Physical composition

Richard Healey

doi:10.1016/j.shpsb.2011.05.001

Physical composition

Richard Healey

Philosophy

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

27 Scopus citations

Abstract

Atomistic metaphysics motivated an explanatory strategy which science has pursued with great success since the scientific revolution. By decomposing matter into its atomic and subatomic parts physics gave us powerful explanations and accurate predictions as well as providing a unifying framework for the rest of science. The success of the decompositional strategy has encouraged a widespread conviction that the physical world forms a compositional hierarchy that physics and other sciences are progressively articulating. But this conviction does not stand up to a closer examination of how physics has treated composition, as a variety of case studies will show.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	48-62
Number of pages	15
Journal	Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B - Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics
Volume	44
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsb.2011.05.001
State	Published - Feb 2013

Keywords

Composition
Condensed matter
Metaphysics
Physicalism
Reduction
Standard Model

ASJC Scopus subject areas

History
General Physics and Astronomy
History and Philosophy of Science

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10.1016/j.shpsb.2011.05.001

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title = "Physical composition",

abstract = "Atomistic metaphysics motivated an explanatory strategy which science has pursued with great success since the scientific revolution. By decomposing matter into its atomic and subatomic parts physics gave us powerful explanations and accurate predictions as well as providing a unifying framework for the rest of science. The success of the decompositional strategy has encouraged a widespread conviction that the physical world forms a compositional hierarchy that physics and other sciences are progressively articulating. But this conviction does not stand up to a closer examination of how physics has treated composition, as a variety of case studies will show.",

keywords = "Composition, Condensed matter, Metaphysics, Physicalism, Reduction, Standard Model",

author = "Richard Healey",

note = "Funding Information: This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant no. SES-0848022 . Versions of parts of it were presented in a public lecture in Leiden and to the associated Lorentz Center Interdisciplinary Workshop on “Part and Whole in Physics” held in March 2010. I wish to thank the Center and its staff as well as NIAS for supporting and hosting this workshop, Jos Uffink for his active collaboration in organizing it as well as securing additional external support, and the workshop participants for contributing to such a successful and productive exchange of views. Finally I wish to thank the University of Sydney, and Huw Price, Director of the Centre for the Study of Time, for inviting me to give a series of lectures on “Physics Without Building Blocks” early in 2010 in conjunction with the award of an International Visiting Research Fellowship, thereby providing the stimulus and opportunity to share these ideas at a formative stage. ",

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KW - Condensed matter

KW - Metaphysics

KW - Physicalism

KW - Reduction

KW - Standard Model

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Physical composition

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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