James Ladyman
“What is Ontic Structural Realism?”
February 25th at 6:00 PM (CET)
The MAP (Master in Philosophy) at USI (Università della Svizzera Italiana, Lugano) is
pleased to announce the second talk of the Lugano Philosophy Colloquia, titled “What is
Ontic Structural Realism?”
The guest speaker is:
James Ladyman (Professor of Philosophy at the University of Bristol)
The talk is chaired by:
Claudio Calosi (Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Geneva, Visiting
Professor at the MAP).
Date:
Thursday February 25th at 6:00 PM (CET).
Location:
The talk will be held on Zoom.
To participate:
Please write an email to amm.map@usi.ch<mailto:amm.map@usi.ch> or send a message to
our Facebook page (
www.facebook.com/usimap<http://www.facebook.com/usimap>).
The Abstract of the Talk:
Ontic structural realism (OSR) began as an interpretation of Worrall’s proposal for a
structural form of scientific realism compatible with the problem of theory change.
Ladyman (1998) argues that construed metaphysically structural realism is also able to
take account of issues of identity and individuality in quantum physics and general
relativity. Different authors have taken up the idea of OSR in different ways. For some,
such as Esfeld and Lam (2008) it is a view about the ontology of physics only. For French
(2014) its implications for the ontology of the special sciences are eliminativist. On the
other hand, Ladyman and Ross (2007) use ontic structural realism as the basis for realism
about science beyond physics. This paper sets out the core components of different forms
of ontic structural realism, and the arguments for them. It is argued that the form of OSR
defended by Ladyman and Ross offers a unified picture of the ontologies of the sciences.
More information available on the facebook event page:
https://www.facebook.com/events/839296663581556/
This talk is part of the Lugano Philosophy Colloquia - a series of events organized by:
- Master in Philosophy at USI
- Ratio – Philosophical Association
- Istituto di Studi Filosofici, Lugano
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We look forward to your presence!
Thank you.