The Tools Of Metaphysics And The Metaphysics Of Science

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The Tools of Metaphysics and the Metaphysics of Science

Author : Theodore Sider
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 256 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2020-02-19
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780192539465

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The Tools of Metaphysics and the Metaphysics of Science by Theodore Sider Pdf

Metaphysics is sensitive to the conceptual tools we choose to articulate metaphysical problems. Those tools are a lens through which we view metaphysical problems, and the same problems will look different when we change the lens. In this book, Theodore Sider identifies how the shift from modal to "postmodal" conceptual tools in recent years has affected the metaphysics of science and mathematics. He highlights, for instance, how the increased consideration of concepts of ground, essence, and fundamentality has transformed the debate over structuralism in many ways. Sider then examines three structuralist positions through a postmodal lens. First, nomic essentialism, which says that scientific properties are secondary and lawlike relationships among them are primary. Second, structuralism about individuals, a general position of which mathematical structuralism and structural realism are instances, which says that scientific and mathematical objects are secondary and the pattern of relations among them is primary. And third, comparativism about quantities, which says that particular values of scientific quantities, such as having exactly 1000g mass, are secondary, and quantitative relations, such as being-twice-as-massive-as, are primary. Sider concludes these discussions by considering the meta-question of when theories are equivalent and how that impacts the debate over structuralism.

The Tools of Metaphysics and the Metaphysics of Science

Author : Theodore Sider
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 256 pages
File Size : 47,9 Mb
Release : 2020-02-19
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780192539458

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The Tools of Metaphysics and the Metaphysics of Science by Theodore Sider Pdf

Metaphysics is sensitive to the conceptual tools we choose to articulate metaphysical problems. Those tools are a lens through which we view metaphysical problems, and the same problems will look different when we change the lens. In this book, Theodore Sider identifies how the shift from modal to "postmodal" conceptual tools in recent years has affected the metaphysics of science and mathematics. He highlights, for instance, how the increased consideration of concepts of ground, essence, and fundamentality has transformed the debate over structuralism in many ways. Sider then examines three structuralist positions through a postmodal lens. First, nomic essentialism, which says that scientific properties are secondary and lawlike relationships among them are primary. Second, structuralism about individuals, a general position of which mathematical structuralism and structural realism are instances, which says that scientific and mathematical objects are secondary and the pattern of relations among them is primary. And third, comparativism about quantities, which says that particular values of scientific quantities, such as having exactly 1000g mass, are secondary, and quantitative relations, such as being-twice-as-massive-as, are primary. Sider concludes these discussions by considering the meta-question of when theories are equivalent and how that impacts the debate over structuralism.

Metametaphysics and the Sciences

Author : Frode Kjosavik,Camilla Serck-Hanssen
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 295 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 2019-10-17
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781000727418

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Metametaphysics and the Sciences by Frode Kjosavik,Camilla Serck-Hanssen Pdf

This collection addresses metaphysical issues at the intersection between philosophy and science. A unique feature is the way in which it is guided both by history of philosophy, by interaction between philosophy and science, and by methodological awareness. In asking how metaphysics is possible in an age of science, the contributors draw on philosophical tools provided by three great thinkers who were fully conversant with and actively engaged with the sciences of their day: Kant, Husserl, and Frege. Part I sets out frameworks for scientifically informed metaphysics in accordance with the meta-metaphysics outlined by these three self-reflective philosophers. Part II explores the domain for co-existent metaphysics and science. Constraints on ambitious critical metaphysics are laid down in close consideration of logic, meta-theory, and specific conditions for science. Part III exemplifies the role of language and science in contemporary metaphysics. Quine’s pursuit of truth is analysed; Cantor’s absolute infinitude is reconstrued in modal terms; and sense is made of Weyl’s take on the relationship between mathematics and empirical aspects of physics. With chapters by leading scholars, Metametaphysics and the Sciences is an in-depth resource for researchers and advanced students working within metaphysics, philosophy of science, and the history of philosophy.

Metaphysics and the Philosophy of Science

Author : Matthew Slater,Zanja Yudell
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 2017-02-01
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780199363223

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Metaphysics and the Philosophy of Science by Matthew Slater,Zanja Yudell Pdf

The question of the proper role of metaphysics in philosophy of science is both significant and contentious. The last few decades have seen considerable engagement with philosophical projects aptly described as "the metaphysics of science:" inquiries into natural laws and properties, natural kinds, causal relations, and dispositions. At the same time, many metaphysicians have begun moving in the direction of more scientifically-informed ("scientistic" or "naturalistic") metaphysics. And yet many philosophers of science retain a deep suspicion about the significance of metaphysical investigations into science. This volume of new essays explores a broadly methodological question: what role should metaphysics play in our philosophizing about science? These new essays, written by leading philosophers of science, address this question both through ground-level investigations of particular issues in the metaphysics of science and by more general methodological inquiry.

