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What Is the Metaphysics of Science?

Mumford, Stephen; Tugby, Matthew

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Authors

Stephen Mumford



Contributors

Stephen Mumford
Editor

Abstract

In this chapter it is argued, for both historical and conceptual reasons, that the metaphysics of science is concerned with the very metaphysical preconditions of science. Scientific disciplines are characterized, at least in part, by their aim to provide novel predictions and to offer explanations for new facts and anomalies. These aims could not be achieved in a disorderly and chaotic world, however. Science can only exist in an ordered, patterned world, and it is argued that the core aim of the metaphysics of science is to investigate the nature of that order. Specifically, in our world this order consists in lawhood, causation, natural kind hierarchies, and possibly a structure of emergent levels of being.

Citation

Mumford, S., & Tugby, M. (2013). What Is the Metaphysics of Science?. In S. Mumford, & M. Tugby (Eds.), Metaphysics and science (3-28). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof%3Aoso/9780199674527.003.0001

Online Publication Date Jun 27, 2013
Publication Date Jun 27, 2013
Deposit Date Oct 7, 2013
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Publisher Oxford University Press
Pages 3-28
Series Title Mind Association occasional series
Book Title Metaphysics and science.
Chapter Number 1
DOI https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof%3Aoso/9780199674527.003.0001

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Accepted Book Chapter (233 Kb)
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Copyright Statement
This is a draft of a chapter that was accepted for publication by Oxford University Press in the book 'Metaphysics and Science' edited by Stephen Mumford and Matthew Tugby and published in 2013.




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