What Is the Metaphysics of Science?

Mumford, Stephen; Tugby, Matthew

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: May 12, 2017
• 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
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1675289