Dispositionalism and the Metaphysics of Science

Author : Travis Dumsday
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 233 pages
File Size : 54,7 Mb
Release : 2019-01-24
Category : History
ISBN : 9781108480130

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Dispositionalism and the Metaphysics of Science by Travis Dumsday Pdf

Establishes new connections between dispositionalism and a variety of debates in contemporary analytic metaphysics and philosophy of science.

Physics and Metaphysics

Author : Jennifer Trusted
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 223 pages
File Size : 55,9 Mb
Release : 2003-09-01
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781134929719

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Physics and Metaphysics by Jennifer Trusted Pdf

Jennifer Trusted's new book argues that metaphysical beliefs are essential for scientific inquiry. The theories, presuppositions and beliefs that neither science nor everyday experience can justify are the realm of metaphysics, literally `beyond physics'. These basic beliefs form a framework for our activities and can be discovered in science, common sense and religion. By examining the history of science from the eleventh century to the present, this book shows how religious and mystical beliefs, as well as philosophical speculation have had a considerable role in motivating scientists and inspiring scientific inquiry. Physics and Metaphysics presupposes no technical knowledge of either philosophy or science. It is an ideal introduction to science and the important forces that have shaped its history and ideas.

Every Thing Must Go

Author : James Ladyman,Don Ross,Don Spurrett,David Spurrett,John Collier,John Gordon Collier
Publisher : Oxford University Press on Demand
Page : 359 pages
File Size : 44,5 Mb
Release : 2007-07-05
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9780199276196

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Every Thing Must Go by James Ladyman,Don Ross,Don Spurrett,David Spurrett,John Collier,John Gordon Collier Pdf

Every Thing Must Go argues that the only kind of metaphysics that can contribute to objective knowledge is one based specifically on contemporary science as it really is, and not on philosophers' a priori intuitions, common sense, or simplifications of science. In addition to showing how recent metaphysics has drifted away from connection with all other serious scholarly inquiry as a result of not heeding this restriction, they demonstrate how to build a metaphysicscompatible with current fundamental physics ('ontic structural realism'), which, when combined with their metaphysics of the special sciences ('rainforest realism'), can be used to unify physics with the other sciences without reducing these sciences to physics itself. Taking science metaphysically seriously,Ladyman and Ross argue, means that metaphysicians must abandon the picture of the world as composed of self-subsistent individual objects, and the paradigm of causation as the collision of such objects.Everything Must Go also assesses the role of information theory and complex systems theory in attempts to explain the relationship between the special sciences and physics, treading a middle road between the grand synthesis of thermodynamics and information, and eliminativism about information. The consequences of the author's metaphysical theory for central issues in the philosophy of science are explored, including the implications for the realism vs. empiricism debate, the role ofcausation in scientific explanations, the nature of causation and laws, the status of abstract and virtual objects, and the objective reality of natural kinds.

Scientific Metaphysics

Author : Don Ross,James Ladyman,Harold Kincaid
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 254 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 2013-01-17
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780199696499

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Scientific Metaphysics by Don Ross,James Ladyman,Harold Kincaid Pdf

Original essays by leading philosophers of science explore the question of whether metaphysics can and should be naturalised - conducted as part of natural science. They engage with a range of approaches and disciplines to argue that if metaphysics is to be capable of identifying objective truths, it must be continuous with and inspired by science.

The Short History of Science

Author : Tuomo Suntola
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Page : 256 pages
File Size : 42,6 Mb
Release : 2018-09-19
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1727481372

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The Short History of Science by Tuomo Suntola Pdf

"The Short History of Science - or the long path to the union of metaphysics and empiricism" offers a guided tour of the path of development of natural sciences from antique philosophical concepts to the precise empirical theories in modern physics and cosmology, and their relation to a scientific picture of physical reality. Arising out of the author's deep-probing work on the Dynamic Universe theory, the book discusses the possibility of uniting present theories by restructuring the empirically driven solutions at a deeper metaphysical level. In addition to a study of the development path itself, the book presents a biographical gallery of more than a hundred scientists who contributed majorly to scientific development as well as a long list of references with links to original texts by the pioneers. The book is not only a source of information - but also challenges the reader to consider for himself this scientific evolution, the basis of prevailing theories and the picture of reality. "The Short History of Science - or the long path to the union of metaphysics and empiricism" provides a tool and a source of inspiration for both teachers and students of natural sciences as well as for individuals willing to deepen their understanding of the universe we live in. In the 3rd complemented edition, Chapters 2-4 have been rewritten for easier reading.

