Philosophers and scientists both ask questions about what the world is like. How do these fields interact with one another? How should they? Naturalism Beyond the Limits of Science investigates an approach to these questions called methodological naturalism. According to methodological naturalism, when coming up with theories about what the world is like, philosophers should, whenever possible, make use of the same methodology that is deployed by scientists. Although many contemporary philosophers have implicit commitments that lead straightforwardly to methodological naturalism, few have a clear understanding of how widespread and disruptive methodological naturalism promises to be for the field. By way of a series of case studies involving laws of nature, composition, time and modality, and drawing on historical and contemporary scientific developments including the discovery of the neutrino, the introduction of dark energy, and the advent of relativity theory, this book demonstrates the ways in which scientists rely on extra-empirical reasoning and how that very same extra-empirical reasoning can yield surprising results when applied to philosophical debates. Along the way, Nina Emery's investigation illuminates the complex relationship between philosophy and the sciences, and makes the case that philosophers and scientists alike would benefit from a greater understanding of the connections between the two fields.
Author(s): Nina Emery
Edition: 1
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 256
Cover
Naturalism Beyond the Limits of Science
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. From Content Naturalism to Methodological Naturalism
1.1 Content Naturalism
1.2 Three Assumptions about Content
1.3 The Content-Methodology Link
1.4 Worries about the Argument
1.5 Strong and Weak Versions of the Link
2. Content Naturalism as the Default View
2.1 The Simple Case for Content Naturalism
2.2 Worries about Content Naturalism
2.3 Content Naturalism and Scientific Realism
2.4 From Limited Content Naturalism to Methodological Naturalism
3. Why Methodological Naturalism Impacts Metaphysical Theorizing
3.1 Underdetermination
3.2 Extra-Empirical Principles in Science
3.3 Extra-Empirical Principles in Metaphysics
3.4 Consequences for the Practice of Metaphysics
3.5 Two Alternative Ways of Thinking about Extra-Empirical Reasoning
3.6 Recap
4. Case Study: Pattern Explanation and the Governing Account of Laws
4.1 The Pattern-Explanation Principle
4.2 Pattern Explanation as Metaphysically Robust Explanation
4.3 What This Tells Us about Laws of Nature
4.4 The Pattern-Explanation Principle, Inference to the Best Explanation, and Explanationism
4.5 The Governing Account and Humeanism about Laws
4.6 What Is Governance?
5. Case Study: Mooreanism and Nihilism about Composition
5.1 Minimal Divergence
5.2 Mooreanism as a Part of Standard Scientific Practice
5.3 Objections and Replies
5.4 Minimal Divergence and Nihilism about Composite Objects
5.5 Recap
6. Case Study: Excess Structure
6.1 How the Lack of a Privileged Reference Frame Creates Difficulty for Presentism
6.2 The Relativity-Inspired Objection to Actualism
6.3 Privileged Reference Frames and Privileged Modal Perspectives
6.4 Objections and Replies
6.5 Recap
7. Context Dependence in Scientific Methodology
7.1 Context Dependence as Background Dependence
7.2 Level Dependence and Competing Methodologies
7.3 Ways of Responding to Level Dependence
7.4 Context Dependence More Generally
8. Metaphysics Unmoored?
8.1 Unmoored Metaphysics without Genuine Conflicts
8.2 Unmoored Metaphysics with Genuine Conflicts
8.3 Fine-Grained Naturalism
Conclusion
References
Index
