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The book Metaphysics in Contemporary Physics offers various perspectives on the relation and mutual influence between modern physical theories and analytic metaphysics. The authors of the contributions are philosophers of science, physicists and metaphysicians of international renown, and their work represents the cutting edge in modern metaphysics of physical sciences.
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Metaphysics in Contemporary Physics
Poznań Studies in the Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities Founding Editor Leszek Nowak (1943–2009)
Editor-in-Chief Katarzyna Paprzycka (University of Warsaw) Editors Tomasz Bigaj (University of Warsaw) – Krzysztof Brzechczyn (Adam Mickiewicz University) – Jerzy Brzeziński (Adam Mickiewicz University) – Krzysztof Łastowski (Adam Mickiewicz University) – Joanna Odrowąż-Sypniewska (University of Warsaw) Piotr Przybysz (Adam Mickiewicz University) – Mieszko Tałasiewicz (University of Warsaw) – Krzysztof Wójtowicz (University of Warsaw) Advisory Committee Joseph Agassi (Tel-Aviv) – Wolfgang Balzer (München) – Mario Bunge (Montreal) Robert S. Cohen (Boston) – Francesco Coniglione (Catania) – Dagfinn Føllesdal (Oslo, Stanford) – Jaakko Hintikka✝ (Boston) – Jacek J. Jadacki (Warszawa) – Andrzej Klawiter (Poznań) – Theo A.F. Kuipers (Groningen) – Witold Marciszewski (Warszawa) Thomas Müller (Konstanz) – Ilkka Niiniluoto (Helsinki) – Jacek Paśniczek (Lublin) David Pearce (Madrid) – Jan Such (Poznań) – Max Urchs (Wiesbaden) – Jan Woleński (Kraków) – Ryszard Wójcicki (Warszawa) VOLUME 104
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/ps
Metaphysics in Contemporary Physics Edited by
Tomasz Bigaj Christian Wüthrich
leiden | boston
Cover illustration: Atomium, Brussels, Morguefile Library of Congress Control Number: 2015955686
issn 0303-8157 isbn 978-90-04-30963-0 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-31082-7 (e-book) Copyright 2016 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill nv incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi and Hotei Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill nv provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, ma 01923, usa. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper.
CONTENTS Tomasz Bigaj and Christian Wüthrich, Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Steven French and Kerry McKenzie, Rethinking Outside the Toolbox: Reflecting Again on the Relationship between Philosophy of Science and Metaphysics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Douglas Kutach, Ontology: An Empirical Fundamentalist Approach. 55 Vincent Lam, Quantum Structure and Spacetime. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Dean Rickles and Jessica Bloom, Things Ain’t What They Used to Be. Physics Without Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Olimpia Lombardi and Dennis Dieks, Particles in a Quantum Ontology of Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Tomasz Bigaj, Essentialism and Modern Physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 Thomas Møller-Nielsen, Symmetry and Qualitativity . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 Matteo Morganti, Relational Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 Antonio Vassallo, General Covariance, Diffeomorphism Invariance, and Background Independence in 5 Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 Ioan Muntean, A Metaphysics from String Dualities: Pluralism, F