Metaphysics and Ontology Without Myths

Author : Fabio Bacchini
Publisher : Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Page : 190 pages
File Size : 41,7 Mb
Release : 2014-10-02
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781443868273

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Metaphysics and Ontology Without Myths by Fabio Bacchini Pdf

Metaphysics and ontology feature among the traditional and fundamental concerns of philosophers. Gaining a picture of the world and the kind of objects that exist out there is for most philosophers (past and present) a preliminary aim upon which other theoretical activities depend. In fact, it seems that sound conclusions on topics relevant to ethics, aesthetics, psychology, and common and scientific knowledge can be achieved only after one has been given a picture of that sort. What is worth stressing, though, is that from time to time the tribunal of history has managed to put its finger on some flawed conclusions. To take a time-worn example, who would now accept Plato’s claim that the spatiotemporal world is just an imperfect copy of a world of abstract objects conceived of as perfect unchanging models of concrete things? The picture Plato gave us is nothing but a myth – an account which is too far away from what common sense and science could accept, too detached from the usual ways of conducting a rational discussion. Therefore, pictures of this kind appear to be supported by nothing but dogmas, i.e. uncompromising principles taken as true without any previous critical analysis. And Plato has no shortage of company. Issues of this kind revolving around metaphysics and ontology are tackled in the essays in this volume, which approach a secular debate in fresh and original ways, providing the necessary tools for clearing the field of unpalatable metaphysical and ontological items.

The Metaphysics of Science

Author : Craig Dilworth
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 257 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 2013-04-17
Category : Science
ISBN : 9789401586214

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The Metaphysics of Science by Craig Dilworth Pdf

The roots of this work lie in my earlier book, Scientific Progress, which first appeared in 1981. One of its topics, the distinction between scientific laws and theories, is there treated with reference to the same distinction as drawn by N. R. Campbell in his Physics: The Elements. Shortly after completing Scientific Progress, I read Rom Harre's The Principles of Scientific Thinking, in which the concept of theory is even more clearly delineated than in Campbell, being directly con nected to the notion of a model - as it was in my book. In subsequent considerations regarding science, Harre's work thus became my main source of inspiration with regard to theories, while Campbell's re mained my main source with respect to empiricallaws. Around the same time I also read William Whewell's Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences. In this work, Whewell depicts principles as playing a central role in the formation of science, and conceives of them in much the same way as Kant conceives of fundamental syn thetic a priori judgements. The idea that science should have principles as a basic element immediately made sense to me, and from that time I have thought of science in terms of laws, theories and principles.

The Metaphysics of Quantities

Author : J. E. Wolff
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 55,6 Mb
Release : 2020-05-27
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780192573940

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The Metaphysics of Quantities by J. E. Wolff Pdf

What are physical quantities, and in particular, what makes them quantitative? This book articulates and defends an original answer to this important, insufficiently understood question through the novel position of substantival structuralism. This position argues that quantitativeness is an irreducible feature of attributes, and quantitative attributes are best understood as substantival structured spaces. The book first explores what it means for an attribute to be quantitative, and what metaphysical implications a commitment to quantitative attributes has. It then sets the stage to address the metaphysical and ontological consequences of the existence of quantitative attributes.

Science in Metaphysics

Author : Vassilis Livanios
Publisher : Springer
Page : 251 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2016-12-19
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9783319412917

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Science in Metaphysics by Vassilis Livanios Pdf

This book explores the dispositional and categorical debates on the metaphysics of properties. It defends the view that all fundamental properties and relations are contingently categorical, while also examining alternative accounts of the nature of properties. Drawing upon both established research and the author’s own investigation into the broader discipline of the metaphysics of science, this book provides a comprehensive study of the many views and opinions regarding a most debatable topic in contemporary metaphysics. Science in Metaphysics will be of interest to metaphysicians of science, analytic metaphysicians and philosophers of science and physics alike.

Writing the Book of the World

Author : Theodore Sider
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 333 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2011-11-24
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780199697908

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Writing the Book of the World by Theodore Sider Pdf

Theodore Sider presents a broad new vision of metaphysics centred on the idea of structure. To describe the world well we must use concepts that 'carve at the joints', so that conceptual structure matches reality's structure. This approach illuminates a wide range of topics, such as time, modality, ontology, and the status of metaphysics itself.

Oxford Studies in Metaphysics Volume 12

Author : Karen Bennett,Dean W. Zimmerman
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 337 pages
File Size : 54,7 Mb
Release : 2021-01-04
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780192893314

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Oxford Studies in Metaphysics Volume 12 by Karen Bennett,Dean W. Zimmerman Pdf

Oxford Studies in Metaphysics is the forum for the best new work in this flourishing field. Much of the most interesting work in philosophy today is metaphysical in character: this series is a much-needed focus for it.