Seminar Series in Analytic Philosophy 2025-26: Session 5

The Overcoming of Dynamical Explanations by Geometrical Explanations in Three Scientific Revolutions

Mauro Dorato (Università degli studi Roma Tre)

 

24 October 2025, 16:00 (Lisbon Time – WET)

Faculdade de Letras de Lisboa

Sala Mattos Romão [C201.J] (Departamento de Filosofia)

 

Abstract: According to Kuhn, scientific revolutions are characterized by a radical change in the phenomena that are thought to require an explanation. In my talk, I will illustrate this thesis by arguing that three revolutions in the history of spacetime physics share two related patterns that can be summarized as follows: (i) pre-revolutionary dynamical explanations have been replaced by post-revolutionary structural explanations postulating new “natural” states of motion; (ii) this postulation has been made possible by the discovery of anthropomorphic projections over the physical world. In the last part of my talk, I will try to investigate whether this scheme can also be applied to quantum mechanics.