The metaphysics of scientific realism /

In this retrospective memoir, distinguished philosopher Ellis (Univ. of Melbourne, Australia) reprises and extends his extensive project to reestablish metaphysics as a central issue in modern philosophy of science. Surviving the anti-realist boom of the last quarter of the 20th century, Ellis proceeds with an "essentialist metaphysics" view, centered on an ontology of "natural kinds" and causal processes. Necessity and physical law arise from the "natural kinds structure of the universe ... a metaphysical hypothesis concerning the structure of reality ... to explain some of the many precise, and apparently exact, regularities that are to be found in nature." The argument is robust, though the examples from physics, e.g., the "reality" of fields and the "Schroedinger waves of particle realization potentials" along with the rejection of continuity, are somewhat strained (especially with the 21st-century development of gauge field theories, virtual particles, and dark energy). Ellis extends his ontological strategy to ethics, revealing nice relations with neo-Kantian metaphysics (without the rampant transcendentalism), a subject reemerging in philosophy of science as the rationalist agendas stall. Summing Up: Recommended. Philosophy of science collections serving upper-division undergraduates through researchers/faculty. P. D. Skiff Bard College