Colin Mcginn

Basic Structures of Reality (eBook, PDF)

Essays in Meta-Physics

• Format: PDF

Produktbeschreibung

In Basic Structures of Reality, Colin McGinn deals with questions of metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of mind from the vantage point of physics. Combining general philosophy with physics, he covers such topics as the definition of matter, the nature of space, motion, gravity, electromagnetic fields, the character of physical knowledge, and consciousness and meaning. Throughout, McGinn maintains an historical perspective and seeks to determine how much we really know of the world described by physics. He defends a version of "structuralism": the thesis that our knowledge is partial and merely abstract, leaving a large epistemological gap at the center of physics. McGinn then connects this element of mystery to parallel mysteries in relation to the mind. Consciousness emerges as just one more mystery of physics. A theory of matter and space is developed, according to which the impenetrability of matter is explained as the deletion of volumes of space. McGinn proposes a philosophy of science that distinguishes physics from both psychology and biology, explores the ontology of energy, and considers the relevance of physics to seemingly remote fields such as the theory of meaning. In the form of a series of aphorisms, the author presents a metaphysical system that takes laws of nature as fundamental. With its broad scope and deep study of the fundamental questions at the heart of philosophy of physics, this book is not intended primarily for specialists, but for the general philosophical reader interested in how physics and philosophy intersect.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Oxford University Press
• Erscheinungstermin: 9. Dezember 2011
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9780199909537
• Artikelnr.: 38160151

Autorenporträt

Colin McGinn is Professor of Philosophy, University of Miami. He is the author of 18 books including Ethics, Evil, and Fiction (1997), Minds and Bodies (1997), Consciousness and Its Objects (2004), The Meanings of Disgust; also Shakespeare's Philosophy, The Mysterious Flame: Conscious Minds in a Material World, The Making of a Philosopher, Mindsight: Image, Dream, and Meaning and others.

Inhaltsangabe

PART ONE
Introduction: Philosophy and Physics
Chapter 1: The Concept of Matter
Postscript: Particles as Fields: An Objection
Appendix One: The Uniformity of Matter
Appendix Two: Divisibility and Size
Chapter 2: What is a Physical Object?
Chapter 3: The Possibility of Motion
Chapter 4: Motion, Change, and Physics
Chapter 5: The Law of Inertia
Chapter 6: Mass, Gravity, and Motion
Chapter 7: Electric Charge: A Case Study
Chapter 8: Two Types of Science
Chapter 9: The Ontology of Energy
Chapter 10: Consciousness as a Form of Matter
Chapter 11: Matter and Meaning
PART TWO
Principia Metaphysica