Description
Book SynopsisIn Basic Structures of Reality, Colin McGinn deals with questions of metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of mind from the vantage point of physics. Combining general philosophy with physics, he covers such topics as the definition of matter, the nature of space, motion, gravity, electromagnetic fields, the character of physical knowledge, and consciousness and meaning. Throughout, McGinn maintains an historical perspective and seeks to determine how much we really know of the world described by physics. He defends a version of structuralism: the thesis that our knowledge is partial and merely abstract, leaving a large epistemological gap at the center of physics. McGinn then connects this element of mystery to parallel mysteries in relation to the mind. Consciousness emerges as just one more mystery of physics. A theory of matter and space is developed, according to which the impenetrability of matter is explained as the deletion of volumes of space. McGinn proposes a philosophy
Trade ReviewMcGinn defends structuralism in this well-argued, engaging book at the intersection of epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of mind, and physics. * CHOICE *
Table of ContentsPART ONE ; Introduction: Philosophy and Physics ; Chapter 1: The Concept of Matter ; Postscript: Particles as Fields: An Objection ; Appendix One: The Uniformity of Matter ; Appendix Two: Divisibility and Size ; Chapter 2: What is a Physical Object? ; Chapter 3: The Possibility of Motion ; Chapter 4: Motion, Change, and Physics ; Chapter 5: The Law of Inertia ; Chapter 6: Mass, Gravity, and Motion ; Chapter 7: Electric Charge: A Case Study ; Chapter 8: Two Types of Science ; Chapter 9: The Ontology of Energy ; Chapter 10: Consciousness as a Form of Matter ; Chapter 11: Matter and Meaning ; PART TWO ; Principia Metaphysica
