What is this thing called Metaphysics? - Third Edition

✍ Scribed by Brian Garrett

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 175
• Edition: 3
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

How did our universe come to be? Does God exist? Does time flow? What are we? Do we have free will? What is truth? Metaphysics is concerned with the nature of ourselves and the world around us. This clear and accessible introduction covers the central topics in metaphysics in a concise but comprehensive way. Brian Garrett discusses the crucial concepts and arguments of metaphysics in a highly readable manner. He addresses the following key areas of metaphysics:

• God

• Existence

• Modality

• Universals and particulars

• Facts

• Causation

• Time

• Puzzles of material constitution

• Free will & determinism

• Fatalism

• Personal identity

• Truth

This third edition has been thoroughly revised. Most chapters include new and updated material, and there are now two chapters devoted to attacks on free will and fatalism.

What is this thing called Metaphysics? contains many helpful student-friendly features, such as a glossary of important terms, study questions, annotated further reading, and a guide to web resources. Text boxes provide bite-sized summaries of key concepts and major philosophers, and clear and interesting examples are used throughout.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
Preface to the third edition
Introduction
1 God
Introduction
The Ontological Argument
The Cosmological Argument
The Teleological Argument
Concluding Remarks
Study Questions
2 What are we?
Introduction
What are We?
Adjudicating the Rival Views
The Case of Fission
Concluding Remarks
Study Questions
3 Existence
Introduction
What is Existence?
Non-Existent Objects
Adjudicating between the Property and Quantifier Views
Concluding Remarks
Study Questions
4 Modality
Introduction
Essentialism
Varieties of Essentialism
Necessary Truth
Possible Worlds
Concluding Remarks
Study Questions
5 Objects and properties
Introduction
Universals
Russell’s Bundle Theory
Varieties of Nominalism
Tropes
Concluding Remarks
Study Questions
6 Causation
Introduction
The Regularity Theory
The Counterfactual Theory
Non-Reductionism?
Backwards Causation
Concluding Remarks
Study Questions
7 Time: the fundamental issue
Introduction
A-theory vs. B-theory
McTaggart’s Arguments
Five Objections to the A-theory
Concluding Remarks
Study Questions
8 Time: four puzzles
Introduction
Temporally Biased Attitudes
Time without Change
Time Travel
Bringing about the Past – A Puzzle
Concluding Remarks
Study Questions
9 Fatalism
Introduction
Fatalism: Five Varieties
Concluding Remarks
Study Questions
10 Free will and determinism
Introduction
Is the Notion of Free will Incoherent?
Concluding Remarks
Study Questions
11 Puzzles of material constitution and identity
Introduction
Three Puzzles
Do Ordinary Objects Endure or Perdure?
The Three Puzzles Examined
Concluding Remarks
Study Questions
12 Facts
Introduction
Wittgenstein’s Logical Atomism
Truthmaker Theory
Problems with Truthmaker Theory
The Nature of Facts
Concluding Remarks
Study Questions
13 Truth
Introduction
Correspondence Theories
Coherence Theories
Anti-Realism
Deflationism
Concluding Remarks
Study Questions
Glossary
Index