Journal Scientia et Fides (Q1 Scopus) is running a special issue on:

 Metaphysics of science: an important ingredient for what?

Metaphysics of Science is concerned with philosophical issues that arise at the intersection of metaphysics, science, and the philosophy of science. It differs, however, from each of them. It is neither primarily concerned with metaphysical questions such as what makes an entity the very entity it is, nor it is concerned with the specific entities postulated by various sciences. The Metaphysics of Science is rather concerned with very abstract and general concepts, such as laws of nature, causation, dispositions, necessity, possibility, probability, natural kinds, essences, reduction, emergence, grounding, space and time, etc. The meaning and extension of these concepts vary from science to science but all of them are present to some degree in all sciences. Many of them are in need of further clarification, since they are tacitly assumed in particular sciences.

The Metaphysics of Science is a product of the second half of the 20^th century. It was part and parcel of the decline of the Logical Empiricist anti-metaphysical stance. It also followed an evolution in the analytic tradition of philosophy that included the rapid growth of modal logic. The recent proposals for the naturalization of metaphysics in the Metaphysics of Science rests on the fact that the sciences surpass metaphysics in many respects (e.g., respected methods, predictive successes). It may seem then that the dispute over the role of metaphysics has come full circle again. We think that metaphysics of science should not be only a reflection that makes philosophy an ancilla scientiae. As Martial Gueroult pointed out, “it is through philosophy that philosophy must defend itself, and metaphysically that metaphysics must defend itself”. There is thus not only an impact of sciences on metaphysics but also a restriction that metaphysics imposes on the philosophical commitments of sciences.

We invite colleagues to submit articles to the journal Scientia et Fides that could on the one hand, update status quaestionis within Metaphysics of Science and on the other, provide reasons why do we need such a philosophical subdiscipline. Your contributions could be either on the debates which have preoccupied metaphysicians of science since 2000 or concerned with its methodological aspects. In the first case, one can apply a two-step method for clarifying intension of chosen metaphysical concepts and their significance in specific disciplines or cases of scientific explanations. In the latter, the special focus should be on various argumentative tools widely used in contemporary Metaphysics of Science.

The preferred length of the paper is 30 000 characters (space included).

Submission deadline: 30 March 2024.

More details about submission preparation: https://apcz.umk.pl/SetF/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions

For further information please contact Michał Oleksowicz: michaloleksowicz@umk.pl

Editors of this special issue:

Michał Oleksowicz, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń

michaloleksowicz@umk.pl

Manuel Lazaro, Universidad Internacional de La Rioja

manuel.lazaro@unir.net

Kenneth Aizawa, Rutgers University–Newark

ken.aizawa@gmail.com