Metaphysics Work-in-Progress Group (Tuesday - Week 6, TT21)

The intuitive distinction between natural and unnatural predicates (e.g., 'green' vs. 'grue') informs theorizing in both fundamental and non-fundamental sciences. What, in reality, is the basis of this distinction? Standard answers to this question fail to do justice to the ways non-fundamental sciences carve the world. In this talk, I develop and defend an account of naturalness that avoids this problem. I propose a definition of naturalness in terms of lawhood and argue that, when coupled with the right account of lawhood, the definition delivers the desired verdicts about naturalness and avoids the problems that afflict other accounts in the literature.
 

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