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
ISBN 13 : 0192539450
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (925 download)

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Book Synopsis The Tools of Metaphysics and the Metaphysics of Science by : Theodore Sider

Download or read book The Tools of Metaphysics and the Metaphysics of Science written by Theodore Sider and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-02-19 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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, USA
ISBN 13 : 019881156X
Total Pages : 246 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (988 download)

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Book Synopsis The Tools of Metaphysics and the Metaphysics of Science by : Theodore Sider

Download or read book The Tools of Metaphysics and the Metaphysics of Science written by Theodore Sider and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2020 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Metaphysics has shifted ground, moving away from necessity and possibility as the lens through which we look at things. Ted Sider shapes the agenda for the subject by exploring how this shift transforms the project of understanding the objects, properties, and quantities of the universe, and the relations between them, in terms of structures.

Metaphysics and the Philosophy of Science

Author : Matthew Slater
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199363226
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (993 download)

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Book Synopsis Metaphysics and the Philosophy of Science by : Matthew Slater

Download or read book Metaphysics and the Philosophy of Science written by Matthew Slater and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-02-01 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Metametaphysics and the Sciences

Author : Frode Kjosavik
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1000727416
Total Pages : 295 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (7 download)

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Book Synopsis Metametaphysics and the Sciences by : Frode Kjosavik

Download or read book Metametaphysics and the Sciences written by Frode Kjosavik and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-10-17 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Metametaphysics and the Sciences

Author : Frode Kjosavik
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1000727416
Total Pages : 295 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (7 download)

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Book Synopsis Metametaphysics and the Sciences by : Frode Kjosavik

Dispositionalism and the Metaphysics of Science

Author : Travis Dumsday
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108569986
Total Pages : 233 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (85 download)

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Book Synopsis Dispositionalism and the Metaphysics of Science by : Travis Dumsday

Download or read book Dispositionalism and the Metaphysics of Science written by Travis Dumsday and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-01-24 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dispositionalism is the view that causal powers are among the irreducible properties of nature. It has long been among the core competing positions in the metaphysics of laws, but its potential implications for other key debates within metaphysics and the philosophy of science have remained under-explored. Travis Dumsday fills this major gap in the literature by establishing new connections between dispositionalism and such topics as substance ontology, ontic structural realism, material composition, emergentism, natural-kind essentialism, perdurantism, time travel, and spacetime substantivalism. He also puts forward a novel view concerning the precise relationship between causal powers and the fundamental laws of nature. His rich and accessible study will appeal to readers interested in contemporary analytic metaphysics and philosophy of science.

A Minimal Metaphysics for Scientific Practice

Author : Andreas Hüttemann
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1009021052
Total Pages : 241 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (9 download)

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Book Synopsis A Minimal Metaphysics for Scientific Practice by : Andreas Hüttemann

Download or read book A Minimal Metaphysics for Scientific Practice written by Andreas Hüttemann and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-07-01 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What are the metaphysical commitments which best 'make sense' of our scientific practice (rather than our scientific theories)? In this book, Andreas Hüttemann provides a minimal metaphysics for scientific practice, i.e. a metaphysics that refrains from postulating any structure that is explanatorily irrelevant. Hüttemann closely analyses paradigmatic aspects of scientific practice, such as prediction, explanation and manipulation, to consider the questions whether and (if so) what metaphysical presuppositions best account for these practices. He looks at the role which scientific generalisation (laws of nature) play in predicting, testing, and explaining the behaviour of systems. He also develops a theory of causation in terms of quasi-inertial processes and interfering factors, and he proposes an account of reductive practices that makes minimal metaphysical assumptions. His book will be valuable for scholars and advanced students working in both philosophy of science and metaphysics.

Writing the Book of the World

Author : Theodore Sider
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199697906
Total Pages : 333 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (996 download)

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Book Synopsis Writing the Book of the World by : Theodore Sider

Download or read book Writing the Book of the World written by Theodore Sider and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-11-24 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Physics and Metaphysics

Author : Jennifer Trusted
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1134929714
Total Pages : 223 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (349 download)

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Book Synopsis Physics and Metaphysics by : Jennifer Trusted

Download or read book Physics and Metaphysics written by Jennifer Trusted and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2003-09-01 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Metaphysics and Ontology Without Myths

Author : Fabio Bacchini
Publisher : Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1443868272
Total Pages : 190 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (438 download)

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Book Synopsis Metaphysics and Ontology Without Myths by : Fabio Bacchini

