Worldviews, Science and Us: Studies of Analytical Metaphysics: A Selection of Topics from a Methodological Perspective, Ghent, Belgium, 2-3 June 2005

by Vanderbeeken, Robrecht; D'Hooghe, Bart

• ISBN13: 9789814295819
• ISBN10: 9814295817
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-11-30
• Publisher: World Scientific Pub Co Inc

Summary

This volume brings together the lectures presented at the 5th Metaphysics of Science Workshop held from June 2 to 3, 2005, in Ghent, Belgium. The aim of this volume is twofold. First, it fields a selection of ongoing discussions on a central topic in contemporary analytical metaphysics. Authors were asked to encapsulate their lecture topic into a précis, highlighting the contesting views, accentuating the pro and contra of the main arguments, and shedding light on the origin, the evolution and the eventual offspring of a respective discussion. Second, this volume addresses the methodological question by examining what can be learned if we compare these discussions from a methodological perspective. What are the red herrings and shortcomings? Is an integrated methodology possible? Does each discussion finally await a pluralism of plausible positions or will an overall convincing account be expected? And finally, can analytical metaphysics methodologically assert and investigate their basic assumptions, if not from a common sense stance?

Table of Contents

Worldviews, Science and Us: Studies of Analytical Metaphysics. A Selection of Topics from a Methodological Perspective	p. 1
Introduction: Contemporary Analytic Metaphysics, its Crisis and Challenge	p. 4
Holism and Structural Realism	p. 10
Common Sense, Relativity and Theories of Time	p. 32
Purely Dispositional Worlds	p. 44
Natural Kinds - What Are They?	p. 64
Personal Identity, Conceptual Analysis and No-Fault Disagreement	p. 87
A World of Tropes?	p. 107
Causal Pluralism	p. 131
Why Social Emergence? Discussing the Use of Analytical Metaphysics in Social Theory	p. 152
Counterfactuals, Causation and Humean Supervenience	p. 167
Disentangling Causal Pluralism	p. 207
Mathematical Entities	p. 224
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