Every Thing Must Go: Metaphysics Naturalized 1st Edition by James Ladyman (PDF)

Description

Every Thing Must Go aruges that the only kind of metaphysics that can contribute to objective knowledge is one based specifically on contemporary science as it really is, and not on philosophers’ a priori intuitions, common sense, or simplifications of science. In addition to showing how recent metaphysics has drifted away from connection with all other serious scholarly inquiry as a result of not heeding this restriction, they demonstrate how to build a metaphysics compatible with current fundamental phsyics (“ontic structural realism”), which, when combined with their metaphysics of the special sciences (“rainforet realism”), can be used to unify physics with the other sciences without reducing these sciences to physics intself. Taking science metaphysically seriously, Ladyman and Ross argue, means that metaphysicians must abandon the picture of the world as composed of self-subsistent individual objects, and the paradigm of causation as the collision of such objects. Every Thing Must Go also assesses the role of information theory and complex systems theory in attempts to explain the relationship between the special sciences and physics, treading a middle road between the grand synthesis of thermodynamics and information, and eliminativism about information. The consequences of the author’s metaphysical theory for central issues in the philosophy of science are explored, including the implications for the realism vs. empiricism debate, the role of causation in scientific explanations, the nature of causation and laws, the status of abstract and virtual objects, and the objective reality of natural kinds

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐I believe much of modern academic philosophy is fundamentally wrong in many ways. Explaining why is beyond the scope of this review but essentially I think most modern philosophers don’t understand or have a wrong view of the proper relation between philosophy and science. But this book is one of the rare ones (along with Chomsky’s philosophical writing and lectures) that IMO gets it right. It requires time to sit down and read very carefully because the ideas are complex but it is worth the effort. I disagree with some of their conclusions but it is one of the few modern philosophy books that I felt was worth wading through and it really made me think.

⭐Ladyman and Ross provide an account of ontic structural realism (OSR) with some new concepts and arguments that Ladyman and Franch have not included in their previous articles. OSR challenges the traditional ontology of “things” or “stuff” and adds freshness to the metaphysical debates. The book is an essential reading for those interested in the philosophy of science and philosophy of mathematics. OSR is still very controversial but it exposes some problems with traditional metaphysics.Among the difficulties of OSR is its view that only the mathematical structure can be known and that it is all what exist, i.e., nothing exists in the real world other than the structure. Even particles like electrons or photons do not exist as real relata but are devices meant to attain knowledge of the structure. The idea that the relational structure has no relata (entities between which there can be relations) is counterintuitive, and has been ruthlessly criticized. So far the proponents of OSR could not clarify their contention that the mathematical structure is also physical. In spite of the inadequacy of arguments for OSR, the position remains interesting and bold.

⭐[What follows is an extract from two essays published at Rationally Speaking dot org; check also a forthcoming episode of the Rationally Speaking podcast featuring an interview with James Ladyman.] I must admit that the title of the first chapter — “In defense of scientism” — did not dispose me well toward the book. I think the term scientism ought to be reserved for what it has traditionally indicated, an unwarranted over reliance on science (yes, there is such a thing), or the thoughtless application of science where it doesn’t belong (ditto), and it pisses me off to no end when philosophers actually use it as a positive term (as, most egregiously, in Alex Rosenberg’s so-called Atheist’s Guide to Reality). However, I got past the initial annoyance, and started to appreciate the (complex) arguments made by Ladyman, Ross and their occasional co-writers. Indeed, by the end of the book it turns out that Every Thing Must Go is, among other things, a pretty good argument against the sort of scientism that worries me, and in particular against the nowadays very popular physical reductionism espoused by the likes of Rosenberg, Harris & co. … The surprising upshot of all of this is that physicalist reductionism — the idea that all the special sciences and their objects of study will eventually reduce to physics and its objects of study — is out of the question. And it is out of the question because of a metaphysics (ontic structural realism) that is based on the best physics available! If you are not blown away by this you may not have caught the thing in its entirety and may want to go back and re-read this post (or, if your philosophical and physical chops are adequate, ETMG). This has all sorts of implication for those increasingly popular (and, I think, annoying) statements about determinism and reductionism that we keep hearing. Turns out that they are based on bad physics and worse metaphysics. There is no fundamental determinism for the simple reason that there is no fundamental causality, and that “cause” is a conceptual tool deployed by the special sciences that has no counterpart in fundamental physics, and so it cannot be reduced to or eliminated by the latter. In other words, read the book, it’s definitely worth your time!

⭐Anybody interested in the foundational importance of physics for doing metaphysics should read this book. My only complaint is that, like most metaphysical discussions, the presentation is a bit tedious at times. Nevertheless, Ladyman et.al. manage to make a strong case that all metaphysics must be anchored in fundamental physics if it is to have any probative value.

⭐THEY HATE THE LEVELS METAPHOR BUT ARE RAINFOREST REALISTS AND TALK ABOUT SECOND-ORDER REAL PATTERNS.. WHAT THE ??????? I DON’T GET ITAlso, they keep using economics as an example of an advanced special science. .. HAHAHAHAHAHA

⭐The content of the book is outstanding but it reads like end of project documentation – as if the authors didn’t enjoy writing it and couldn’t wait to finish. This leaves the poor reader to struggle with some ghastly writing, with no recaps and summaries and all the usual hand-holding that a good editor should have insisted on for those who are struggling to remember the line of thinking between putting down and next picking up the book. I guess it is the outcome of writing a book by committee.Was it worth the struggle? On the whole, yes. Ladyman makes a good case for Real Patterns, and there is one diagram that summarises the argument and keeps you sane over the days and weeks it will take the intellectually curious but lay reader to navigate this text.It is a shame though, not to have worked a bit harder to bring the important messages to a wider audience beyond and as well as what seems to be a very argumentative metaphysics community who need, not unreasonably for their own approach to life, every single possible objection to be raised, explained and dealt with before they will accept a proposition.

⭐Ottimo prodotto, spedizione rapida e addirittura in anticipo. Lettura critica interessante e brillante sul rapporto tra la metafisica e la scienza contemporanea. Consigliato a chi è già familiare con l’argomento.

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