- The Oxford Handbook of Philosophical Methodology
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Figures
- About the Contributors
- What is Philosophical Methodology?
- The Methodology of the History of Philosophy
- Methodology in Nineteenth-and Early Twentieth-Century Analytic Philosophy
- Nineteenth-Century and Early Twentieth-Century Post-Kantian Philosophy
- Logical Empiricism
- Ordinary Language Philosophy
- Wittgenstein’s Global Deflationism
- Philosophical Naturalism
- Method in Analytic Metaphysics
- Phenomenology
- The Pragmatic Method
- Reflective Equilibrium
- Analytic–Synthetic and A Priori–A Posteriori History
- Philosophical and Conceptual Analysis
- Modeling
- Intuitions
- Philosophical Progress
- Conceivability and Possibility
- Philosophical Heuristics and Philosophical Methodology
- Disagreement in Philosophy: Its Epistemic Significance
- Faith and Reason
- Experimental Philosophy
- Transcendental Arguments
- Physics and Method
- Linguistic and Philosophical Methodology
- History of Ideas: A Defense
- The Methodology of Political Theory
- Philosophy and Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Logic and Philosophical Methodology
- Philosophy of Mathematics: Issues and Methods
- Methods in the Philosophy of Literature and Film
- Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art
- The Methodology of Legal Philosophy
- Feminism
- Critical Philosophy of Race
- Index of Names
- Index
Abstract and Keywords
This article deals with the methodologies used in philosophy of physics. It begins by considering some methodological inclinations at large in the community of philosophers of physics in order to convey some sense of the plethora of methodologies, self-conscious and otherwise, to be found at the interfaces of philosophy, mathematics, and physics. It then describes and defends a methodological inclination to understand and pursue the project of interpreting physical theories in a way that runs counter to a methodological disposition prevalent among philosophers of physics. This disposition is toward “Naturalism”: the view that the only respectable metaphysics is the metaphysics that makes the best sense of our best physics.
Keywords: philosophical methodology, philosophy of physics, philosophers, physics, philosophy, mathematics, physical theories, Naturalism
Laura Ruetsche is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Michigan. Her Interpreting quantum theories: The art of the possible (Oxford, 2011) aims to articulate questions about the foundations of quantum field theories whose answers might hold interest for philosophy more broadly construed.
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- The Oxford Handbook of Philosophical Methodology
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Figures
- About the Contributors
- What is Philosophical Methodology?
- The Methodology of the History of Philosophy
- Methodology in Nineteenth-and Early Twentieth-Century Analytic Philosophy
- Nineteenth-Century and Early Twentieth-Century Post-Kantian Philosophy
- Logical Empiricism
- Ordinary Language Philosophy
- Wittgenstein’s Global Deflationism
- Philosophical Naturalism
- Method in Analytic Metaphysics
- Phenomenology
- The Pragmatic Method
- Reflective Equilibrium
- Analytic–Synthetic and A Priori–A Posteriori History
- Philosophical and Conceptual Analysis
- Modeling
- Intuitions
- Philosophical Progress
- Conceivability and Possibility
- Philosophical Heuristics and Philosophical Methodology
- Disagreement in Philosophy: Its Epistemic Significance
- Faith and Reason
- Experimental Philosophy
- Transcendental Arguments
- Physics and Method
- Linguistic and Philosophical Methodology
- History of Ideas: A Defense
- The Methodology of Political Theory
- Philosophy and Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Logic and Philosophical Methodology
- Philosophy of Mathematics: Issues and Methods
- Methods in the Philosophy of Literature and Film
- Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art
- The Methodology of Legal Philosophy
- Feminism
- Critical Philosophy of Race
- Index of Names
- Index