Every Thing Must Go argues that the only kind of
metaphysics that can contribute to objective knowledge
is one based specifically on contemporary science as it
really is, and not on philosophers' a priori intuitions,
common sense, or simplifications of science. In addition
to showing how recent metaphysics has drifted away from
connection with all other serious scholarly inquiry as a
result of not heeding this restriction, they demonstrate
how to build a metaphysics compatible with current
fundamental physics ('ontic structural realism'), which,
when combined with their metaphysics of the special
sciences ('rainforest realism'), can be used to unify
physics with the other sciences without reducing these
sciences to physics itself. Taking science
metaphysically seriously, Ladyman and Ross argue, means
that metaphysicians must abandon the picture of the
world as composed of self-subsistent individual objects,
and the paradigm of causation as the collision of such
objects.Every Thing Must Go also assesses the role of
information theory and complex systems theory in
attempts to explain the relationship between the special
sciences and physics, treading a middle road between the
grand synthesis of thermodynamics and information, and
eliminativism about information. The consequences of the
author's metaphysical theory for central issues in the
philosophy of science are explored, including the
implications for the realism vs. empiricism debate, the
role of causation in scientific explanations, the nature
of causation and laws, the status of abstract and
virtual objects, and the objective reality of natural
kinds. |
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