Editing Reality (section)

=== Theories of everything (TOE) and philosophy ===
{{Main|Theory of everything (philosophy)}}

The philosophical implications of a physical TOE are frequently debated. For example, if philosophical [[physicalism]] is true, a physical TOE will coincide with a philosophical theory of everything.

The [[System-building metaphysics|"system building"]] style of metaphysics attempts to answer ''all'' the important questions in a coherent way, providing a complete picture of the world. [[Plato]] and [[Aristotle]] could be said to be early examples of comprehensive systems. In the early modern period (17th and 18th centuries), the system-building ''scope'' of philosophy is often linked to the rationalist ''method'' of philosophy, that is the technique of deducing the nature of the world by pure ''a priori'' reason. Examples from the early modern period include the [[Gottfried Leibniz|Leibniz]]'s [[Monadology]], [[René Descartes|Descartes]]'s [[Mind-body dualism|Dualism]], [[Baruch Spinoza|Spinoza]]'s [[Monism]]. [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel|Hegel]]'s [[Absolute idealism]] and [[Alfred North Whitehead|Whitehead]]'s [[Process philosophy]] were later systems.

Other philosophers do not believe its techniques can aim so high. Some scientists think a more mathematical approach than philosophy is needed for a TOE, for instance [[Stephen Hawking]] wrote in ''[[A Brief History of Time]]'' that even if we had a TOE, it would necessarily be a set of equations. He wrote, "What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe?"<ref>as quoted in [Artigas, ''The Mind of the Universe'', p.123]</ref>