INDUCTIVE METAPHYSICS
  • Subprojects 2017-2020
    • A1: The Research Programme of Inductive Metaphysics from Gustav Theodor Fechner to Erich Becher and beyond
    • A2: Creative Abductive Inference and Its Role for Inductive Metaphysics in Comparison to Other Metaphysical Methods
    • A4: Kant and Inductive Methods in 18th Century Metaphysics
    • B1: Modality in Physics and in Metaphysics
    • B2: Properties and Property Individuation
    • B4: Determinism, Control, and the Consequence Argument
    • B5: Statistical Causation, Intervention, and Freedom
  • Subprojects 2020-2023
    • A1: Inductive Metaphysics and Logical Empiricism
    • A2: Creative Abductive Inference and its Role for Inductive Metaphysics
    • A4: Inductive Methods in Kant and Neo-Kantianism
    • B6: The Role of Inference to the best explanation in the discovery of Gravitational Waves
    • B7: Graded Causation
    • B8: The Time of science and the time of our lives
    • B9: Complex biological dispositions: a case study in the metaphysics of biological practice
    • B10: Metaphysics of Evolution: justification and ontology of generalized evolution theory
    • B11: Abductive Methodology in the philosophy of logic
  • Events
    • Inductive Metaphysics: Insights, Challenges and Prospects
    • Non-Reductionism in the Metaphysics of Mind
    • Essences, Dispositions and Laws in Kant
    • The Methodology of Logic: Abductivist and Non-abductivist Approaches
    • Grounding and the Direction of Explanation
    • Wochenendseminar zur Philosophie der Physik
    • Dispositions in the Life-Sciences Contemporary and Historical Perspectives
    • New Work on Induction and Abduction
    • Compatibilist Libertarianism: Advantages and Challenges
    • Metaphysics as Modelling. Contemporary and Kantian Issues
    • Laws and Explanations in Metaphysics and Science
    • Causation and Responsibility
    • Thinking About the Cultural Evolution of Thinking
    • Causal Distinctions: Specificity and Beyond
    • Free Will and Causality
    • Epistemic Engineering
    • Counterpossibles, Counternomics and Causal Theories of Properties
    • The Possibility of Metaphysics
    • Abduction and Modelling in Metaphysics
    • Kant's Concepts of Metaphysics
    • Freedom and Determinism
    • What Do We Do When We Do Metaphysics?
    • Properties and Laws in the Light of Inductive Metaphysics
    • Free Will and Laws of Nature
    • Traditional and Inductive Metaphysics
    • Spacetime: Fundamental or Emergent?
  • People
  • Research
    • Publications
    • Talks
  • Contact
International Workshop

Traditional and Inductive Metaphysics

International Workshop
Traditional and Inductive Metaphysics
Technische Universität Dortmund, Germany
Dec 07 - Dec 08, 2017


This workshop is hosted by the DFG-research group “Inductive Metaphysics” (FOR 2495); it is organised by K. Engelhard, B. Falkenburg, S. Jaag, M. Schrenk, O. Scholz and G. Schurz. 

Description

The new research group, „Inductive Metaphysics. Articulation, Application and Challenges“, is hosted at the universities of Bonn, Cologne, Dortmund, Düsseldorf and Münster (Germany). It aims at developing a robust concept of Inductive Metaphysics (IM) and at defending it against objections. The term “Inductive Metaphysics” was introduced by German thinkers of the 19th century, among others Külpe and von Hartmann.  IM assumes that inductive methods (abduction, inferences to the best explanation) and empirical premises should and do play a role in tackling many metaphysical issues.


IM has to be delineated against naturalised metaphysics and the Canberra Plan on the one hand, and against aprioristic metaphysics on the other. We want to clarify which roles empirical sources of knowledge can play in metaphysics, which kinds of a posteriori methods can be justified in metaphysics, and which of these a posteriori elements can be found in the history of metaphysics as well as today. 

