We've had wonderful discussions here lately on philosophy, physics, and metaphysics. The "physics" in question is quantum and relativity physics, AFAICT.
So I'd like to ask whether and / or to what extent the sort of "meso-physics" of dynamical systems theory (DST) is discussed in either philosophy of physics and / or analytic metaphysics.
I have a number of reasons to ask about DST and metaphysics.
- There's a lot of diversity in "post-structuralist French philosophy," and one of the big breaks is between Derrida's "end of metaphysics" position and Deleuze, who once said: “I feel myself to be a pure metaphysician. . . . Bergson says that modern science hasn't found its metaphysics, the metaphysics it would need. It is this metaphysics that interests me.”
- There's a school of thought that sees DST as one of the sciences (or perphaps better, one of the scientific tools) that Deleuze targets in his metaphysics. The pioneers here are Brian Massumi and Manuel DeLanda (see here as well) and a number of others including Jeff Bell and Miguel de Beistegui have followed them, as have I.
- DST often shows up in 4EA cognitive science; among the major works here are the Naturalizing Phenomenology volume of 1999, and Evan Thompson's 2007 Mind in Life. (I try here to "add Deleuze to the mix" of DST-inflected 4EA work.)
- I'm going to put this post in the "analytic - continental divide (and its overcoming)" category, because I think / hope there's a way adding Deleuze to the mix of a "post-divide" metaphysics would be very interesting, as Jeff Bell has argued in a number of his excellent "Continental Connections Thursday" posts.
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