What is this thing called Metaphysics?

What is this thing called Metaphysics?

Author: Brian Garrett

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2011-02-25

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 1136792686

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Why is there something rather than nothing? Does God exist? Does time flow? What are we? Do we have free will? What is truth? Metaphysics is concerned with ourselves and reality, and the most fundamental questions regarding existence. This clear and accessible introduction covers the central topics in metaphysics in a concise but comprehensive way. Brian Garrett discusses the crucial concepts in a highly readable manner, easing the reader in with a look at some important philosophical problems. He addresses key areas of metaphysics: God Existence Modality Universals and particulars Facts Paradoxes of material constitution Causation Time Free will Personal identity Truth. This second edition has been thoroughly revised. Most chapters include substantial amounts of new material, and there are additional chapters on Existence, Modality, Facts and Paradoxes of Material Constitution. What is this thing called Metaphysics? contains many helpful student-friendly features. Each chapter concludes with a useful summary of the main ideas discussed, 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.


What is this thing called Philosophy?

What is this thing called Philosophy?

Author: Duncan Pritchard

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-12-22

Total Pages: 466

ISBN-13: 1135037450

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What is this thing called Philosophy? is the definitive textbook for all who want a thorough introduction to the field. It introduces philosophy using a question-led approach that reflects the discursive nature of the discipline. Edited by Duncan Pritchard, each section is written by a high-profile contributor focusing on a key area of philosophy, and contains three or four question-based chapters offering an accessible point of engagement. The core areas of philosophy covered are: Ethics Political Philosophy Aesthetics Epistemology Philosophy of Mind Metaphysics Philosophy of Science Philosophy of Religion The Meaning of Life. The accompanying Routledge companion website features valuable online resources for both instructors and students including links to audio and video material, multiple-choice questions, interactive flashcards, essay questions and annotated further reading. This is the essential textbook for students approaching the study of philosophy for the first time.


Every Thing Must Go

Every Thing Must Go

Author: James Ladyman

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2007-07-05

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 0191534757

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Every Thing Must Go argues that the only kind of metaphysics that can contribute to objective knowledge is one based specifically on contemporary science as it really is, and not on philosophers' a priori intuitions, common sense, or simplifications of science. In addition to showing how recent metaphysics has drifted away from connection with all other serious scholarly inquiry as a result of not heeding this restriction, they demonstrate how to build a metaphysics compatible with current fundamental physics ('ontic structural realism'), which, when combined with their metaphysics of the special sciences ('rainforest realism'), can be used to unify physics with the other sciences without reducing these sciences to physics itself. Taking science metaphysically seriously, Ladyman and Ross argue, means that metaphysicians must abandon the picture of the world as composed of self-subsistent individual objects, and the paradigm of causation as the collision of such objects. Every Thing Must Go also assesses the role of information theory and complex systems theory in attempts to explain the relationship between the special sciences and physics, treading a middle road between the grand synthesis of thermodynamics and information, and eliminativism about information. The consequences of the author's metaphysical theory for central issues in the philosophy of science are explored, including the implications for the realism vs. empiricism debate, the role of causation in scientific explanations, the nature of causation and laws, the status of abstract and virtual objects, and the objective reality of natural kinds.


What is this thing called Metaphysics?

What is this thing called Metaphysics?

Author: Brian Garrett

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2017-04-04

Total Pages: 175

ISBN-13: 1317565975

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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.


Metaphysics

Metaphysics

Author: Michael Loux

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2006-09-27

Total Pages: 329

ISBN-13: 1134144873

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'Metaphysics' is aimed at students of metaphysics who have already completed an introductory philosophy course. This third edition provides a fresh look at the key topics in metaphysics and includes new chapters on time and causation.


Metaphysics

Metaphysics

Author: Aristotle

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 339

ISBN-13: 0199682984

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Laura Castelli presents a new translation of the tenth book (Iota) of Aristotle's Metaphysics, together with a comprehensive commentary. Castelli's commentary helps readers to understand Aristotle's most systematic account of what it is for something to be one, what it is for something to be a unit of measurement, and what contraries are.


The Metaphysics

The Metaphysics

Author: Aristotle

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2004-05-27

Total Pages: 546

ISBN-13: 0141912014

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The Metaphysics presents Aristotle's mature rejection of both the Platonic theory that what we perceive is just a pale reflection of reality and the hardheaded view that all processes are ultimately material. He argued instead that the reality or substance of things lies in their concrete forms, and in so doing he probed some of the deepest questions of philosophy: What is existence? How is change possible? And are there certain things that must exist for anything else to exist at all? The seminal notions discussed in The Metaphysics - of 'substance' and associated concepts of matter and form, essence and accident, potentiality and actuality - have had a profound and enduring influence, and laid the foundations for one of the central branches of Western philosophy.


This Thing Called Life

This Thing Called Life

Author: Ernest Holmes

Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing

Published: 2018-12-05

Total Pages: 172

ISBN-13: 1789125979

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The great contribution of Ernest Holmes to modern thought is the specific form of meditation and prayer by which man can control outward conditions of his life instead of permitting conditions to control him. Based soundly and thoughtfully upon the teachings of Jesus and other great spiritual leaders and philosophers, THIS THING CALLED LIFE is an outline of the practice of Faith by which problems of every kind may be solved by every man and woman, directly, simply and effectively. Recognised as one of the foremost teachers of religious science and philosophy since William James, in this book Mr. Holmes courageously declares that for centuries man has been putting the cart before the horse, that he is not helpless in the face of poverty, disease, evil and unhappiness, but that by this clear and simple system of thought and faith he can dominate them and introduce into his experience their exact opposites—abundance, health, good and happiness. If man will try and learn how to think, writes Mr. Holmes, he can dominate his entire life and everything in and around it.


The Evolution of Modern Metaphysics

The Evolution of Modern Metaphysics

Author: A. W. Moore

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 691

ISBN-13: 0521616557

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This book charts the evolution of metaphysics since Descartes and provides a compelling case for why metaphysics matters.