Metaphysics and the Philosophy of Science: New Essays
Matthew Slater and Zanja Yudell
Abstract
The question of the proper role of metaphysics in the 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,” which ranges over inquiries into natural laws and properties, natural kinds, causal relations, dispositions, and so forth. 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 significa ... More
The question of the proper role of metaphysics in the 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,” which ranges over inquiries into natural laws and properties, natural kinds, causal relations, dispositions, and so forth. 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 will explore the relationship between science and metaphysics, asking what role metaphysics should play in philosophizing about science. The essays will address this question both through ground-level investigations of particular issues in the metaphysics of science and more general methodological investigations. They thereby contribute to an ongoing discussion concerning the future, the limits, and the possibility of metaphysics as a legitimate philosophical project.
Keywords:
naturalism,
metaphysics,
science,
methodology,
philosophy of science
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2017 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199363209 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: March 2017 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199363209.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Matthew Slater, editor
Associate Professor of Philosophy, Bucknell University
Zanja Yudell, editor
Associate Professor of Philosophy, California State University, Chico
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