Download or read book Metaphysics and Ontology Without Myths written by Fabio Bacchini and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2014-10-02 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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
ISBN 13 : 9401586217
Total Pages : 257 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (15 download)

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Book Synopsis The Metaphysics of Science by : Craig Dilworth

Download or read book The Metaphysics of Science written by Craig Dilworth and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-04-17 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Reduction and Emergence in Science and Philosophy

Author : Carl Gillett
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1316776646
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (167 download)

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Book Synopsis Reduction and Emergence in Science and Philosophy by : Carl Gillett

Download or read book Reduction and Emergence in Science and Philosophy written by Carl Gillett and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016-09-08 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Grand debates over reduction and emergence are playing out across the sciences, but these debates have reached a stalemate, with both sides declaring victory on empirical grounds. In this book, Carl Gillett provides new theoretical frameworks with which to understand these debates, illuminating both the novel positions of scientific reductionists and emergentists and the recent empirical advances that drive these new views. Gillett also highlights the flaws in existing philosophical frameworks and reorients the discussion to reflect the new scientific advances and issues, including the nature of 'parts' and 'wholes', the character of aggregation, and thus the continuity of nature itself. Most importantly, Gillett shows how disputes about concrete scientific cases are empirically resolvable and hence how we can break the scientific stalemate. Including a detailed glossary of key terms, this volume will be valuable for researchers and advanced students of the philosophy of science and metaphysics, and scientific researchers working in the area.

Metaphysics in Science

Author : Katherine Hawley
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 141 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (18 download)

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Book Synopsis Metaphysics in Science by : Katherine Hawley

Download or read book Metaphysics in Science written by Katherine Hawley and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 141 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Every Thing Must Go

Author : James Ladyman
Publisher : Oxford University Press on Demand
ISBN 13 : 0199276196
Total Pages : 359 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (992 download)

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Book Synopsis Every Thing Must Go by : James Ladyman

Download or read book Every Thing Must Go written by James Ladyman and published by Oxford University Press on Demand. This book was released on 2007-07-05 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Truth and Ontology

Author : Trenton Merricks
Publisher : Oxford University Press on Demand
ISBN 13 : 019920523X
Total Pages : 221 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (992 download)

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Book Synopsis Truth and Ontology by : Trenton Merricks

Download or read book Truth and Ontology written by Trenton Merricks and published by Oxford University Press on Demand. This book was released on 2007-04-19 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A central question in philosophy is whether and how truth depends on the world. In isolation this question is so abstract that it is hard to address in an illuminating way. Instead, Trenton Merricks looks at how answers to this question bear on a variety of other philosophical debates. The result is a well-grounded discussion of the nature of truth that in its turn casts new light on these philosophical debates themselves.

The Short History of Science

Author : Tuomo Suntola
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN 13 : 9781727481372
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (813 download)

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Book Synopsis The Short History of Science by : Tuomo Suntola

Download or read book The Short History of Science written by Tuomo Suntola and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-09-19 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "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.

Simplicity

Author : Craig Dilworth
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 0739177230
Total Pages : 208 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (391 download)

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Book Synopsis Simplicity by : Craig Dilworth

Download or read book Simplicity written by Craig Dilworth and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2013 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Simplicity presents a new, wide-ranging philosophical theory, one that concerns how reality is conceived. In so doing it also provides a new logic with which to approach conceptual situations. In this book, Craig Dilworth replaces the dualistic, true/false approach of formal logic with a three-part basis for thought. This basis consists of the categories of simplicity, complexity, and nothingness. The category of simplicity is paradoxical, while that of complexity is unproblematic, and that of nothingness is self-contradictory. When applied to ontological categories, such as those of substance, self, or causality, these categories of reason can resolve, rather than solve, intellectual issues. The notion of perspective is integral to the simplicity way of thinking. A particular entity--such as the self--may be conceived as simple in one perspective, while being complex or nothing in another. Combined with the categories of the simplicity theory, Dilworth uses the notion of perspective to reveal a type of conceptual conflict that differs from contradiction. So, for example, simplicity better represents the relation between competing scientific theories--such as the wave and particle theories of radiation--as a form of perspectival incompatibility. The book distinguishes between two forms of simplicity: analytic and synthetic, which can respectively be conceived of as a point and a whole. Again, the notion of perspective is employed: what is analytically simple in one perspective may well be synthetically simple in another. In this book, the simplicity way of thinking is applied to intellectual issues in philosophy, set theory, and physics. These applications show how simplicity can provide real insight into a wide variety of conceptually complex situations.