Oxford Studies in Metaphysics Volume 11

✍ Scribed by Karen Bennett (editor), Dean W. Zimmerman (editor)

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Year: 2019
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 302
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Much of the most interesting work in philosophy today is metaphysical in character. Oxford Studies in Metaphysics is a forum for the best new work in this flourishing field. OSM offers a broad view of the subject, featuring not only the traditionally central topics such as existence, identity, modality, time, and causation, but also the rich clusters of metaphysical questions in neighbouring fields, such as philsophy of mind and philosophy of science. Besides independent essays, volumes will often contain a critical essay on a recent book, or a symposium that allows participants to respond to one another's criticisms and questions. Anyone who wants to know what's happening in metaphysics can start here.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
OXFORD STUDIES IN METAPHYSICS: Volume 11
Copyright
PREFACE
CONTENTS
THE SANDERS PRIZE IN METAPHYSICS
PART I: RELATIONALISM AND SUBSTANTIVALISM
1: A New Approach to the Relational–Substantival Debate
1. INTRODUCTION
2. SPATIOTEMPORAL STRUCTURE AND THE MATCHING PRINCIPLE
3. A DISAGREEMENT ABOUT GROUND
3.1. Relationalism in terms of ground
3.2. Substantivalism in terms of ground
3.3. Further clarifications
3.4. Something old, something new
4. AN ARGUMENT FOR SUBSTANTIVALISM
5. A CHALLENGE FOR RELATIONALISM
6. CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
2: Relative Locations
1. LEIBNIZ’S SHIFT ARGUMENT
2. RELATIONISM
2.1. Mathematical relationism
2.2. The prospects for alternative versions of relationism
3. MULTIPLE LOCATION
3.1. Locations in ordinary language
3.2. The combined theory of part and location
3.3. The theory of part and location
3.4. Combining the theory with shift invariance
4. CONCLUSION
5. APPENDIX A: FIELDS
5.1. Demathematizing fields in orthodox Newtonian physics
5.2. Fields and the theory of multiple location
6. APPENDIX B: THE FIRST-ORDER THEORY OF PART AND LOCATION
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
REFERENCES
PART II: TIME AND CHANGE
3: A Passage Theory of Time
1. A SEARCH FOR PASSAGE
2. FRAGMENTATION ACROSS TIME
3. REGIMENTING PASSAGE
4. CONCLUDING REMARKS
REFERENCES
4: Fragmenting the Wave Function
1. STRATEGIES FOR B-THEORETIC ENDURANTISTS: RELATIVIZING, OUTSOURCING, AND DEFUSING
1.1. Relativizing accounts
1.2. Outsourcing accounts
1.3. Defusing accounts
1.4. Fragmentalism
2. SPOOKY ISOLATION AND SPOOKY COINCIDENCE
2.1. Spooky isolation
2.2. Spooky coincidence
3. SPOOKY ACTION AT A DISTANCE
4. CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PART III: RECOMBINATION, RELATIONS, AND SUPERVENIENCE
5: Possible Patterns
1. TWO COMBINATORIAL IDEAS
2. PATTERNS OF PROPERTIES
3. PATTERNS OF RELATIONS
4. PLURALITIES OF WORLDS
5. UNRESTRICTED PATTERNS
APPENDIX A: SET STRUCTURES
APPENDIX B: PLURAL STRUCTURES
REFERENCES
6: Plural Slot Theory
1. INTRODUCTION
2. SLOT THEORY AND ITS PROBLEMS
3. STATING SLOT THEORY MORE PRECISELY
4. AN INITIAL FORMULATION OF POCKET THEORY
5. A PROBLEM AND A REVISED FORMULATION
6. CONCLUDING REMARKS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
REFERENCES
7: Local Qualities
1. HUMEAN SUPERVENIENCE
2. ANTI-HUMEAN INSPIRATION: LOCALITY WITHOUT INSULATION
3. NON-PIECEMEAL HUMEANISM
4. CONSEQUENCES: NON-LOCAL BASING
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
REFERENCES
PART IV: VAGUENESS
8: Vague Naturalness as Ersatz Metaphysical Vagueness
1. THE PLAUSIBILITY OF (V1)–(V3)
1.1. (V1)
1.2. (V2)
1.3. (V3)
2. THE TENSION BETWEEN (V1)–(V3)
2.1. Preliminaries
2.2. The precise naturalness strategy
2.3. The reference magnetic strategy
3. VAGUE NATURALNESS AS ERSATZ METAPHYSICAL VAGUENESS
4. FUNDAMENTAL INDETERMINACY
5. THE REFERENCE MAGNETIC STRATEGY, REDUX
6. NO RADICAL INDETERMINACY
7. NATURALNESS IS NATURAL
8. CONCLUSION
9. APPENDIX: SOPHISTICATED REFERENCE MAGNETISM
REFERENCES
9: Against ‘Against “Against Vague Existence”’
1. INTRODUCTION: VAGUE EXISTENCE AND SEMANTIC INDECISION
2. SUPER-VAGUENESS AND MULTIPLE PRECISIFICATIONS: A CHALLENGE
3. IS SUPER-VAGUENESS VAGUENESS?
4. A SUPER-META-LANGUAGE FOR SUPER-VAGUE EXISTENCE?
5. SUPER-VAGUE EXISTENCE AND WORLDLY INDETERMINACY
6. CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
Author Index