Periodic Reporting for period 4 - FraMEPhys (A Framework for Metaphysical Explanation in Physics)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2022-07-01 do 2023-06-30
The aim of FraMEPhys was to explore the varieties of explanation that are involved in our best physical theories and in particular to understand the role in physics of metaphysical explanation, understood as any dependence between aspects of reality that goes beyond classical cause and effect. Explanations involving the geometry of spacetime, quantum entanglement, and closed timelike curves were the focus of project case studies during 2020-2023. The approach taken was to integrate recent progress in metaphysics, philosophy of science and philosophy of physics.
The FraMEPhys project team investigated the features that are had in common by the forms of explanation that feature in our most abstract and fundamental physical theories and by the grounding explanations more usually studied in contemporary metaphysics. These distinctive metaphysical explanations include the way in which the temperature of a gas depends on the motion of its molecules, the way in which the solidity of a table depends on the chemical bonding forces holding it together, and the way in which life depends on organised self-sustaining metabolic processes.
The new general framework developed by FraMEPhys will enable greater understanding of such explanations in physics, generalising approaches that have been employed successfully in recent empirical science for modelling more familiar causal explanations. The new framework was applied by the project team to three challenging cases of explanation in the philosophy of physics – entanglement between quantum particles, the geometry of spacetime, and time travel around causal loops. The project has also helped to build bridges between metaphysics and philosophy of physics, showing how tools from metaphysics may be applied in philosophy of physics, and how philosophy of physics can in turn inform our best account of the metaphysics of the actual world.
The FraMEPhys project team investigated the features that are had in common by the forms of explanation that feature in our most abstract and fundamental physical theories and by the grounding explanations more usually studied in contemporary metaphysics. These distinctive metaphysical explanations include the way in which the temperature of a gas depends on the motion of its molecules, the way in which the solidity of a table depends on the chemical bonding forces holding it together, and the way in which life depends on organised self-sustaining metabolic processes.
The new general framework developed by FraMEPhys will enable greater understanding of such explanations in physics, generalising approaches that have been employed successfully in recent empirical science for modelling more familiar causal explanations. The new framework was applied by the project team to three challenging cases of explanation in the philosophy of physics – entanglement between quantum particles, the geometry of spacetime, and time travel around causal loops. The project has also helped to build bridges between metaphysics and philosophy of physics, showing how tools from metaphysics may be applied in philosophy of physics, and how philosophy of physics can in turn inform our best account of the metaphysics of the actual world.
FraMEPhys successfully achieved all its main research goals, with a number of unexpected research opportunities identified and capitalized upon. The project research group was established and sustained throughout the project with an exceptionally strong team of Research Fellows (Dr Katie Robertson and Dr Michael Townsen Hicks) and PhD Researchers (Dr Noelia Iranzo Ribera and Dr Nicholas Emmerson) as well as a research-active Project Administrator (Dr Francis Longworth). A second PhD researcher was able to be added to the initial project team thanks to favourable budgetary circumstances. The project also benefited from a number of experienced Research Associates, some of which worked very closely as part of the project team, so the FraMEPhys research group grew to be significantly larger and more active than originally anticipated.
An intensive series of research events – reading groups, work in progress meetings, workshops and a major international conference – were organized in Birmingham and elsewhere. Collaborations were established and sustained with European research groups in metaphysics of science and with individual researchers from around the world, resulting in a FraMEPhys/Gothenburg Conference on Metaphysical Explanation in Science, a CPT/FraMEPhys Workshop on Time and Explanation in Milan, a FraMEPhys/MetaScience Workshop in Oxford, and a CFUL/FraMEPhys/MetaScience workshop in Lisbon. The project research achieved a high international profile through these events, through a Presidential Address by the PI at the Society for the Metaphysics of Science Conference in Milan, through a public lecture on ‘Quantum Metaphysics’ by the PI at the Institute of Physics hosted by the University of Oxford, through over 100 presentations at research events by the project team, through a popular article by the PI which has been read by over one million members of the public, and through the wide-ranging published academic outputs.
The primary outputs of the project have been peer-reviewed research articles in leading journals and in edited volumes in general philosophy and philosophy of science. Over the 5.5 years of the project, a total of 29 peer-reviewed articles have been published or accepted for publication by the project team. These articles address a broad range of questions, including:
- What different sorts of objective dependencies are there in nature, and how should they be distinguished?
- Does doing physics, or understanding the results of doing physics, require us to reason about scenarios which are genuinely impossible?
- What sorts of explanation can we give of the emergence of spacetime from a non-spatiotemporal fundamental reality in quantum gravity?
- How can the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics help to explain the apparent fine-tuning of parameters in our best physical theories?
- How does statistical mechanics explain the arrow of time?
- Can we apply concepts from thermal physics to understand the dynamics of galaxies?
