have a book coming out -- /The Law-Governed Universe, /due out in November from Oxford University Press. It incorporates a lot of the research I did way back when I was a Visiting Fellow at the Center.

June 2009
John T. Roberts published The Law-Governed Universe this year with Oxford University Press.