Is philosophy a dead discipline? In recent work, philosophers like Michael Devitt (books.google.au/books?vid=9780199280803&redir_esc=y) and non-eliminative ontic structural realist scientific metaphysicians (see explanation below*) Don Ross and James Ladyman take the view that 1. Philosophy cannot proceed without metaphysics and 2. The only good metaphysics is derived from and inspired directly by the best science. Any serious ontology has to be based upon the best understanding that physicists have of the universe, for example. In the last 20 years there has been a surge of interest in such things as the nature of time, the nature of causality, and the nature of reality in general. Leading physicists like Stephen Hawking and physics popularisers like John Gribbin and Lawrence Krauss have explored many of the ontological big questions that practicing physicists are all but forced to engage with. But do they really need the help of philosophers. Ladyman and Ross have asserted that science - and more specifically mathematical physics - is the only valid source of ideas for doing ontology and for the development of an ontology (Everything Must Go, 2007 and Scientific Metaphysics, 2013). However, recently Ladyman admitted aporia in the metaphysics proposed by he and Ross in the Everything Must Go whic hwas due to a shortfall in their grasp on quantum field theory. Perhaps, then, philosophy is all but dead. * - Non-eliminative (does not eliminate from the ontology - from the list or menu of things that are taken to exist in the world objectively. This is usually according to one kind or another of theory or domain of knowledge.) - Ontic (Ontological. Ontology is the subdiscipline of metaphysics which studies what exists in the world and how. Philosophers sometimes refer to this as the furniture of the universe or the roster of existents (Schaffer)). An ontology is a list of what exists in the universe according to a specific theory and/or a metaphysics - Structural realism is a metaphysical doctrine according to which only structure based upon relations between relata us revealed hy science as real. Scent cannot prove the existence of intrinsic properties - only demonstrate relations. There is a version of structural realism for mathematics which is about the structures of mathematics.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Feb 2014 03:08:44 +0000
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