Mumford, Stephen and Tugby, Matthew (2013) 'What is the metaphysics of science?', in Metaphysics and science. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 3-28. Mind Association occasional series.
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.
| Item Type: | Book chapter |
|---|---|
| Full text: | (AM) Accepted Manuscript Download PDF (228Kb) |
| Status: | Peer-reviewed |
| Publisher Web site: | https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199674527.003.0001 |
| Publisher 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. |
| Date accepted: | No date available |
| Date deposited: | 12 May 2017 |
| Date of first online publication: | 27 June 2013 |
| Date first made open access: | No date available |
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