Explanatory Problems for Mass Additivity and Dynamics
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Abstract
I present an argument against the view that the additivity of mass (i.e., the property according to which a composite object’s mass is the “sum” of its parts’) is metaphysically independent of dynamical laws governing massive bodies. In particular, taking additivity to be independent of dynamics commits you to widespread unexplained correlations between the mass properties of composites and the dynamic behavior of massive bodies. The second half of the paper extends this explanatory worry, showing that the very same considerations apply to aspects of mass’s quantitative structure. This gives rise to a new and powerful objection to certain influential theories about the fundamental structure of physical quantities —most notably the magnitude realism of Peacocke (2019) and the second-order absolutist accounts defended by Mundy (1987) and Eddon (2013b).
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Perry, Z. R. (2023). Explanatory Problems for Mass Additivity and Dynamics. Crítica. Revista Hispanoamericana De Filosofía, 55(163), 45–80. https://doi.org/10.22201/iifs.18704905e.2023.1408
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References
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Sider, Theodore, 2016, The Tools of Metaphysics and the Metaphysics of Science, The John Locke Lectures, May-June, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Sklar, Lawrence, 1974, Space, Time and Spacetime, University of California Press, Berkeley, California.
Taylor, J.R., 2005, Classical Mechanics, University Science Books, New York. https://books.google.com/books?id=P1kCtNr-pJsC
Van Fraassen, Bas C., 1980, The Scientific Image, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Wolff, J.E., 2020, The Metaphysics of Quantities, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Arntzenius, Frank, and Cian Dorr, 2012, “Calculus as Geometry”, Chapter 8, in Space, Time, and Stuff, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 213–278.
Baker, David John, 2022, “Sider on Determinism in Absolutist Theories of Quantity” (manuscript).
Baker, David John, 2020, “Some Consequences of Physics for the Comparative Metaphysics of Quantity”, in Karen Bennett and Dean W. Zimmerman (eds.), Oxford Studies in Metaphysics Volume 12, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 75–112.
Baker, David John, 2014, “Comparativism with Mixed Relations” (unpublished manuscript).
Baker, David John, 2010, “Symmetry and the Metaphysics of Physics”, Philosophy Compass, vol. 5, no. 12, pp. 1157–1166.
Bhogal, Harjit, 2020, “Coincidences and the Grain of Explanation”, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, vol. 100, no. 3, pp. 677–694.
https://doi.org/10.1111/phpr.12570.
Bigelow, J., R. Pargetter, and D.M. Armstrong, 1988, “Quantities”, Philosophical Studies, vol. 54, no. 3, pp. 287–316.
Burgess, John P., 1991, “Synthetic Mechanics Revisited”, Journal of Philosophical Logic, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 121–130.
Burgess, John P., 1984, “Synthetic Mechanics”, Journal of Philosophical Logic, vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 379–395.
Dasgupta, Shamik, 2013, “Absolutism vs Comparativism about Quantities”, Oxford Studies in Metaphysics, vol. 12, pp. 105–150.
Dees, Marco, 2018, “Physical Magnitudes”, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, vol. 99, no. 4, pp. 817–841. https://doi.org/10.1111/papq.12223.
Earman, John, 1970, “Who’s Afraid of Absolute Space?”, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, vol. 48, no. 3, pp. 287–319.
Eddon, Maya, 2013a, “Quantitative Properties”, Philosophy Compass, vol. 8, no. 7, pp. 633–645.
Eddon, Maya, 2013b, “Fundamental Properties of Fundamental Properties”, in Karen Bennett and Dean Zimmerman (eds.), Oxford Studies in Metaphysics, Volume 8, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 78–104.
Euclid, 1975, The Elements of Euclid, trans. Robert Simson, E. Wingrove, London, Edinburgh, 9th edition.
Feather, N., 1966, “Additivity of Mass in Newtonian Mechanics”, American Journal of Physics, vol. 34, no. 6, pp. 511–516.
https://doi.org/10.1119/1.1973080.
Field, Hartry, 2016, Science Without Numbers, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2nd edition.
Fowler, David H., 1999, The Mathematics of Plato’s Academy: A New Reconstruction, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 2nd edition.
Hölder, Otto, 1901, “Die Axiome der quantität und die lehre vom mass (part I)”, Journal of Mathematical Psychology, vol. 40, no. 23, pp. 235-252, trans. Joel Michell and Catherine Ernst (1996).
Kibble, T.W.B., and F.H. Berkshire, 2004, Classical Mechanics, Imperial College Press, London, 5th edition.
Krantz, David, Duncan Luce, Patrick Suppes, and Amos Tversky, 1971, Foundations of Measurement, Vol. I: Additive and Polynomial Representations, Academic Press, New York.
Mach, Ernst, 1893, The Science of Mechanics: A Critical and Historical Exposition of Its Principles. The Works of Ernst Mach, trans. T.J. McCormack, Open Court Publishing Company, Michigan, USA.
https://books.google.com/books?id=4OE2AAAAMAAJ
Martens, Niels C.M., 2017, “Regularity Comparativism about Mass in Newtonian Gravity”, Philosophy of Science, vol. 84, no. 5, pp. 1226-1238. https://doi.org/10.1086/694086.
Maudlin, Tim, 1993, “Buckets of Water and Waves of Space: Why Spacetime is Probably a Substance”, Philosophy of Science, vol. 60, no. 2, pp. 183–203.
McQueen, Kelvin J., 2015, “Mass Additivity and a Priori Entailment”, Synthese, vol. 192, no. 5, pp. 1373–1392. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-014-0627-7.
Mundy, Brent, 1987, “The Metaphysics of Quantity”, Philosophical Studies, vol. 51, no. 1, pp. 29–54.
Nitsure, S.P., 2006, Engineering Mechanics, Technical Publications Pune, India.
Peacocke, Christopher, 2015, “Magnitudes: Metaphysics, Explanation, and Perception”, in Daniele Moyal-Sharrock, Annalisa Coliva, Volker Munz (eds.), Mind, Language and Action: Proceedings of the 36th International Wittgenstein Symposium, De Gruyter, Berlin, pp. 357–388.
Peacocke, Christopher, 2019, The Primacy of Metaphysics, Oxford University Press, New York.
Perry, Zee R., 2016, Physical Quantities: Mereology and Dynamics [phdthesis in Philosophy], New York University.
Perry, Zee R., 2015, “Properly Extensive Quantities”, Philosophy of Science, vol. 82, no. 5, pp. 833–844.
Sider, Theodore, 2012, “Scientific Properties, and How Tools in Metaphysics Matter”, manuscript.
Sider, Theodore, 2016, The Tools of Metaphysics and the Metaphysics of Science, The John Locke Lectures, May-June, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Sklar, Lawrence, 1974, Space, Time and Spacetime, University of California Press, Berkeley, California.
Taylor, J.R., 2005, Classical Mechanics, University Science Books, New York. https://books.google.com/books?id=P1kCtNr-pJsC
Van Fraassen, Bas C., 1980, The Scientific Image, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Wolff, J.E., 2020, The Metaphysics of Quantities, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
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