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Steven French articulates and defends the bold claim that there are no objects in the world. He draws on metaphysics and philosophy of science to argue for structural realism¿the position that we live in a world of structures¿and defends a form of eliminativism about objects that sets laws and symmetry principles at the heart of ontology.
List of contents
- 1: Theory Change: From Fresnel's Equations to Group Theoretic Structure
- 2: Mixing in the Metaphysics 1--Underdermination
- 3: Mixing in the Metaphysics 2--Humility
- 4: Scenes from the Lost History of Structuralism
- 5: The Presentation of Objects and the Representation of Structure
- 6: OSR and 'Group Structural Realism'
- 7: The Elimination of Objects
- 8: Mathematics, 'Physical' Structure and the Nature of Causation
- 9: Modality, Structures, and Dispositions
- 10: The Might of Modal Structuralism
- 11: Structure, Modality, and Unitary Inequivalence
- 12: Shifting to Structures in Biology and Beyond
- Bibliography
- Index
About the author
Steven French taught in Brazil and the USA before moving to Leeds in 1993. He is Professor of the Philosophy of Science and the author or editor of six books and over ninety papers. His principal areas of research are the metaphysical foundations of quantum physics, the nature of theories, and structural realism. He is a former President of the British Society for the Philosophy of Science and Co-Editor in Chief of the British Journal for the Philosophy of Science.
Summary
Steven French articulates and defends the bold claim that there are no objects in the world. He draws on metaphysics and philosophy of science to argue for structural realism--the position that we live in a world of structures--and defends a form of eliminativism about objects that sets laws and symmetry principles at the heart of ontology.
Additional text
superb ... this is an extremely rich and fascinating book, well worth reading
