Structure and Identity conference
Structure and Identity
July 23rd-25th 2010, University of Bristol
Confirmed speakers include:
John Burgess
Katherine Hawley
Fraser MacBride
Simon Saunders
Stewart Shapiro
The full programme is available to download here.
The speakers Aboutorab Yaghmaie and Amirehsan Karbasizadeh whose talk was cancelled at the conference have made their paper available for download here:
Dispositional Structuralism, best of the two worlds
The conference will be held in lecture theatre 2 and the link rooms on Woodland Road, Bristol. These can be accessed through buildings 3-5, Woodland Road.
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Questions to be addressed include:
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How is structuralism best characterised?:
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In terms of incompleteness (objects lack certain kinds of properties)?
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In terms of dependence (objects depend on each other or their structure for their existence and/or identity)?
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In terms of contextual individuation (objects are individuated relationally rather than intrinsically)?
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How are these characterizations related?
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Are structuralist views in metaphysics, for example, concerning properties and dispositions, justified?
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Does a structuralist view of mathematics provide the best account of mathematical practice and the ontology and epistemology of mathematics?
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Are elementary particles individuals? Do they satisfy the principle of the identity of indiscernibles?
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What are criteria of identity, and what adequacy conditions are appropriate for them?
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Should we be committed to some form of predicativity requirement and/or some form of identity of indiscernibles? What is individuation?
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Do we need a substantive account of how objects are individuated?
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How should the various metaphysical notions of dependence be analysed? What role will the notions of individuation and criteria of identity play in this analysis?
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What are the relations between notions of entity, object, individual, and substance? What implications would structuralism have for these notions?
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How does structuralism relate to ontological holism and to the thesis that there is no fundamental level to reality?
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What is the relationship between primitive identity or haecceity and haecceitism about worlds?
It is anticipated that a volume of papers from the conference will be published.
To book a place please email Jess Dunton
Registration forms can be downloaded in pdf form here.
Note: some of the documents on this page are in PDF format. In order to view a PDF you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader