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Author: Eli Hirsch
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2011-03-16
Total Pages: 278
ISBN-13: 0199732116
DOWNLOAD EBOOKEli Hirsch has contributed steadily to metaphysics since his ground-breaking (and much cited) work on identity through time. This volume collects Hirsch's essays from the last decade (with the exception of one article from 1978) on ontology and metametaphysics which are very much tied to these debates.
Author: Eli Hirsch
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2011-03-16
Total Pages: 288
ISBN-13: 0190453494
DOWNLOAD EBOOKEli Hirsch has contributed steadily to metaphysics since his ground-breaking (and much cited) work on identity through time (culminating in the 1982 OUP book The Concept of Identity). Within the last 10 years, his work on realism and quantifier variance has been front-and-center in the minds of many metaphysicians. Metametaphysics, which looks at foundational questions about the very practice of metaphysics and the questions it raises, is now a popular area of discussion. There is a lot of anxiety about what ontology is, and Hirsch's diagnosis of how revisionary ontologists go wrong is one of the main views being discussed. This volume collects HIrsch's essays from the last decade (with the exception of one article from 1978) on ontology and metametaphysics which are very much tied to these debates. His essays develop a distinctive language-based argument against various anti-commonsensical views that have recently dominated ontology. All these views go astray, Hirsch says, by failing to interpret ordinary assertions about existence in a plausibly charitable way, so their philosophizing leads them to misuse language about ontology -- our ordinary concept of 'what exists' -- in favor of a position othat is quite different. Hirsch will supply a new introduction. The volume will interest philosophers of metaphysics currently engaged in these debates.
Author: Eli Hirsch
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 1993-04-29
Total Pages: 264
ISBN-13: 0195057546
DOWNLOAD EBOOKWhy does our language divide up reality one way rather than another? On what rational basis does our language contain certain kinds of general words rather than others? Hirsch shows that a language can be constructed which describes reality in ways we would find absurdly irrational, for example by classifying normally disparate items under the same general term. The apparent irrationality of the new language does not depend on its impoverished fact-stating power, as this may be equivalent to the fact-stating power of ordinary language; the problem then is to explain exactly what is wrong with it. Various options are explored and criticized, such as the hypothesis that language must reflect an underlying objective distinction between 'natural' kinds; that there are pragmatic reasons for the way language functions as it does; and that, as a matter of 'metaphysical necessity, ' strange ways of dividing up reality are constructions out of ordinary ways. Having demonstrated that this newly identified problem is in fact a serious one which cannot be easily solved or brushed aside, Hirsch offers his own suggestions for a possible solution.
Author: Theodore Sider
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 2011-11-24
Total Pages: 333
ISBN-13: 0199697906
DOWNLOAD EBOOKTheodore Sider presents a broad new vision of metaphysics centred on the idea of structure. To describe the world well we must use concepts that 'carve at the joints', so that conceptual structure matches reality's structure. This approach illuminates a wide range of topics, such as time, modality, ontology, and the status of metaphysics itself.
Author: Stephan Blatti
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2016
Total Pages: 253
ISBN-13: 0199661987
DOWNLOAD EBOOKRudolf Carnap's deflationary approach to ontology is once again attracting considerable interest and support. Eleven original essays by leading voices in metametaphysics deepen our understanding of Carnap's contributions to metaontology, and explore how his legacy can be mined for insights into the contemporary debate.
Author: Francesco Berto
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2015-01-29
Total Pages: 265
ISBN-13: 1472573307
DOWNLOAD EBOOKOntology and Metaontology: A Contemporary Guide is a clear and accessible survey of ontology, focusing on the most recent trends in the discipline. Divided into parts, the first half characterizes metaontology: the discourse on the methodology of ontological inquiry, covering the main concepts, tools, and methods of the discipline, exploring the notions of being and existence, ontological commitment, paraphrase strategies, fictionalist strategies, and other metaontological questions. The second half considers a series of case studies, introducing and familiarizing the reader with concrete examples of the latest research in the field. The basic sub-fields of ontology are covered here via an accessible and captivating exposition: events, properties, universals, abstract objects, possible worlds, material beings, mereology, fictional objects. The guide's modular structure allows for a flexible approach to the subject, making it suitable for both undergraduates and postgraduates looking to better understand and apply the exciting developments and debates taking place in ontology today.
Author: Amie Lynn Thomasson
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 2015
Total Pages: 361
ISBN-13: 0199385114
DOWNLOAD EBOOKExistence questions have been topics for heated debates in metaphysics, but this book argues that they can often be answered easily, by trivial inferences from uncontroversial premises. This 'easy' approach to ontology leads to realism about disputed entities, and to the view that metaphysical disputes about existence questions are misguided.
Author: Eli Hirsch
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 1992-02-20
Total Pages: 329
ISBN-13: 0195360648
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIn this book, Eli Hirsch focuses on identity through time, first with respect to ordinary bodies, then underlying matter, and eventually persons. These are linked at various points with other aspects of identity, such as the spatial unity of things, the unity of kinds, and the unity of groups. He investigates how our identity concept ordinarily operates in these respects. He also asks why this concept is so cental to our thinking and whether we can justify seeing the world in terms of such a concept. This is the revised and updated edition of a hardback published in 1982.
Author: Tuomas E. Tahko
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2015-11-12
Total Pages: 269
ISBN-13: 110707729X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis is the first systematic student introduction to metametaphysics, examining the nature, foundations and methodology of metaphysical inquiry.
Author: Matti Eklund
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2017
Total Pages: 232
ISBN-13: 0198717822
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe concepts we use to value and prescribe (concepts like good, right, ought) are historically contingent, and we could have found ourselves with others. But what does it mean to say that some concepts are better than others for purposes of action-guiding and deliberation? What is it to choose between different normative conceptual frameworks?
