38 ideas
15053 | If metaphysics can't be settled, it hardly matters whether it makes sense [Fine,K] |
15054 | 'Quietist' says abandon metaphysics because answers are unattainable (as in Kant's noumenon) [Fine,K] |
23505 | Aristotelian logic cannot express 'Everyone loves someone' [White,RM] |
15007 | If you make 'grounding' fundamental, you have to mention some non-fundamental notions [Sider on Fine,K] |
15006 | Something is grounded when it holds, and is explained, and necessitated by something else [Fine,K, by Sider] |
15055 | Grounding relations are best expressed as relations between sentences [Fine,K] |
15050 | Reduction might be producing a sentence which gets closer to the logical form [Fine,K] |
15051 | Reduction might be semantic, where a reduced sentence is understood through its reduction [Fine,K] |
15052 | Reduction is modal, if the reductions necessarily entail the truth of the target sentence [Fine,K] |
15056 | The notion of reduction (unlike that of 'ground') implies the unreality of what is reduced [Fine,K] |
15060 | Why should what is explanatorily basic be therefore more real? [Fine,K] |
15046 | Reality is a primitive metaphysical concept, which cannot be understood in other terms [Fine,K] |
15047 | What is real can only be settled in terms of 'ground' [Fine,K] |
15048 | In metaphysics, reality is regarded as either 'factual', or as 'fundamental' [Fine,K] |
15061 | Although colour depends on us, we can describe the world that way if it picks out fundamentals [Fine,K] |
15059 | Grounding is an explanation of truth, and needs all the virtues of good explanations [Fine,K] |
15057 | Ultimate explanations are in 'grounds', which account for other truths, which hold in virtue of the grounding [Fine,K] |
15058 | A proposition ingredient is 'essential' if changing it would change the truth-value [Fine,K] |
21181 | Relativity and Quantum theory give very different accounts of forces [Hesketh] |
21183 | Thermodynamics introduced work and entropy, to understand steam engine efficiency [Hesketh] |
21191 | Photons are B and W° bosons, linked by the Higgs mechanism [Hesketh] |
21199 | Spinning electric charge produces magnetism, so all fermions are magnets [Hesketh] |
21189 | Electrons may have smaller components, bound by a new force [Hesketh] |
21180 | Electrons are fundamental and are not made of anything; they are properties without size [Hesketh] |
21182 | Quantum mechanics is our only theory, and is very precise, and repeatedly confirmed [Hesketh] |
21184 | Physics was rewritten to explain stable electron orbits [Hesketh] |
21187 | Virtual particles can't be measured, and can ignore the laws of physics [Hesketh] |
21185 | Colour charge is positive or negative, and also has red, green or blue direction [Hesketh] |
21194 | The Standard Model omits gravity, because there are no particles involved [Hesketh] |
21195 | In Supersymmetry the Standard Model simplifies at high energies [Hesketh] |
21197 | Standard Model forces are one- two- and three-dimensional [Hesketh] |
21188 | Quarks and leptons have a weak charge, for the weak force [Hesketh] |
21186 | Quarks rush wildly around in protons, restrained by the gluons [Hesketh] |
21192 | Neutrinos only interact with the weak force, but decays produce them in huge numbers [Hesketh] |
21196 | To combine the forces, they must all be the same strength at some point [Hesketh] |
21190 | 'Space' in physics just means location [Hesketh] |
21193 | The universe is 68% dark energy, 27% dark matter, 5% regular matter [Hesketh] |
21198 | If a cosmic theory relies a great deal on fine-tuning basic values, it is probably wrong [Hesketh] |