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" The metaphysics of science and aim-oriented empiricism : "
Nicholas Maxwell.
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BL
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| Record Number
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860258
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| Main Entry
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Maxwell, Nicholas
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| Title & Author
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The metaphysics of science and aim-oriented empiricism : : a revolution for science and philosophy /\ Nicholas Maxwell.
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| Publication Statement
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Cham, Switzerland :: Springer,, [2018]
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| Series Statement
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Synthese Library ;; v. 403
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| Page. NO
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1 online resource (233 pages)
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| ISBN
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3030041433
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: 3030041441
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: 9783030041434
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: 9783030041441
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3030041425
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9783030041427
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| Bibliographies/Indexes
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Includes bibliographical references and index.
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| Contents
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Intro; Preface; Acknowledgements; Contents; Part I: The Human World/Physical Universe Problem; Chapter 1: Early Work on the Metaphysics of Science; 1.1 Outline; 1.2 Origins; 1.3 Physics and Common Sense; 1.4 Physical Essentialism; 1.5 Physics and Human Experience; Chapter 2: Subsequent Work on Essentialism and the Mind-Body Problem; 2.1 Outline; 2.2 Physical Essentialism; 2.3 Philosophical and Scientific Versions of the Mind-Body Problem; 2.4 The Bat and Mary; 2.5 Mind-Body Doctrines Prevalent in 2017; 2.6 The Human World/Physical Universe Problem; 2.7 Darwin and Free Will
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2.8 Explaining Correlations and the Unique-Matching TheoryPart II: Implications of Aim-Oriented Empiricism for Physics and Philosophy; Chapter 3: Aim-Oriented Empiricism: Exposition, and Implications for Science and the Philosophy of Science; 3.1 The Aims of Science and of Academic Inquiry; 3.2 Metaphysical Presuppositions of Physics; 3.3 Underdetermination of Theory by Evidence -- and the Role of Metaphysics; 3.4 What is it for a Theory to Be Unified?; 3.5 Reasons for Adopting and Implementing Aim-Oriented Empiricism (AOE)
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3.6 Revolutionary Implications of AOE for Science and the Philosophy of ScienceChapter 4: Aim-Oriented Empiricism and the Metaphysics of Science: 2000 to 2017; 4.1 Failure of Recent Work in the Metaphysics of Science to take AOE into Account; 4.2 Implications of Aim-Oriented Empiricism for the Metaphysics of Science; Part III: Revolution for Academia to Help Humanity Make Progress to a Wiser World; Chapter 5: Broader Implications: Academic Inquiry for a Wiser World; 5.1 Broader Implications; 5.2 The Damaging Irrationality of Knowledge-Inquiry; 5.3 Wisdom-Inquiry
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| Abstract
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This book tackles two fundamental problems: How can our human world exist and best flourish embedded as it is in the physical universe? What role do untestable, metaphysical ideas about the nature of the physical universe play in science? In connection with the first, it is argued that physics is concerned only with a highly selective aspect of all that there is - that aspect that determines how events unfold. Physics ignores human experience and consciousness, first because they are not needed to fulfil the predictive and explanatory tasks of physics, and second because they must be ignored if physics is to develop the beautifully explanatory theories that it does develop. In connection with the second fundamental problem, it is argued that physics, as a result of accepting unified theories only, makes a highly problematic metaphysical assumption about the nature of the physical universe: it is such that some unknown, unified "theory of everything" is true. Precisely because this assumption is so profoundly problematic, it needs to be made explicit within physics, so that it can be critically assessed and, we may hope, improved. The author puts forward a revolutionary philosophy of science called aim-oriented empiricism (AOE), designed to facilitate improvement in the metaphysics of physics, as physics proceeds. The author has devoted many years developing AOE and publishing papers on it. Here he spells out the implications of AOE for the metaphysics of science. The main body of the book expounds and critically assesses many key works in the metaphysics of science published from 2007 to 2018. The book concludes by considering the broader implications of aim-oriented empiricism, for science, for academic inquiry and, even, for the future of humanity.
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| Subject
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Philosophy and science.
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Philosophy and science.
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| Dewey Classification
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501
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| LC Classification
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B67.M39 2018
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