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Ideas of Tim Maudlin, by Text

[American, fl. 2003, Professor at Rutgers University.]

2007 The Metaphysics within Physics
Intro p.1 Laws of nature are ontological bedrock, and beyond analysis
Intro p.1 The metaphysics of nature should focus on physics
Intro p.3 The Humean view is wrong; laws and direction of time are primitive, and atoms are decided by physics
Intro p.4 If the universe is profligate, the Razor leads us astray
1.2 p.8 Laws should help explain the things they govern, or that manifest them
1.4 p.17 Laws are primitive, so two indiscernible worlds could have the same laws
1.5 p.21 Evaluating counterfactuals involves context and interests
1.5 p.23 A counterfactual antecedent commands the redescription of a selected moment
1.5 p.33 We don't pick a similar world from many - we construct one possibility from the description
1.6 p.36 'Humans with prime house numbers are mortal' is not a law, because not a natural kind
2.5 p.72 A property is fundamental if two objects can differ in only that respect
2.5 p.75 Induction leaps into the unknown, but usually lands safely
2.5 p.76 The Razor rightly prefers one cause of multiple events to coincidences of causes
3 p.78 Kant survives in seeing metaphysics as analysing our conceptual system, which is a priori
3.1 p.81 To get an ontology from ontological commitment, just add that some theory is actually true
3.1 p.82 Naïve translation from natural to formal language can hide or multiply the ontology
3.1 p.83 Existence of universals may just be decided by acceptance, or not, of second-order logic
3.2 p.96 Fundamental physics seems to suggest there are no such things as properties
4 p.107 I believe the passing of time is a fundamental fact about the world
4.1 p.112 If time passes, presumably it passes at one second per second
4.3 n11 p.126 There is one ordered B series, but an infinitude of A series, depending on when the present is
5 p.143 If we know the cause of an event, we seem to assent to the counterfactual
5 p.143 The counterfactual is ruined if some other cause steps in when the antecedent fails
5 p.144 If the effect hadn't occurred the cause wouldn't have happened, so counterfactuals are two-way
5.2 p.150 If laws are just regularities, then there have to be laws
6 p.171 Lewis says it supervenes on the Mosaic, but actually thinks the Mosaic is all there is
6 p.172 If the Humean Mosaic is ontological bedrock, there can be no explanation of its structure
6 p.172 Fundamental laws say how nature will, or might, evolve from some initial state
7 Epilogue p.185 The 'spinning disc' is just impossible, because there cannot be 'homogeneous matter'
7 Epilogue p.188 Wide metaphysical possibility may reduce metaphysics to analysis of fantasies
7 Epilogue p.189 Logically impossible is metaphysically impossible, but logically possible is not metaphysically possible