Wednesday, June 06, 2007

AJP paper

My paper on a certain kind of argument for structural universals has just appeared in AJP. Very exciting from my perspective: I've had things "forthcoming" for so long, I think I thought they'd always have that status.

FWIW, the paper discusses a certain argument for the existence of structural universals (that is, universals "made out of" other universals, as "being water" might be thought to be made out of "being Hydrogen" "being Oxygen" etc.) The argument is based on the (alleged) possibility of worlds with no fundamental physical layer: where things "go down forever". Quite a few people use this argument in print, and many more raise it in conversation when you're pressing a microphysicalist metaphysics.

This is part of a wider project exploring a ontological microphysicalism, where the only things that really exist are the physical fundamentals. The recent stuff on ontological commitment is, in part, a continuation of that project.

On a more practical note, I can't figure out how you access AJP articles these days: my institution is supposed to have a subscription, but the links that take you to the pdf don't seem live. Any ideas of how to get into it would be gratefully received!

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