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10Whose Hylomorphism? Which Theory of Prime Matter?Ancient Philosophy Today 6 (1): 65-91. 2024.Medieval interpretations of hylomorphism, in which substances are conceived as metaphysical composites of prime matter and substantial form, are receiving attention in contemporary philosophy. It has even been suggested that a recovery of Aquinas's conception of prime matter as a ‘pure potentiality’, lacking any actuality apart from substantial form, may be expedient in hylomorphic interpretations of quantum mechanics. In this paper, we consider a recent hylomorphic interpretation of non-relativ…Read more
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25Prime Matter and Modern PhysicsAncient Philosophy Today 6 (1): 1-5. 2024.Medieval interpretations of hylomorphism, in which substances are conceived as metaphysical composites of prime matter and substantial form, are receiving attention in contemporary philosophy. It has even been suggested that a recovery of Aquinas's conception of prime matter as a ‘pure potentiality’, lacking any actuality apart from substantial form, may be expedient in hylomorphic interpretations of quantum mechanics. In this paper, we consider a recent hylomorphic interpretation of non-relativ…Read more
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41Small Worlds with Cosmic PowersJournal of Philosophy 120 (8): 401-420. 2023.The wave function of quantum mechanics can be understood in terms of the dispositional role it plays in the dynamics of a distribution of matter in three-dimensional space (or four-dimensional spacetime). There is more than one way, however, of specifying its dispositional role. This paper considers Suárez’s theory of ‘Bohmian dispositionalism’, in which the particles are endowed with their own ‘Bohmian dispositions’, and Simpson’s theory of ‘Cosmic Hylomorphism’, in which the particle configura…Read more
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The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science | Vol 75, No 2British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. 2020.
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5The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science | Vol 74, No 4British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. 2020.
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10What’s the Matter with Super-Humeanism?British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 72 (3). 2020.Esfeld has proposed a minimalist ontology of nature called ‘super-Humeanism’ that purports to accommodate quantum phenomena and avoid standard objections to neo-Humean metaphysics. I argue that Esfeld’s sparse ontology has counterintuitive consequences and generates two self-undermining dilemmas concerning the nature of time and space. Contrary to Esfeld, I deny that super-Humeanism supports an ontology of microscopic particles that follow continuous trajectories through space. 1Introduction 2Ma…Read more
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7The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science | Vol 74, No 3British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. 2020.
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47Emergence: Towards a New Metaphysics and Philosophy of Science by Mariusz Tabaczek (review) (review)The Thomist 85 159-163. 2021.A review of "Emergence: Towards a New Metaphysics and Philosophy of Science" By MARIUSZ TABACZEK.
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19Half-Baked HumeanismIn William M. R. Simpson, Robert Charles Koons & Nicholas Teh (eds.), Neo-Aristotelian Perspectives on Contemporary Science, Routledge. pp. 123-145. 2017.Toby Handfield has advanced a subtle form of dispositionalism that purports to reconcile the concept of causal powers with broadly Humean convictions by dissolving the requirement for objectively modal relations between powers and their manifestations. He suggests we should identify manifestations with certain types of causal processes, and identify powers with properties that are parts of their structures. The modal features of causal powers can then be explained in terms of internal relations …Read more
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80From Quantum Physics to Classical MetaphysicsIn William Simpson, Koons Robert & James Orr (eds.), Neo-Aristotelian Metaphysics and the Theology of Nature, Routledge. pp. 21-65. 2021.In this chapter, I argue that Aristotle’s doctrine of hylomorphism, which conceived the natural world as consisting of substances which are metaphysically composed of matter and form, is ripe for rehabilitation in the light of quantum physics. I begin by discussing Aristotle’s conception of matter and form, as it was understood by Aquinas, and how Aristotle’s doctrine of hylomorphism was ‘physicalised’ and eventually abandoned with the rise of microphysicalism. I argue that the phenomenon of qua…Read more
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Toppling the Pyramids: physics without physical state monismIn Anna Marmodoro, Christopher Austin & Andrea Roselli (eds.), Powers, Time and Free Will, Springer. 2022.In this paper, we challenge a wide-spread assumption among philosophers that contemporary physics supports physical state monism. This is the claim that the causal powers of a system supervene upon the ‘lower-level’ laws and the lower-level state of the cosmos (as represented by our ‘best physics’). On this view, it makes sense to ignore a macroscopic system’s higher-level properties in determining its causal powers, since any higher-level powers are merely artifacts of our special interests. We…Read more
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43Reconsidering causal powers: historical and conceptual perspectives: edited by Benjamin Hill, Henrik Lagerlund, and Stathis Psillos, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2021, pp. 306, £65.00 (hb), ISBN: 9780198869528 (review)British Journal for the History of Philosophy 29 (5): 958-960. 2021.The concept of ‘causal powers’ as principles of necessary change, once derided by mainstream philosophers in the thrall of David Hume, has made a dramatic comeback and seems to be here to stay. The...
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30Ontological aspects of the Casimir EffectStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 48 (1): 84-88. 2014.
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83Cosmic hylomorphism: A powerist ontology of quantum mechanicsEuropean Journal for Philosophy of Science 11 (1): 1-25. 2021.The primitive ontology approach to quantum mechanics seeks to account for quantum phenomena in terms of a distribution of matter in three-dimensional space and a law of nature that describes its temporal development. This approach to explaining quantum phenomena is compatible with either a Humean or powerist account of laws. In this paper, I offer a powerist ontology in which the law is specified by Bohmian mechanics for a global configuration of particles. Unlike in other powerist ontologies, h…Read more
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62What’s the Matter with Super-Humeanism?British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 72 (3): 893-911. 2021.Esfeld has proposed a minimalist ontology of nature called ‘super-Humeanism’ that purports to accommodate quantum phenomena and avoid standard objections to neo-Humean metaphysics. I argue that Esfeld’s sparse ontology has counterintuitive consequences and generates two self-undermining dilemmas concerning the nature of time and space. Contrary to Esfeld, I deny that super-Humeanism supports an ontology of microscopic particles that follow continuous trajectories through space.
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77Neo-Aristotelian Metaphysics and the Theology of Nature (edited book)Routledge. 2021.Despite the growing interest in Aristotelian approaches to contemporary philosophy of science, few metaphysicians have engaged directly with the question of how a neo-Aristotelian metaphysics of nature might change the landscape for theological discussion concerning theology and naturalism, the place of human beings within nature, or the problem of divine causality. The chapters in this volume are collected into three thematic sections: Naturalism and Nature, Mind and Nature, and God and Nature.…Read more
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41Neo-Aristotelian Perspectives on Contemporary Science (edited book)Routledge. 2017.The last two decades have seen two significant trends emerging within the philosophy of science: the rapid development and focus on the philosophy of the specialised sciences, and a resurgence of Aristotelian metaphysics, much of which is concerned with the possibility of emergence, as well as the ontological status and indispensability of dispositions and powers in science. Despite these recent trends, few Aristotelian metaphysicians have engaged directly with the philosophy of the specialised …Read more