The Structure of the World Emily Thomas (CERSS)

What is philosophy?

‘The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it.’ (Russell, 1918) Philosophy can be defined by... 1) Aims to produce a theoretical understanding of mankind and the world 2) Method ‘armchair investigation’

What is philosophy? PhilosophyEthics Political philosophy Philosophy of language EpistemologyLogicMetaphysics 3) Subject matter general and fundamental questions about existence

What is metaphysics? ‘ Metaphysics involves intuitive knowledge of improvable starting-points (concepts and truth) and demonstrative knowledge of what follows from them.’ (Aristotle, 340BC) MetaphysicsOntology Philosophy of space & time CausalityModalityComposition

Distinguishing Appearance & Reality 'We all start from naive realism, i.e., the doctrine that things are what they seem. We think that grass is green, that stones are hard, and that snow is cold. But physics assures us that the greenness of grass, the hardness of stones, and the coldness of snow are not the greenness, hardness, and coldness that we know in our own experience, but something very different.’ (Russell, 1950) We can distinguish between Appearance and Reality by i) empirical investigation ii) rational enquiry

Structuring the world using ‘part & whole’ Applying the notion of ‘part and whole’ to the world at large Examples: My arm is a part of my body This jigsaw piece is a part of the jigsaw This thread is a part of this piece of cloth A branch is a part of this tree

Monism versus atomism Parmenidean Monism (approx BC) The fundamental structure of the world is the Whole Atomism (approx BC) The fundamental structure of the world is the Parts ‘By convention sweet and by convention bitter, by convention hot, by convention cold, by convention colour: in reality atoms and void.’ (Democritus, approx. 350BC) Monism Pluralism

A (very) brief history of monism and pluralism E.g. Spinoza (1677) versus Leibniz (1714) Bradley (1893) versus Russell (1903)

The contemporary debate We can formalise the notion of a proper part as follows: Pxy = An object, x, is a proper part of a larger object, y, if some part of y is distinct from x The part-whole relation has the following attributes:  x  y  z ((Pxy & Pyz) → Pxz) = Transitive  x  y (Pxy → ¬Pyx) = Asymmetrical  x (Pxx) = Irreflexive z y x

The contemporary debate This allows for strict partial orderings. UniverseGalaxiesPlanets Living organisms MoleculesSimples?MountainsMoonsGalaxiesStars Individual suns Gas molecules Simples?

The contemporary debate Contemporary Monisms The Whole is spacetime The Whole is an ultimate mereological fusion versus... Contemporary Pluralisms The Parts are everyday objects The Parts are the subject of fundamental physics Super-substantivalism Priority monism

The structure of the world How do we determine which of these proposed accounts are correct? Engage in conceptual analysis Test theories for internal logical consistency Critically examine the arguments for each account See how they fit with science, our pre-theoretic intuitions and commonsense