Steward, H orcid.org/0000-0003-1654-577X (2020) Substances, Agents and Processes. Philosophy, 95 (1). pp. 41-61. ISSN 0031-8191
Abstract
This paper defends a substance-based metaphysics for organisms against three arguments for thinking that we should replace a substantial understanding of living things with a processual one, which are offered by Dan Nicholson and John Dupré in their edited collection, Everything Flows: Towards a Processual Philosophy of Biology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018). Dupré and Nicholson consider three main empirical motivations for the adoption of a process ontology in biology. These motivations are alleged to stem from facts concerning (i) metabolism; (ii) the life cycles of organisms; and (iii) ecological interdependence. The paper discusses each of the three arguments in turn and concludes that none gives us any compelling reason to abandon the metaphysics of things. At best, they are arguments against a kind of caricature substance metaphysics that ought never to have been in the running in any case. Then, at the end of the paper, it is suggested that there may be more positive arguments for insisting on retaining things in our metaphysics, arguments which, perhaps ironically (given the opposed standpoint of Everything Flows) get their main impetus from the phenomenon of life.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 2019 This article has been published in a revised form in Philosophy: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0031819119000494. This version is free to view and download for private research and study only. Not for re-distribution, re-sale or use in derivative works. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science (Leeds) > School of Philosophy (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 11 Oct 2019 10:55 |
Last Modified: | 16 Jan 2020 17:44 |
Published Version: | https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/philosophy |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Cambridge University Press |
Identification Number: | 10.1017/S0031819119000494 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:151986 |