In this workshop we are particularly interested in the following three groups of questions: First, which role do empirical information and empirical methods play in contemporary metaphysics, what are they and how can they be justified in metaphysics? Second, what did the initiators of this concept in the 19th century think about Inductive Metaphysics? And third, how does 18th century metaphysics relate to empirical sources of knowledge and a posteriori forms of inference?​

Speakers
  • Amanda Bryant (Peterborough, Canada)
  • Ralf Busse (Mainz, Germany)
  • Mary Domski (Albuquerque, New Mexico)
  • Kristina Engelhard (Dortmund/Leipzig, Germany)
  • Michael Heidelberger (Tübingen, Germany)
  • Arnaud Pelletier (Brüssel, Belgium)
  • Oliver R. Scholz (Münster, Germany)
  • Gerhard Schurz (Düsseldorf, Germany)
  • Peter Simons (Dublin, Ireland)

Program
​

Thursday, Dec 07
10:15 - 11:15

11:45 - 12:45



14:15 - 15:15
​
15:30 - 16:30

​
16:45 - 17:45
Oliver R. Scholz: "Das Programm der induktiven Metaphysik bei Erich Becher"

Michael Heidelberger: "Fechners induktive Metaphysik -- ein gangbarer Weg?"

lunch 

Gerhard Schurz: "Abduction as a Method of Inductive Metaphysics"

Amanda Bryant: "Ampliative Inference, Epistemic Trade-Offs, and Disciplinary Autonomy in Scientifically Responsible Metaphysics"
​
Peter Simons: "The Long and Winding Road: Empirical Feedback in Metaphysics"

​
​Friday, Dec 08
10:15 - 11:15

11:45 - 12:45

​

14:15 - 15:15

15:30 - 16:30
Ralf Busse: "Against Metaphysical Structuralism.  A Case Study in Isreal Potter' s Methodology"

Mary Domski: "Newton on the Mathematical Certainty of Metaphysical Truths"
​
lunch 

Arnold Pelletier: "Leibniz, the Inductive Challenge"

Kristina Engelhard: "Inductive Metaphysics in Leibniz and Wolff?"
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  • Subprojects 2017-2020
    • A1: The Research Programme of Inductive Metaphysics from Gustav Theodor Fechner to Erich Becher and beyond
    • A2: Creative Abductive Inference and Its Role for Inductive Metaphysics in Comparison to Other Metaphysical Methods
    • A4: Kant and Inductive Methods in 18th Century Metaphysics
    • B1: Modality in Physics and in Metaphysics
    • B2: Properties and Property Individuation
    • B4: Determinism, Control, and the Consequence Argument
    • B5: Statistical Causation, Intervention, and Freedom
  • Subprojects 2020-2023
    • A1: Inductive Metaphysics and Logical Empiricism
    • A2: Creative Abductive Inference and its Role for Inductive Metaphysics
    • A4: Inductive Methods in Kant and Neo-Kantianism
    • B6: The Role of Inference to the best explanation in the discovery of Gravitational Waves
    • B7: Graded Causation
    • B8: The Time of science and the time of our lives
    • B9: Complex biological dispositions: a case study in the metaphysics of biological practice
    • B10: Metaphysics of Evolution: justification and ontology of generalized evolution theory
    • B11: Abductive Methodology in the philosophy of logic
  • Events
    • Inductive Metaphysics: Insights, Challenges and Prospects
    • Non-Reductionism in the Metaphysics of Mind
    • Essences, Dispositions and Laws in Kant
    • The Methodology of Logic: Abductivist and Non-abductivist Approaches
    • Grounding and the Direction of Explanation
    • Wochenendseminar zur Philosophie der Physik
    • Dispositions in the Life-Sciences Contemporary and Historical Perspectives
    • New Work on Induction and Abduction
    • Compatibilist Libertarianism: Advantages and Challenges
    • Metaphysics as Modelling. Contemporary and Kantian Issues
    • Laws and Explanations in Metaphysics and Science
    • Causation and Responsibility
    • Thinking About the Cultural Evolution of Thinking
    • Causal Distinctions: Specificity and Beyond
    • Free Will and Causality
    • Epistemic Engineering
    • Counterpossibles, Counternomics and Causal Theories of Properties
    • The Possibility of Metaphysics
    • Abduction and Modelling in Metaphysics
    • Kant's Concepts of Metaphysics
    • Freedom and Determinism
    • What Do We Do When We Do Metaphysics?
    • Properties and Laws in the Light of Inductive Metaphysics
    • Free Will and Laws of Nature
    • Traditional and Inductive Metaphysics
    • Spacetime: Fundamental or Emergent?
  • People
  • Research
    • Publications
    • Talks
  • Contact