causation; spacetime functionalism; laws of nature; naturalized metaphysics; scientific metaphysics; philosophy of quantum gravity
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Scientific metaphysics is a recently much discussed approach in metaphysics that aims to bridge the artificial gap between contemporary analytical metaphysics and science by promoting a strong interrelationship between the two fields. In this context, the project explicitly considers the two directions of the relationship between contemporary analytical metaphysics and current fundamental physics, taking space and time as an exemplar for the interaction between the two. Consequently, the two interrelated parts of the project aim to travel the road between scientific metaphysics and the frontiers of physics in the two directions. In the first part 'From metaphysics to physics', the project aims to show how the tools of functionalism as developed in the philosophy of mind and metaphysics can help to resolve the conceptual problems related to the absence of standard space and time at the quantum gravity level, in particular regarding a threat of empirical incoherence. In this context, the project aims to develop a new model of functional emergence of the empirically relevant spatio-temporal features from a non-spatio-temporal ontology suggested by the current main research programs in quantum gravity. Thus, tools from metaphysics are employed to enable a successful interpretation of fundamental physical theories. Traveling in the other direction, 'From physics to metaphysics', the second part of the project aims to redefine central metaphysical conceptions concerning laws of nature and causation in the light of current research on space and time at the frontiers of physics; the goal is to update and to enrich these traditional metaphysical debates with novel inputs from contemporary fundamental physics. We aim to generalize the two main families of conceptions--namely reductive and non-reductive ones--regarding laws of nature and causation to the non-spatio-temporal setting suggested by quantum gravity. The project implements what is argued to be a fruitful--indeed ultimately inevitable--dialogue between contemporary analytical metaphysics and current fundamental physics, providing concrete examples of a two-way avenue to and fro metaphysics and physics. The project will be of relevance to a large audience of philosophers, and will bring together metaphysicians, philosophers of science, and physicists through its network of national and international partners.