Metaphysics in Aristotle's Embryology

By Peter Godfrey - Smith Theories and Models in Metaphysics METAPHYSICS

METAPHYSICS Peter Godfrey-Smith is professor of philosophy at Harvard University. He works primarily in the philosophy of biology and the philosophy of mind. He also has a more general interest in the philosophy of science, and makes excursions into metaphysics and epistemology. He has published two books so far: Complexity and the Function of Mind in Nature (1996) and Theory and Reality (2003)...

Embryology

coloured plates. These are of the very greatest value in assisting one to follow the meaning of the letterpress. This, we think, is particularly the case in the chapter dealing with Meckel's diverticulum. The volume is one that should prove itself of great value to surgeons and physicians and as a book of reference. As would be expected the publishers have done their share of the work in a most...

Laws in Metaphysics

Humean metaphysics versus a metaphysics of powers

The paper considers the opposition between Humean metaphysics and the metaphysics of powers, focusing on laws, probabilities and causation. It argues that within Humean metaphysics, everything is a matter of contingency. Consequently, there is no deep metaphysical difference between a deterministic world and a world in which only probabilistic laws hold. This position is contrasted with the fou...

Modern Metaphysics

Metaphysics is the science of being and asks the question “What really exists?” The answer to this question has been sought for by mankind since the beginning of recorded time. In the past 2500 years there have been many answers to this question and these answers dominate our view of how physics is done. Examples of questions which were originally metaphysical are the shape of the earth, the mo...