Condensed Matter

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 possible or necessary. But it is generally agreed that possibility and necessity are intimitely related, they are interdefinable : being possible is the same as b...

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 the existential threat posed by AI, and the UK government has just announced that it will convene the first global AI safety summit this autumn.  But what is the thre...

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 these shifts in how nature operates?  For the Humean about laws, i.e., one who maintains that nature unthinkingly acts and the laws describe, the...

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 modality in terms of possible worlds we should maintain that certain true propositions are neither contingent nor necessary but just true simpliciter. I...

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 puzzle posed by biochemical functions, evolutionary explanations, the relationship between science and philosophy and much more! Click here for the p...

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 substance plays, candidate examples of substance, the methodology of metaphysics and its relationship to science among other things. Click her...

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 becomes the organism that is present after birth. This then raises the difficult question: what happens to the foetus? We also touch on the relevance of metaphysics t...

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: https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/122483/1/how%20Skeptical%3F.pdf Support the show

The focus of this episode is Ross Cameron's "Modal Conventionalism" published in The Routledge Handbook of Modality in 2021. Here is a link to the paper, but these handbooks are insanely expensive, which I suppose is a good reason to do more episodes based on their chapters!  Support the show

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 of panpsychism that makes quite clear a relatively sensible motivation for the view as well as what is involved in its denial. This all makes for a nice change to some...

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 much appreciated. The focus of this episode is “Modal dispositionalism and necessary perfect masks”, by Barbara Vetter and Ralf Busse, forthcoming in Analysis. Link to the paper: https://academic.oup.com/analysi...

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 much appreciated. For this episode, I’m joined by Professor James Ladyman to discuss his paper "An Apology for Naturalized Metaphysics", published in 2017 by Oxford University Press in Metaphysics and...

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 society for the metaphysics of science. Link to the paper: https://philarchive.org/archive/EMETGC More about Nina: http://www.ninaemery.org/ The Society...

 Click here for the article. If you are enjoying Condensed Matter, please consider supporting the show on Patreon . In recognition of your support, you'll get the opportunity to suggest articles and guests for future episodes. You'll also now get access to PDF scripts of the solo episodes! You can carry on the discussion on Twitter and there's even an Instagram page. Thanks for list...

 Click here for the article. If you are enjoying Condensed Matter, please consider supporting the show on Patreon . In recognition of your support, you'll get the opportunity to suggest articles and guests for future episodes. You'll also now get access to PDF scripts of the solo episodes! You can carry on the discussion on Twitter and there's even an Instagram page. Thanks for list...

 Click here for the article. If you are enjoying Condensed Matter, please consider supporting the show on Patreon . In recognition of your support, you'll get the opportunity to suggest articles and guests for future episodes. You'll also now get access to PDF scripts of the solo episodes! You can carry on the discussion on Twitter and there's even an Instagram page. Thanks for list...

 Click here for the article. If you are enjoying Condensed Matter, please consider supporting the show on Patreon . In recognition of your support, you'll get the opportunity to suggest articles and guests for future episodes. You'll also now get access to PDF scripts of the solo episodes! You can carry on the discussion on Twitter and there's even an Instagram page. Thanks for list...

 Click here for the article. If you are enjoying Condensed Matter, please consider supporting the show on Patreon . In recognition of your support, you'll get the opportunity to suggest articles and guests for future episodes. I'm also thinking about what else I can offer Patreon supporters, so support the show and you'll be first to know! You can carry on the discussion on Twitter...

 Click here for the article. If you are enjoying Condensed Matter, please consider supporting the show on Patreon . In recognition of your support, you'll get the opportunity to suggest articles and guests for future episodes. You can carry on the discussion on Twitter and there's even an Instagram page. Thanks for listening!        Support the show

 Click here for the article. If you are enjoying Condensed Matter, please consider supporting the show on Patreon . In recognition of your support, you'll get the opportunity to suggest articles and guests for future episodes. You can carry on the discussion on Twitter and there's even an Instagram page. Thanks for listening!       Support the show

Click here for the article. If you are enjoying Condensed Matter, please consider supporting the show on Patreon . In recognition of your support, you'll get the opportunity to suggest articles and guests for future episodes. You can carry on the discussion on Twitter and there's even an Instagram page. Thanks for listening!      Support the show

 Click here for the article. If you are enjoying Condensed Matter, please consider supporting the show on Patreon . In recognition of your support, you'll get the opportunity to suggest articles and guests for future episodes. You can carry on the discussion on Twitter and there's even an Instagram page. Thanks for listening!      Support the show

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 2011. Click here for the article. If you are enjoying Condensed Matter, please consider supporting the show on Patreon . In recognition of your support, y...

 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 Metaphysics of Science at the University of Bristol and principal investigator on the ERC funded MetaScience project. Link to the paper: https://www.journals.uch...

The focus of this episode is Amie Thomasson’s article “Norms and Modality”, published in the Routledge Handbook of Modality in 2021. Link to the article: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315742144-17/norms-modality-amie-thomasson Amie Thomasson: https://philpapers.org/s/Amie%20L.%20Thomasson If you enjoyed the show, please rate and review it on your favourite app so more peo...