- What is the real explanation of why entropy never decreases in closed systems?
- Does the project of accounting for laws of nature as efficient summaries of events run into an explanatory circularity?
- Must causation always occur locally rather than at a distance if science is to be possible?
As well as articles, project research has been disseminated in the form of book reviews, popular articles, edited volumes, and a monograph. The main themes of the project are tied together in an edited volume, Levels of Explanation, edited by the PI and by Katie Robertson. It consists of 18 chapters and is scheduled for publication by Oxford University Press in 2024.
An intensive series of research events – reading groups, work in progress meetings, workshops and a major international conference – were organized in Birmingham and elsewhere. Collaborations were established and sustained with European research groups in metaphysics of science and with individual researchers from around the world, resulting in a FraMEPhys/Gothenburg Conference on Metaphysical Explanation in Science, a CPT/FraMEPhys Workshop on Time and Explanation in Milan, a FraMEPhys/MetaScience Workshop in Oxford, and a CFUL/FraMEPhys/MetaScience workshop in Lisbon. The project research achieved a high international profile through these events, through a Presidential Address by the PI at the Society for the Metaphysics of Science Conference in Milan, through a public lecture on ‘Quantum Metaphysics’ by the PI at the Institute of Physics hosted by the University of Oxford, through over 100 presentations at research events by the project team, through a popular article by the PI which has been read by over one million members of the public, and through the wide-ranging published academic outputs.
The primary outputs of the project have been peer-reviewed research articles in leading journals and in edited volumes in general philosophy and philosophy of science. Over the 5.5 years of the project, a total of 29 peer-reviewed articles have been published or accepted for publication by the project team. These articles address a broad range of questions, including:
- What different sorts of objective dependencies are there in nature, and how should they be distinguished?
- Does doing physics, or understanding the results of doing physics, require us to reason about scenarios which are genuinely impossible?
- What sorts of explanation can we give of the emergence of spacetime from a non-spatiotemporal fundamental reality in quantum gravity?
- How can the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics help to explain the apparent fine-tuning of parameters in our best physical theories?
- How does statistical mechanics explain the arrow of time?
- Can we apply concepts from thermal physics to understand the dynamics of galaxies?
- What is the real explanation of why entropy never decreases in closed systems?
- Does the project of accounting for laws of nature as efficient summaries of events run into an explanatory circularity?
- Must causation always occur locally rather than at a distance if science is to be possible?
As well as articles, project research has been disseminated in the form of book reviews, popular articles, edited volumes, and a monograph. The main themes of the project are tied together in an edited volume, Levels of Explanation, edited by the PI and by Katie Robertson. It consists of 18 chapters and is scheduled for publication by Oxford University Press in 2024.
A number of new ideas came to fruition by the end of the FraMEPhys project. These include the development of:
- New approaches to understanding non-causal dependence relations using structural-equations modelling.
- New approaches to understanding the nature of metaphysical ground through analogy with interventionist theories of causation.
- New applications of the distinction between first-order and higher-order explanation to a range of debates across scientific metaphysics.
- A new account of the relationship between chance, causal explanation and metaphysical explanation.
- A generalized theory of the autonomy of different scientific theories, specified in probabilistic terms.
- A novel notion of interactive common ground, with application to the project case study of quantum entanglement explanations.
- A taxonomy of approaches to causality and locality in the many-worlds interpretation of quantum theory.
- Improved understanding of the explanatory structure of spacetime theories, especially in quantum gravity contexts.
- Improved understanding of explanations in closed-timelike-curve scenarios, especially in black-hole contexts.
- A framework for understanding how science, particularly physics, bears evidentially on disputed questions in the metaphysics of possibility and necessity.
- A new account of ontological continuity and discontinuity over theory change, reinforcing an attitude to science which takes our best theories as literal descriptions of the world.
- New approaches to understanding non-causal dependence relations using structural-equations modelling.
- New approaches to understanding the nature of metaphysical ground through analogy with interventionist theories of causation.
- New applications of the distinction between first-order and higher-order explanation to a range of debates across scientific metaphysics.
- A new account of the relationship between chance, causal explanation and metaphysical explanation.
- A generalized theory of the autonomy of different scientific theories, specified in probabilistic terms.
- A novel notion of interactive common ground, with application to the project case study of quantum entanglement explanations.
- A taxonomy of approaches to causality and locality in the many-worlds interpretation of quantum theory.
- Improved understanding of the explanatory structure of spacetime theories, especially in quantum gravity contexts.
- Improved understanding of explanations in closed-timelike-curve scenarios, especially in black-hole contexts.
- A framework for understanding how science, particularly physics, bears evidentially on disputed questions in the metaphysics of possibility and necessity.
- A new account of ontological continuity and discontinuity over theory change, reinforcing an attitude to science which takes our best theories as literal descriptions of the world.