Condensed Matter
Condensing recent work in metaphysics and the philosophy of science down to what matters. Hosted by Dr Sam Kimpton-Nye, research associate on the MetaScience project (ERC, Horizon 2020, grant agreement No 771509; www.metascience.xyz) at the Unversity of Bristol. Music: NaturesEye from Pixabay. Art: Francesca Smith
Episodes
38 episodes
37: "Why Being Necessary Really Is Not the Same As Being Not Possibly Not", Dana Goswick
Modality (possibility, necessity and related phenomena) is central to philosophy both as a topic of inquiry and as a methodological tool. There are many controversies about the nature of possibility and necessity and about what counts as possib...
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9:23
36: "The Singularity: A Philosophical Analysis", David Chalmers
Recently, there has been frenzied interest in artificial intelligence and, in particular, in the issue of AI safety; there have been “open letters” signed by some of the biggest names in the tech business urging us to take seriously th...
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23:47
35: "There is no measurement problem for Humeans", Chris Dorst
The measurement problem highlights a deeply puzzling feature of quantum mechanics: nature seems to obey one law when not measured and a completely different law when measured. But how does nature "recognise" measurement contexts?! What explains...
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16:21
34: "The Limits of Modality", Sam Cowling
This episode is about Sam Cowling's "The Limits of Modality" published in the Philosophical Quarterly in 2011. Are all true propositions either contingent or necessary? Cowling argues that if we want to understand the metaphysics of mod...
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13:45
33: "Biochemical Functions", Francesca Bellazzi (deep dive featuring the author!)
In the episode, I talk with Francesca Bellazzi about her paper "Biochemical Functions", which is forthcoming in the British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. We discuss the distinction between functions and mere accidents, the peculiar puz...
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37:04
32: "Substance", Donnchadh O'Conaill (deep dive featuring the author!)
In this episode, I ask Donnchadh O'Conaill about themes from his book "Substance" which is forthcoming with Cambridge University Press as part of the Cambridge Elements in Metaphysics series. We cover the roles in metaphysical theorising that s...
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1:13:59
31: "Biological Individuality and the Foetus Problem", Will Morgan (deep dive featuring the author!)
In this episode, I talk to my Bristol MetaScience colleague, Dr Will Morgan, about his recently published paper in which he argues that if we accept the physiological approach to biological individuality, it seems that a foetus never become...
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45:40
30: “How Skeptical is Quine’s “Modal Skepticism”?”, John Divers
Was Quine really a modal sceptic--someone who thought that modality was unintelligible or paradoxical? Divers thinks he is better cast as a non-sceptical modal anti-realist. Here's a link to the paper:
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14:35
Ep. 29: "Modal Conventionalism", Ross Cameron
The focus of this episode is Ross Cameron's "Modal Conventionalism" published in The Routledge Handbook of Modality in 2021. Here is a
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9:26
Ep. 28: "Panpsychism", Thomas Nagel (CM classic!)
The focus of this episode is Thomas Nagel’s “Panpsychism”, published by Cambridge University Press in his “Mortal Questions” anthology. This isn’t a recent paper, it was first published in 1979. But it is a nice, sober, discussion o...
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9:25
Ep. 27: “Modal dispositionalism and necessary perfect masks”, Barbara Vetter and Ralf Busse
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11:37
Ep. 26: "An Apology for Naturalized Metaphysics", James Ladyman (deep dive featuring the author!)
Support the show on Patreon to gain instant access to searchable, comment-on-able PDF scripts of all solo episodes! Your support will help to defray hosting and equipment costs and is very m...
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49:22
Ep. 25 "The Governing Conception of Laws", Nina Emery (deep dive featuring the author!)
For this episode, I’m joined by Professor Nina Emery to discuss her paper “The Governing Conception of Laws", forthcoming in Ergo. Nina is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Mount Holyoak College. Nina is also the president-elect of the so...
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48:25
Ep. 24: “Going Beyond the Fundamental: Feminism in Contemporary Metaphysics”, Elizabeth Barnes
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9:52
Ep. 23: "Governing Without a Fundamental Direction of Time", Chen and Goldstein
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11:48
Ep. 22: "Aristotelian Supervenience", John Heil
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11:25
Episode 21: "Causal Content and Global Laws: Grounding Modality in Experimental Practice", Jenann Ismael
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10:22
Episode 20: "Disagreement in Metaphysics", Timothy WIlliamson
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12:24
Episode 19: "Realism Without Parochialism", Phillip Bricker
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10:53
Episode 18: "Metaphysics After Carnap: the Ghost Who Walks?", Huw Price
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13:32
Episode 17: "Social kinds are essentially mind-dependent", Rebecca Mason
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11:05
Episode 16: "Calculus and counterpossibles in science", Brian McLoone
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11:15
Episode 15: "The rationality of metaphysics", E.J. Lowe
The focus of this episode is E.J. Lowe's "The rationality of metaphysics", published in Synthese in 2011.**I have a slip of the tongue in the recording and say that the paper was published in 2021! It was definitely published in 2...
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12:17
Episode 14: "Where Do You Get Your Protein? Or: Biochemical Realization", Tuomas Tahko (deep dive featuring the author!)
For this episode, I’m joined by Professor Tuomas Tahko to discuss his paper “Where Do You Get Your Protein? Or: Biochemical Realization", published in The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science in 2020. Tuomas is Professor of Metap...
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40:15