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Second Project Workshop coming up very soon
Second Project Workshop coming up very soon
Posted 19 March 2026
We have the pleasure to announce the upcoming second project workshop at the University of Lisbon, featuring project members Andrea, Lisa, Niels, Robert, as well as our esteemed colleagues Bruno Jacinto, Mariana Seabra (both LanCog, University of Lisbon), and Fracisco Pipa (School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Queensland). For more information, head over to the LanCog-website, philevents, or simply to the Events subpage. Looking very much forward to a productive and stimulating event and to the get-together of aficionados of all things indeterminate!
First 12 months celebration post: more publications by project members
First 12 months celebration post: more publications by project members
Posted 20 February 2025
The end of the first month of the new year also marked the end of the first 12 exciting and productive months of work on the project. A very warm thank you to everyone in the project team, the team-external colleagues who contributed to the project events and work, as well as everyone who helped moving the project forward!
Let's celebrate with the announcement of four further project-related publications (in ascending order of acceptance dates):
Naturalistic metaphysics and the parity thesis: why scientific realism doesn’t lead to realism about metaphysics by Raoni Arroyo and Matteo Morganti, published in Synthese.
The paper effectively criticizes the idea that in the context of naturalistic metaphysics, a context in which much of the project work is firmly rooted, the commitment to a realist or anti-realist stance regarding science also decides one's commitment to realism or anti-realism about metaphysics.
A Chancy Theory of Metaphysical Indeterminacy (open-access preprint available here) by Alessandro Torza, forthcoming in Noûs.
The paper presents and develops a novel reductive analysis of metaphysical indeterminacy in terms of objective chance and favorably compares it to three current standard accounts. It hence advances our understanding of one of the central notions investigated in the project.
From intersubjective correspondence to the counterpart relation—motifs from Carnap’s Aufbau in Lewis’s counterpart theory and his philosophical methodology by Robert Michels, published in Asian Journal of Philosophy
The paper relates Carnap's project of rationally reconstructing the whole of scientific knowledge to David Lewis's metaphysical work on counterpart theory, one focal point of similarity being the reliance on a notoriously indeterminate notion of overall similarity as a theoretical primitive.
Dispositions and Dependence by Lisa Vogt, published in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research.
The paper defends one of the standard theories of laws of nature against one of the most important objections wielded against it in the recent literature, clarifying a central notion investigated by project members in the context of the idea that laws of nature can be subject to indeterminacy.
Congratulations everyone!
New project member!
New project member!
Posted 8 October 2025
We are very happy to announce that the Ana Escher joined the project as a postdoc. To learn more about Ana's previous work, check out her profile on academia. Welcome to the project team, Ana!
Publication: Paper on Multidimensional Properties
Publication: Paper on Multidimensional Properties
Posted 25 September 2025
Another paper has been accepted for publication:
Multidimensional Properties: Primitivism vs Reductionism by Robert Michels, forthcoming in Metaphysics
The paper discusses the metaphysics of multidimensional properties and proposes a reductionist account, according to which such properties may be disjunctive-conjunctive properties. The paper builds on Robert's work with Claudio Calosi on graded properties, properties which may be had to differing degrees, raising questions about the indeterminacy of property possession.
Preprint available on philpapers (click the title)!
Satellite Workshop
Satellite Workshop
Posted 23 September 2025
Once more a big "Thank you!" to the GAP for the nice flower bouquets and the best paper award, as well as for funding the GAP.12 Satellite workshop! We had a great workshop with three excellent presentations (thank you Laurie, Vera, and Claudio!), wonderful discussions, and the opportunity to discover some nice corners of Düsseldorf. Fortunately the wait for the next project event won't be too long! Planning for the next workshop in Lisbon will soon be under way.
Best Paper Award at GAP.12!
Best Paper Award at GAP.12!
Posted 23 July 2025
Great news: Not only have Niels and Robert's paper "Laws of Nature as Results of a Trade-Off - Rethinking the Humean trade-off conception" and Lisa, Niels, and Robert's paper "How should Humeans deal with tied best systems? " been accepted for presentation as contributed papers at GAP.12, but the latter has furthermore been awarded a Best Paper Award. Join Lisa and Robert after the Opening & Award ceremony on 8 September to celebrate this success!
First Workshop over & Satellite workshop at GAP.12
First Workshop over & Satellite workshop at GAP.12
Posted 26 May 2025
The first project event is now over and I think I can speak for everyone involved in saying that the workshop was very stimulating, productive and, not to forget, enjoyable. Thank you everyone!
The next workshop in Lisbon will take place in 2026, but meanwhile, some project members will meet at the GAP.12 Satellite workshop "New Work in Metaphysical Indeterminacy" this September in Düsseldorf. A preliminary programme is available on the events page, so have a look!
First workshop announced!
First workshop announced!
Posted: 5 May 2025
The programme for the first workshop, to be held at the University of Lisbon on 22 and 23 May, is online now.
Attendance of the talks is free and open to anyone interested, but registration is required.
To register and for more details, see the Events section on this website or the post on Philevents.
First publications
First publications
Posted: 19 April 2025
The first two project publications are out!
Laws of nature as results of a trade-off — Rethinking the Humean trade-off conception by Niels Linnemann & Robert Michels, forthcoming in Philosophical Quarterly.
The Humean theory of laws of nature relies on a trade-off between theoretical virtues to explain what it takes to be a law of nature, but some philosophers have argued that such trade-offs do not play a role in science. The paper gives an example from science, in which such a trade-off is used in applications of AI to re-discover known physical laws from data, then argues that the conception of a trade-off used by Humeans is overly simplistic, and finally argues that given a better understanding of trade-offs, there are bound to be a number of equally optimal trade-offs, resulting in a situation where it may be indeterminate which laws of nature there are.
Humansplaining: is it a thing? Is it bad? by Robert Michels & Sanna Hirvonen in AI & Society.
This short paper discusses "humansplaining", the unjust act of a human explaining something to an AI which knows better. If the vision that there might be independent AI scientists who formulate new scientific theories is ever realized, humansplaining may happen in situations in which it is unclear whether human or AI science gets at the truth.
Click the titles to head over to philpapers to have a look and read them!
In the media
In the media
Posted: 19 March 2025
News item (in Portuguese) on the project on the faculty website with links to a short interview about the project with Robert (in English):
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