Analytic Metaphysics should not go
Abstract
Recently, analytic metaphysics has been attacked from a scientist’s perspective.
In Everything Must Go, James Ladyman and Don Ross argued that analytic metaphysics
should be dismissed and replaced with a naturalized metaphysics. In this paper, I critically
discuss the arguments proposed in the book in order to determine whether this critique
of analytic metaphysics is successful. In particular, Ladyman and Ross elaborate on three
main points: the role of intuitions and the ensuing misunderstanding of science, the demarcation
of science from non science, and the exclusive theoretical authority of science.
I argue that none of their arguments succeeds in excluding analytic metaphysics from the
list of respectable theoretical disciplines.