Carl Hoefer - Natural kinds, laws, and necessities: lessons from post-Twin-Earth science and philosophy

Carl Hoefer (Universitat de Barcelona, Universitat de Barcelona)

The Center for Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh invites you to join us for our Lunch Time Talk. Attend in person at 1117 Cathedral of Learning or visit our live stream on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg.

LTT:  Carl Hoefer

Tuesday, February 25th @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm EST

Title: Natural kinds, laws, and necessities: lessons from post-Twin-Earth science and philosophy

Abstract: In a paper co-authored by Genoveva Martí, we defended the Kripke-Putnam thesis that water is essentially composed of H2O molecules, i.e., that there is no world in which the substance we call ‘water’ exists but is not composed mostly of H2O molecules. But we agree with Putnam that it can be hard to know what to say about imagined possible worlds in which the physical (and hence chemical) laws are different in certain ways. In this talk I will explore some of the speculative ways in which physicists investigate what would be the case in such counternomic worlds, and how these speculations interact with the nature of water and other natural kinds, as well as with powers, dispositions, and other denizens of folk physics and chemistry. I will use these explorations to motivate some polemical morals that I believe we should draw in the debates about the metaphysics of laws.

This talk will also be available live streamed on:

YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg

Zoom:  https://pitt.zoom.us/j/93462098921