Understanding with Epistemic Possibilities: The Epistemic Aim and Value of Metaphysics [Special Issue]
Issue: Issue 19 • Author/s: Ylwa Sjölin Wirling
Topics: Epistemology, Metaphysics, Ontology, Philosophy of science, Theoretical philosophy
According to a recent proposal, the epistemic aim of metaphysics as a discipline is to chart the different viable theories of metaphysical objects of inquiry (e.g. causation, persistence). This paper elaborates on and seeks to improve on that proposal in two related ways. First, drawing on an analogy with how-possibly explanation in science, I argue that we can usefully understand this aim of metaphysics as the charting of epistemically possible answers to metaphysical questions. Second, I argue that in order to account for the epistemic goodness of this aim, one…