Metaphysics The Big Questions

by van Inwagen, Peter; Zimmerman, Dean W.

• ISBN13: 9781405125864
• ISBN10: 1405125861
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-02-11
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

This extensively revised and expanded edition of van Inwagen and Zimmerman's popular collection of readings in metaphysics now features twenty-two additional selections, new sections on existence and reality, and an updated editorial commentary. Collects classic and contemporary readings in metaphysics Answers some of the most puzzling questions about our world and our place in it Covers an unparalleled range of topics Now includes a new section on existence and reality, expanded discussions on many classic issues, and an updated editorial commentary

Author Biography

Peter van Inwagen is John Cardinal O'Hara Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of The Problem of Evil (2006), Ontology, Identity, and Modality (2001), God, Knowledge, and Mystery: Essays in Philosophical Theology (1995), Metaphysics (1993), Material Beings (1990), and An Essay on Free Will (1983).

Dean Zimmerman is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University. He has published articles on metaphysics in a number of journals and collections, including The American Philosophical Quarterly, Analysis, The Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Mind, The Monist, Nous, The Philosophical Review, and Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. He is also editor of the Oxford Studies in Metaphysics series.

Table of Contents

Preface to Second Edition	p. xii
List of Sources	p. xvi
Introduction: What is Metaphysics?	p. 1
What are the Most General Features of the World?	p. 15
Introduction	p. 17
What is Existence?	p. 19
Introduction	p. 19
Holes	p. 22
On What There Is	p. 28
Beyond Being and Nonbeing	p. 40
What is the Relationship between an Individual and its Characteristics?	p. 51
Introduction	p. 51
Universals: an Excerpt from The Problems of Philosophy Bertrand Russell	p. 53
Universals as Attributes: an Excerpt from Universals: an Opinionated Introduction	p. 59
Universals and Resemblances: Chapter 1 of Thinking and Experience	p. 67
The Elements of Being	p. 84
The Identity of Indiscernibles	p. 96
Distinct Indiscernibles and the Bundle Theory	p. 105
What is Time? What is Space?	p. 113
Introduction	p. 114
Time: an Excerpt from The Nature of Existence	p. 116
McTaggart's Arguments against the Reality of Time: an Excerpt from Examination of McTaggart's Philosophy	p. 124
The Notion of the Present	p. 129
Changes in Events and Changes in Things	p. 131
The General Problem of Time and Change: an Excerpt from Scientific Thought	p. 141
The Myth of Passage	p. 149
Some Free Thinking about Time	p. 161
The Fourth Dimension: an Excerpt from The Ambidextrous Universe	p. 165
Incongruent Counterparts and Higher Dimensions	p. 168
The Traditional Conception of Space, and the Principle of Extensive Abstraction: an Excerpt from Scientific Thought	p. 175
Achilles and the Tortoise	p. 186
A Contemporary Look at Zeno's Paradoxes: an Excerpt from Space, Time, and Motion	p. 195
Grasping the Infinite	p. 215
The Paradoxes of Time Travel	p. 224
How do Things Persist through Changes of Parts and Properties?	p. 237
Introduction	p. 237
Of Confused Subjects Which Are Equivalent to Two Subjects: an Excerpt from The Port-Royal Logic	p. 239
The Paradox of Increase	p. 241
Identity, Ostension, and Hypostasis	p. 263
In Defense of Stages: Postscript B to "Survival and Identity"	p. 265
The Problem of Temporary Intrinsics: an Excerpt from On the Plurality of Worlds	p. 267
Temporary Intrinsics and Presentism	p. 269
How do Causes Bring about their Effects?	p. 283
Introduction	p. 283
Constant Conjunction: an Excerpt from A Treatise of	p. 285
Efficient Cause and Active Power: an Excerpt from Essays on the Active Powers of the Human Mind	p. 290
Psychological and Physical Causal Laws: an Excerpt from The Analysis of Mind	p. 291
Causality: an Excerpt from A Modern Introduction to Logic	p. 293
Causality and Determination	p. 306
What is Our Place in the World?	p. 321
Introduction	p. 323
How Are Mind and Body Related?	p. 325
Introduction	p. 325
Which Physical Thing Am I?: an Excerpt from "Is There a Mind-Body Problem?"	p. 328
Personal Identity: a Materialist Account	p. 333
An Argument for Animalism	p. 347
Divided Minds and the Nature of Persons	p. 361
Personal Identity: the Dualist Theory	p. 368
The Causal Theory of the Mind	p. 384
The Puzzle of Conscious Experience	p. 393
Neutral Monism: an Excerpt from Philosophy	p. 401
Is it Possible for Us to Act Freely?	p. 411
Introduction	p. 411
We Are Never Free: an Excerpt from The System of Nature Paul-Henri Dietrich, Baron d'Holbach	p. 413
Free Will as Involving Determination and Inconceivable without It	p. 420
Freedom, Causation, and Preexistence: an Excerpt from Problems of Mind and Matter	p. 432
Human Freedom and the Self	p. 441
The Consequence Argument	p. 450
The Mystery of Metaphysical Freedom	p. 456
The Agent as Cause	p. 465
Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility	p. 471
Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person	p. 480
Are There Many Worlds?	p. 493
Introduction	p. 495
Are There Worlds Other than the Actual World?	p. 497
Introduction	p. 497
Modal Realism at Work: an Excerpt from On the Plurality of Worlds	p. 499
Counterparts of Persons and Their Bodies	p. 511
Identity and Necessity	p. 519
Is There More than One Actual World?	p. 545
Introduction	p. 545
After Metaphysics, What?	p. 547
Truth and Convention	p. 552
Nonabsolute Existence and Conceptual Relativity: an Excerpt from "Putnam's Pragmatic Relism"	p. 558
Addendum to "Nonabsolute Existence and Conceptual Relativity": Objections and Replies	p. 566
Why is There a World?	p. 569
Introduction	p. 571
The Problem of Being: Chapter 3 of Some Problems of Philosophy	p. 573
Why Anything? Why This?	p. 576
Response to Derek Parfit	p. 594
The Cosmological Argument: an Excerpt from A Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God	p. 597
The Cosmological Argument and the Principle of Sufficient Reason	p. 602
The Ontological Argument: Chapters II-IV of the Proslogion	p. 611
Anselm's Ontological Arguments	p. 613
Index	p. 625
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