Why eliminativism?

A central thesis of Steven French's brand of ontic structural realism has always been his eliminativism about objects. Unsurprisingly, this bold and controversial thesis has seen a lot of critical discussion. In his book The Structure of the World—Metaphysics & Representation, French accord...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Studies in history and philosophy of science. Part A 2019-04, Vol.74, p.16-21
Main Author: Wolff, J.E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Dependence
Dissertations & theses
Eliminativism
Explanation
French, Steven
Materialism
Metaphysics
Ontic structural realism
Ontological dependence
Ordinary objects
Realism
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Summary:A central thesis of Steven French's brand of ontic structural realism has always been his eliminativism about objects. Unsurprisingly, this bold and controversial thesis has seen a lot of critical discussion. In his book The Structure of the World—Metaphysics & Representation, French accordingly defends this thesis against a range of challenges. A novel feature of this defense is the use of dependence relations to articulate his eliminativism. In this paper I take a critical look at French's defense of eliminativism and argue that the dependence relations invoked do not eliminate objects.
ISSN:0039-3681
1879-2510
DOI:10.1016/j.shpsa.2018.09.004