Towards a characterization of metaphysics of biology: metaphysics for and metaphysics in biology

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...

Metaphysics of science between metaphysics and science

The paper argues that metaphysics depends upon science when it comes to claims about the constitution of the real world. That thesis is illustrated by considering the examples of global supervenience, the tenseless vs. the tensed theory of time and existence, events vs. substances, and relations vs. intrinsic properties. An argument is sketched out for a metaphysics of a fourdimensional block u...

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)...

Metaphysics of Logical Realism

با اینکه اغلب به غلط تصور می­شود که فلسفۀ تحلیلی، به عنوان یک جنبش ضد-متافیزیکی، هیچ ارتباطی با متافیزیک ندارد، اما دلایل خوبی وجود دارند که بر اساس آن می­توان تمایلات متافیزیکی فیلسوفان تحلیلی را تصدیق نمود و متعاقباً ماهیت ضد-متافیزیکی فلسفه تحلیلی را در تمام مراحل شکل­گیری­اش به حداقل رساند. چون فلسفه تحلیلی یک جنبش تاریخی است که ماهیت اصلی آن در چند مرحله شکل یافته است، لذا با پیگیری این مرا...

Overcoming of Metaphysics: Heidegger's Interpretation of Kant's Thought and the Problem of Metaphysics