Metaphysics Contemporary Readings

by Hales, Steven D.

• ISBN13: 9780534551452
• ISBN10: 0534551459
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-02-09
• Publisher: Cengage Learning

Summary

Enthusiastically reviewed and praised for its introductions and selections, METAPHYSICS: CONTEMPORARY READINGS is a comprehensive collection of readings with an ontological emphasis.

Table of Contents

Editor's Preface

I

EXISTENCE

Michael Burke, Introduction to Existence

Nicholas Rescher, On Explaining Existence

Derek Parfit, Why is Reality as It Is? Robert Nozick, Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing? Bibliography of Further Readings

II

REALISM/ANTI-REALISM

Simon Blackburn, Introduction to the Realism Debates

Michael Dummett, Realism and Anti-Realism

Hilary Putnam, Why There Isn't a Ready-Made World

Ernest Sosa, Putnam's Pragmatic Realism

Michael Devitt, A Naturalistic Defense of Realism

Michael Devitt, Postscript to A Naturalistic Defense of Realism

Bibliography of Further Readings

III

TRUTH

Frederick Schmitt, Introduction to Truth

Alfred Tarski, The Semantic Conception of Truth

Susan Haack, The Pragmatist Theory of Truth

Nicholas Rescher, Truth as Ideal Coherence

Paul Horwich, The Disquotational Conception of Truth

Marian David, Truth as Correspondence

Bibliography of Further Readings

IV

ABSTRACTA: PROPERTIES, NUMBERS, PROPOSITIONS

Bob Hale, Introduction to Abstracta

W

Quine, On What There Is

Rudolf Carnap, Empiricism, Semanitcs, and Ontology

Alonzo Church, On Carnap's Analysis of Statements of Assertion and Belief

W

Quine, Meaning and Truth

Paul Benacerraf, What Numbers Could Not Be

David M

Armstrong, Universals as Attributes

Bibliography of Further Readings

V

SECONDARY QUALITIES

Edward Averill, Introduction to Secondary Qualities

David M

Armstrong, The Secondary Qualities

Paul A

Boghossian and David Velleman, Colour as a Secondary Quality

C

Hardin, Color and Illusion

Bibliography of Further Readings

VI

CONCRETA: EVENTS

Jonathan Bennett, Introduction to Events

Donald Davidson, The Individuation of Events

Jaegwon Kim, Events as Property Exemplifications

Lawrence Lombard, Events

Bibliography of Further Readings

VII

CONCRETA: SUBSTANCE

E

Lowe, Introduction to Substance

James Van Cleve, Three Versions of the Bundle Theory

Gary Rosenkrantz and Joshua Hoffman, The Independence Criterion of Substance

Peter Simons, Particulars in Particular Clothing: Three Trope Theories of Substance

Bibliography of Further Readings

VIII

DEPENDENT PARTICULARS: HOLES, BOUNDARIES, AND SURFACES

Scott H

Hestevold, Introduction to Dependent Particulars

David Lewis and Stephanie Lewis, Holes

Roberto Casati and Achille C

Varzi

Immaterial Bodies

Roderick Chisholm, Boundaries as Dependent Particulars

Avrum Stroll, Two Conceptions of Surfaces

Bibliography of Further Readings

IX

MEROLOGY

Peter Simons, Introduction to Mereology

W

Quine, Identity, Ostension, and Hypostasis

Mark Heller, Temporal Parts of Four-Dimensioned Objects

Peter Van Inwagen, Four-Dimensional Objects

James Van Cleve, Mereological Essentialism, Mereological Conjunctivism, and Identity Through Time

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF FURTHER READINGS