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Physicalism and Ontological Holism
Article first published online: 24 JAN 2003
DOI: 10.1111/1467-9973.00141
The Metaphilosophy Foundation and Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1999
1467-9973/asset/cover.gif?v=1&s=89ae0ce2fa005bae51616016cd938a34bf49aae8 "Metaphilosophy")
Additional Information
How to Cite
Esfeld, M. (1999), Physicalism and Ontological Holism. Metaphilosophy, 30: 319–337. doi: 10.1111/1467-9973.00141
Publication History
- Issue published online: 24 JAN 2003
- Article first published online: 24 JAN 2003
- Abstract
- Cited By
Keywords:
- physicalism;
- holism;
- relations;
- space-time;
- quantum physics;
- Humean supervenience
The claim of this paper is that we should envisage physicalism as an ontological holism. Our current basic physics, quantum theory, suggests that, ontologically speaking, we have to assume one global quantum state of the world; many of the properties that are often taken to be intrinsic properties of physical systems are in fact relations, which are determined by that global quantum state. The paper elaborates on this conception of physicalism as an ontological holism and considers issues such as supervenience, realization of higher-order properties by basic physical properties, and reduction.