Studies in the Ontology of Reinhardt Grossmann
Studies in the Ontology of Reinhardt Grossmann

Author: Javier Cumpa

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2013-05-02

Total Pages: 303

ISBN-13: 3110322463

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Reinhardt Grossmann is one of the most sophisticated, knowledgeable and original contemporary metaphysicians. Although he was a student of Bergmann, he influenced the development of Bergmann's metaphysics considerably. No philosopher other than Grossmann defends perception to that degree against the persistent skeptical arguments. He characterizes his epistemological positions as radical empiricism and radical realism. By realism Grossmann mainly means the view that the material things we perceive exist. It is thus also an ontological position and closely related to his empiricism. Grossmann's empiricism is radical insofar as he claims that entities of all categories are perceptible, even numbers and universals. Grossmann's universal realism advocates a theory of abstract categories against the current naturalism. He distinguishes between the world and the physical universe. The latter is the domain of science; the former is the subject of ontology.

Studies in the Ontology of Reinhardt Grossmann
Studies in the Ontology of Reinhardt Grossmann

Author: Reinhardt Grossmann

Publisher:

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 9783868380637

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Reinhardt Grossmann is one of the most sophisticated, knowledgeable, and original contemporary metaphysicians. Although he was a student of Bergmann, he influenced the development of Bergmann's metaphysics considerably. Grossman characterizes his epistemological positions as radical empiricism and radical realism. By realism Grossmann mainly means the view that the material things we perceive exist. By empiricism he means entities of all categories are perceptible, even numbers and universals. Grossmann's universal realism advocates a theory of abstract categories against the current naturalism. He distinguishes between the world and the physical universe. The latter is the domain of science; the former is the subject of ontology.

The Existence of the World
The Existence of the World

Author: Reinhardt Grossmann

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-03-06

Total Pages: 146

ISBN-13: 0429514182

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Originally published in 1992. The history of Western philosophy can be seen as a battle between those that insist that the "physical universe" exists and those would claim that there is a much larger "world" which contains atemporal and nonspatial things as well. The central part of this book, and the battle, concerns the existence of universals. Starting with the mediaeval definition of the issue found in Porphry and Boethius, the author then considers modern and contemporary versions of the battle. He concludes that what is at stake between naturalists and ontologists is the existence and nature of a number of important categories, like structures, relations, sets, numbers and so on.

The Fourth Way
The Fourth Way

Author: Reinhardt Grossmann

Publisher: Ontos Verlag

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 311

ISBN-13: 9783937202907

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Reinhardt Grossmann argues that a realistic ontology in regard to perceptual, physical, and mathematical objects can be combined with an empiricistic theory of knowledge. In the first part of the book he shows that the traditional distinction between primary and secondary qualities leads to idealism, while the common Cartesian conception of knowledge by way of ideas leads to scepticism. In order to avoid these twin scourges of modern philosophy, the authors argues for the existence of ordinary perceptual objects and explains how we know these objects directly through simple acts of perception. The second part of the book is concerned with the way in which we know what is in our minds. Grossmann maintains that this kind of knowledge is just as fallible as perception. In the third part the author concludes that logic, arithmetic, and set theory concern matters of facts and that we discover these facts empirically.

Phenomenological Realism Versus Scientific Realism
Phenomenological Realism Versus Scientific Realism

Author: Javier Cumpa

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2013-05-02

Total Pages: 145

ISBN-13: 311032606X

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The two eminent metaphysicians Armstrong and Grossmann exchanged letters for ten years in which they discussed crucial points of their respective ontologies. They have a common basis. Both do metaphysics proper and not linguistic philosophy. Both advocate universals and acknowledge the key position of the category of states of affairs. However, they differ on the simplicity of universals and the nature of states of affairs. There is also a fundamental methodological disagreement between them. Armstrong accepts only the evidence of natural science and has a materialist view on mind while Grossmann is a dualist and grants also the same evidential status to the phenomenological data of perception and introspection. The letters are grouped into three phases. The first is the issue of universals, the second the ontological analysis of laws of nature and the third the ontology of numbers. The book contains also longer comments and reviews, partly not published until now.

Metaphysics and Scientific Realism
Metaphysics and Scientific Realism

Author: Francesco Federico Calemi

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2016-01-15

Total Pages: 399

ISBN-13: 3110455005

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David Malet Armstrong (8 July 1926–13 May 2014) has been one of the most influential contemporary metaphysicians working in the analytic tradition and surely the greatest 20th century Australian philosopher. His main merit is to have reestablished metaphysics as a respectable branch of philosophy placing it at the centre of the philosophical debate, and giving it the status of an authoritative and competent interlocutor of both rational and empirical sciences. By means of a rigorously argumentative approach and a sharp prose, Armstrong has built a whole metaphysical system, that is, a comprehensive and unified picture of the fundamental structure of the world. The various chapters of the book address the key issues concerning Armstrong' view about the problem of universals, the nature of states of affairs, the ontological ground of possibility, nomic necessity, and dispositions, the truthmaker theory, and the theory of mind. This volume aims to celebrate Armstrong’s memory bringing new understanding, and hopefully stimulating more work, on his philosophy, with the conviction that it constitutes an invaluable heritage for contemporary research in metaphysics.

On Determining What There is
On Determining What There is

Author: Paul Symington

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2013-05-02

Total Pages: 183

ISBN-13: 311032248X

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Generally, categories are understood to express the most general features of reality. Yet, since categories have this special status, obtaining a correct list of them is difficult. This question is addressed by examining how Thomas Aquinas establishes the list of categories through a technique of identifying diversity in how predicates are per se related to their subjects. A sophisticated critique by Duns Scotus of this position is also examined, a rejection which is fundamentally grounded in the idea that no real distinction can be made from a logical one. It is argued Aquinas's approach can be rehabilitated in that real distinctions are possible when specifically considering per se modes of predication. This discussion between Aquinas and Scotus bears fruit in a contemporary context insofar as it bears upon, strengthens, and seeks to correct E. J. Lowe's four-category ontology view regarding the identity and relation of the categories.

Ontological Categories
Ontological Categories

Author: Javier Cumpa

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2013-05-02

Total Pages: 234

ISBN-13: 311032959X

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This volume is about ontological categories. The categories of an ontology are designed to classify all existents. They are crucial and characterize an ontology.

E.J. Lowe and Ontology
E.J. Lowe and Ontology

Author: Miroslaw Szatkowski

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2022-03-18

Total Pages: 326

ISBN-13: 1000553825

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This volume collects fifteen original essays on E. J. Lowe’s work on metaphysics and ontology. The essays connect Lowe’s insights with contemporary issues in metaphysics. E. J. Lowe (1950–2014) was one of the most influential analytical philosophers of the twentieth and early twenty-first century. Drawing inspiration from Aristotle's thought, E. J. Lowe treated metaphysics as an autonomous discipline concerned with the fundamental structure of reality. The chapters in this volume reflect on his path-breaking work. They deal with a wide range of metaphysical issues including four-category ontology, the causal and non-causal aspects of agency, categorial fundamentality and non-fundamentality, the existence of relations, property dualism, powers and abilities, personal identity, predication, and topological ontology. Taken together, the chapters reflect the liveliness of contemporary debates in metaphysics and the enduring impact of Lowe’s thought on them. E. J. Lowe and Ontology will be of interest to researchers and advanced students working in metaphysics and philosophy of mind.