Abstract: Scientists and philosophers who seek, or advocate seeking, a “theory of everything” (e.g., string theory, Thomas Nagel’s panpsychic theory, David Chalmers’ “construction of the world”) want to produce a grand, unifying theory that can explain everything on the basis of fundamental laws and constituents of the universe. Advocates of this idea offer very general empirical, or a priori, or methodological reasons for doing so. These reasons are worth examining and criticizing.
Originally presented at the Rotman Institute of Philosophy at Western University on November 14, 2014.
