Agency and the Metaphysics of Nature. Issue 2 (3rd April 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sims, Andrew
• Is Part Of: Australasian philosophical review. Volume 2:Issue 2(2018)
• Page Start: 194
• Page End: 198
• Publication Date: 2018-04-03
• Subjects: affordances -- agency -- causal powers -- naturalism -- reductionism; Philosophy -- Periodicals; 101
• DOI: 10.1080/24740500.2018.1552096
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2474-0500

Abstract

Abstract: Gallagher poses a phenomenologically-inspired challenge to a classical metaphysics of nature which is associated with contemporary natural sciences. This metaphysics can be reconstructed in terms of two distinct commitments: reductionism and individualism. This comment on Gallagher's [2019 ] article attempts to show how a revision of the classical metaphysics can be made intelligible in light of those two commitments. It requires a strong interpretation of the ecological framework for understanding cognition. Such a revision would give agency a central place in the revised metaphysics of nature.