Thompson, NMC (2016) Is Naturalness Natural? American Philosophical Quarterly, 53 (4). pp. 381-395. ISSN 0003-0481
Abstract
The perfectly natural properties and relations are special – they are all and only those that “carve nature at its joints”. They act as reference magnets; form a minimal supervenience base; figure in fundamental physics and in the laws of nature; and never divide duplicates within or between worlds. If the perfectly natural properties are the (metaphysically) important ones, we should expect being a perfectly natural property to itself be one of the (perfectly) natural properties. This paper argues that being a perfectly natural property is not a very natural property, and examines the consequences.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | (c) 2016 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. This is an author produced version of a paper published in the American Philosophical Quarterly and available at http://www.press.uillinois.edu/journals.php. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Natural properties; Perfect naturalness; David Lewis; Joint-carving |
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: | 19 Oct 2015 11:04 |
Last Modified: | 01 Oct 2017 03:07 |
Published Version: | http://www.press.uillinois.edu/journals.php |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | University of Illinois Press |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:90530 |