This book presents a thoroughly empiricist account of physics. By providing an overview of the development of empiricism from Ockham to van Fraassen the book lays the foundation for its own version of empiricism. Empiricism for the author consists of three ideas: nominalism, i.e. dismissing second order quantification as unnecessary, epistemological naturalism, and viewing classification of things in natural kinds as a human habit not in need for any justification.
The book offers views on the realism-antirealism debate as well as on the individuation of theories as a thoroughly neglected aspect of underdetermination. The book next discusses a broad range of topics, including the predicates body, spatial distance and time interval, the ontology of electromagnetism, propensities, the measurement problem and other philosophical issues in quantum theory. Discussions about the direction of time and about string theory make up the final part of the book.
Autorentext
After receiving a Ph.D in theoretical philosophy from Stockholm University 1993 I was lecturer in theoretical philosophy at Linköping University 1995-2001, after which I moved to Uppsala University, where I became full professor 2008. My research interests are epistemology, philosophy of science and in particular philosophy of physics. I have extensively taught philosophy of science also at Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Royal University of Technology in Stockholm and Swedish University for Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala.
Inhalt
Preface
Part I. Background
1. Problems in Philosophy of Physics
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Philosophical Questions in Physics
1.3 Summary and General Methodology
2. Some Important Episodes in the History of Physics
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Aristotle's Physics
2.3 From Aristotle's Physics to Classical Mechanics: Galilei and Newton
2.4 Relativity Theory
2.5 Quantum Theory
Part II. General Philosophy of Science3. Empiricism from Ockham to van Fraassen
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Medieval Nominalism - an Empiricist Position
3.3 Classical Empiricism
3.4 Empiricism During the 19th Century
3.4.1 Mach
3.4.2 Poincaré3.5 The Vienna Circle
3.6 Quine
3.7 Van Fraassen's Constructive Empiricism
3.7.1 Van Fraassen's Empiricist Stance
3.8 Evidence
3.8.1 Evidence and Reasons
3.8.2 Empirical Evidence
3.8.3 Is Inconsistency Counter-Evidence Against a Theory?
3.9 Classification - Natural Kinds
3.10 My Empiricist Stance
4. Mathematical Knowledge and Mathematical Objects
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Kant and Quine on Objects
4.3 Truth Value Gaps in Mathematics
4.4 Are Numbers Universals?
4.5 From Natural Numbers to Reals
4.5.1 Against Reduction of Mathematics to Set Theory
4.5.2 Platonism Versus Constructivism and Reals
4.6 Constructions of Numbers
4.6.1 Constructions of integers and rationals
4.6.2 Reals and Infinity
4.6.3 Constructive Analysis
4.7 Gödel's First Incompleteness Theorem and the Law of Excluded Middle
4.8 Summary
5. Induction and Concept Formation
5.1 Induction in the naturalistic perspective
5.2 Justification in the Naturalistic Perspective5.3 Evidence and Justification
5.4 Induction and concept formation
5.5 Induction as a heuristic device
5.6 Summary
6. Explanation, Unification and Reduction
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Friedman on Unification
6.3 Nagel on Theory Reduction
6.4 Explanation and Understanding
6.5 Summary
7. Realism, Theory-Equivalence and Underdetermination of Theories
7.1 The Physical Content of Theories
7.2 Arguments About Scientific Realism
7.2.1 Defusing Underdetermination
7.2.2 Structural Realism
7.3 Existence
7.4 Are Physical Quantities Real?
7.4.1 Universals
7.4.2 Physical Quantities
7.5 The Use of 'Model' in physics7.6 Theories of Principle vs Constructive Theories
7.7 Summary
Part III. Philosophy of Physics
8 Causation in Physics
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Causes and Laws
8.2.1 Causation and Relativity Theory
8.3 Are Forces Causes?
8.4 Cause is Agent-Related
8.5 Summary
9. Space, Time and Body; Three Fundamental Concepts
9.1 Observations
9.2 How Does a Theory Connect to the World?
9.3 The Interdependence Between the Predicates place, time and body
9.3.1 Bodies and Particles
9.4 Fundamental Quantities
9.5 Summary
10. Laws
10.1 Introduction
10.2 The Extension of the Predicate Law of Nature
10.3 The Logical Form of Laws
10.4 Semantics and ontology
10.5 Indu...
