Forces, understood as pushes or pulls that are exerted (in the first instance) by particulars and that cause motions, have received little philosophical attention in recent decades, reflecting both that forces no longer play a role in fundamental physical theory and that even where they do play a role (e.g., in Newtonian mechanics), it has seemed advisable (following Jammer, above) to give them a purely instrumentalist interpretation. What attention has been paid however indicates that various aspects of the notion of force (or notions; see below) deserve further philosophical consideration.

One such aspect concerns the ontological status of forces. Jammer's deflationary account of force as a mere "methodological intermediate," enabling the kinematical behavior of particulars to be studied independent of the details of specific configurations, but not to be taken with ontological seriousness, was motivated by traditional empiricist concerns with forces as purely theoretical entities...