Ontological Perspectives in the Philosophy of Physics

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite submissions to this Special Issue devoted to the tripoint of the conceptual history of physics, the foundations of physics, and the philosophy of physics, with a deliberate emphasis on ontological questions. Our aim is to balance historically informed analysis with contemporary foundational debates, and to show how the evolution of core concepts continues to shape what we understand the physical world to be.

We particularly welcome contributions that probe the ontological commitments of the following major frameworks and research programs: prospects for unification across fundamental theories; the metaphysics of spacetime in general relativity (substantivalism, relationalism, and background independence); interpretations of quantum mechanics and their ontic claims (e.g., wave function realism, collapse and no-collapse views, and ψ-ontology–ψ-epistemology debates recast in ontological terms); the status of entities such as fields, particles, events, and processes; and accounts of emergence and temporal asymmetry in statistical mechanics and cosmology, including the arrow of time and coarse-graining. Historical–conceptual studies that illuminate how these ideas arose, shifted, and stabilized are especially encouraged, provided they connect directly to live ontological questions in contemporary physics.

This Special Issue will primarily consider research articles and critical review papers. We are interested in work that integrates historical scholarship with clear philosophical analysis and, where appropriate, formal or conceptual tools drawn from physics. Case studies that clarify conceptual change, comparative analyses across theoretical programs, and synoptic essays that take stock of current options all fall within the scope of this Special Issue. Our goal is to develop a coherent collection that advances ontological understanding while remaining grounded in the conceptual history that gave these debates their shape.

Dr. Favio Cala Vitery
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Philosophies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• conceptual history of physics
• foundations of physics
• ontology
• unification
• spacetime metaphysics
• quantum mechanics interpretations
• emergence
• arrow of time
• symmetry and gauge invariance
• entropy and coarse-graining