The Ultimate Constituents of the Material World

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/ Volume 37

Meinard Kuhlmann
The Ultimate Constituents of the Material World
In Search of an Ontology for Fundamental Physics

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Today, quantum field theory (QFT)—the mathematical and conceptual framework for contemporary elementary particle physics—is the best starting point for analysing the fundamental building blocks of the material world. QFT if taken seriously in its metaphysical implications yields a picture of the world that is at variance with central classical conceptions. The core of Kuhlmann’s investigation consists in the analysis of various ontological interpretations of QFT, e.g. substance ontologies as well as a process-ontological approach. Eventually, Kuhlmann proposes a dispositional trope ontology, according to which particularized properties and not things are the most basic entities, in terms of which all other entities are to be analysed, e.g as bundles of properties. This book was chosen for the 2009 ontos-Award for research on analytical ontology and metaphysics by the German Society for Analytical Philosophy.

About the Author

Meinard Kuhlmann is Associate Professor without tenure at the University of Bremen. He has conducted research on fellowships at the Universities of Chicago, Irvine (California), Oxford and Pittsburgh. Kuhlmann’s research is focused on the philosophy of physics, analytical ontology and general philosophy of science, in particular explanations and mechanisms. Within the philosophy of physics his most important field of research, besides quantum physics, is complex systems.

ISBN: 978-3-86838-072-9
274 pp
Hardback
€98.00