The Metaphysics within Physics

The Metaphysics within Physics is a collection of essays written by Tim Maudlin over a period of about a decade, arguing for what might be thought of as the 'common sense' philosophy on the nature of laws within science.

Maudlin believes that the laws of physics are ontologically primitive and that the flow of time is ontologically primitive. This is contrasted in the book with the Humean point of view that the universe is made up of local 'happenings' and that the physical laws and even the flow of time are devised by us to try to make sense of this. I read this book as someone from a physics background wanting to find out more about the philosophical discussions dealing with the subject, and I felt that this book was a bit more straightforward than some I have seen. True you can still sometimes get lost amoung the counterfactuals, but Maudlin does use easy to grasp examples during the discussion, and what it more, examples that are based in real physics. Hence the title of the book, Maudlin feels that philosophers should know more about modern physics, not simply as the subject matter of what they are discussing, but also as a source of new ways of thinking about the world. In particular chapter 3, ' Suggestions from Physics for Deep Metaphysics' puts forward this argument. I would also recommend chapter 4, 'On the passing of Time' to those with an interest in the philosophy of time.