Andreas Huttemann

What's Wrong With Microphysicalism? (eBook, PDF)

• Format: PDF

Produktbeschreibung

"Microphysicalism," the view that whole objects behave the way they do in virtue of the behavior of their constituent parts, is an influential contemporary view with a long philosophical and scientific heritage. In "What's Wrong With Microphysicalism?" Andreas Huttemann offers a fresh challenge to this view.
Huttemann agrees with the microphysicalists that we can explain compound systems by explaining their parts, but claims that this does not entail that the parts "determine" the whole. At most, it shows that there is a relationship of determination within parts and wholes, but there is no justification for taking this relationship to be asymmetrical rather than one of mutual dependence. Huttemann argues that if this is the case, then microphysicalists have no right to claim that the micro-level is the ultimate agent: neither the parts nor the whole have "ontological priority." Huttemann advocates a pragmatic pluralism, allowing for different ways to describe nature.
In the course of his argument, Huttemann examines three compound theses of micro-physicalism: micro-determination (or "supervenience"), micro-government, and micro-causation. He uses examples from classical and quantum physics to illustrate various senses of micro-explanation, and discusses the likelihood of emergent phenomena or properties. He distinguishes between microphysicalism and other forms of physicalism, such as identity-physicalism, and argues that we can buy into the latter while rejecting microphysicalism.
"What's Wrong With Microphysicalism?" is a convincing and original contribution to central issues in contemporary philosophy of mind, philosophy of science and metaphysics.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Taylor & Francis
• Seitenzahl: 152
• Erscheinungstermin: 2. August 2004
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781134336258
• Artikelnr.: 43071198

Autorenporträt

Andreas Hüttemann is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cologne, Germany.

Inhaltsangabe

Introduction 1. Microphysicalism 1. The multi-layered conception of reality
2. Microphysicalism 3. The significance of microphysicalism 4. Analysis of
the argument for microphysicalism 2. Laws of nature 1. Explanation,
manifestation and instantiation 2. Laws and dispositions 3. Continuously
manifestable dispositions 4. What is explained by the assumption of CMDs?
5. Conclusion 3. Micro-explanation 1. Distinctions 2. Micro-explanation (1)
and the explanation of bridge-laws 3. Micro-explanation (3): C.D. Broad on
the relation of parts and wholes 4. Micro-explanation (3) at work 5.
Micro-explanation (2) and micro-explanation (4): explaining the states of
compound systems 6. Micro-explanation and emergence 7. Failure of
micro-explanation (1): emergence in the sense of Kim 8. Failure of
micro-explanation (3): emergence in the sense of Broad 9. The case of
quantum-entanglement 10. A diagnosis 11. Other modes of explanation 12.
Concluding remarks 4. What is the Issue? 1. The issue 2. Non-issue 1:
functionalism 3. Non-issue 2: the explanatory gap 5. Micro-determination
1. Explanation 2. Determination 3. A note on the pragmatics of explanation
4. Underdetermination 5. Hegemony 6. Micro-explanation and
micro-determination 7. Objections and replies 8. Conclusion 6.
Micro-government and the laws of the special sciences 1. Autonomy 2.
Micro-government 3. On the instantiation of micro-laws 4. The failure of
supervenience 5. The relativity of instantiation 6. The special laws of
many particle physics 7. Conclusion Apendix 7. Micro-causation 1. Three
models of micro-dependent causation 2. Causation 3. Micro-causation 4.
Conclusion 8. Microphysicalism, physicalism and pluralism 1. Definitions of
physicalism 2. Microphysicalism and identity-physicalism 3. Ontological
unity and pragmatic pluralism Bibliography