Can philosophy offer reasonable grounds for the existence of a God as the center of actual faith, rather than just a theoretical Absolute? Timothy Sprigge offers a fascinating exploration of the meta
Metaphysics: The Classic Readings is an essential collection of the most influential attempts to depict the fundamental nature of reality or being - from Spinoza's doctrine of a single, indivisible su
This volume is based on the lectures given in London at The Royal Institute of Philosophy's annual lecture series for 2016–17. The topic chosen for the series was metaphysics, an area where at the moment there is much exciting and innovative work being done. Several papers in the volume consider the nature of metaphysical explanation, its scope and limits. There are also papers on such central metaphysical topics as essence, necessity, possibility and identity. Ranging wider, and testifying to the breadth of metaphysics as a subject, there are treatments of free will, of solipsism in Wittgenstein's philosophy of the 1930s, of the nature of social practices, of the notion that the conceptual recommendations of metaphysics are to do with assessing and perhaps changing the way we live, and also a consideration of the ontological status of the foetus and the unborn child.
The problem of being is central to Western metaphysics. Etched sharply in the verses of Parmenides, it took on distinctive colouring in Aristotle as the subject matter of a science expressly labelled
When the distinction Aristotle draws between per se being and potential/actual being is applied to the central books of the Metaphysics , argues Yu (State U. of New York-Buffalo) a distinct interpr
There is unity to existence, and thoughtful people seek a singular explanation of reality; yet everyday phenomenal experience delivers nothing but plurality and multiplicity. How can this be? The anal
In Heidegger, Metaphysics and the Univocity of Being, Philip Tonner presents an interpretation of the philosophy of Martin Heidegger in terms of the doctrine of the ‘univocity of being'. According to
In Heidegger, Metaphysics and the Univocity of Being, Philip Tonner presents an interpretation of the philosophy of Martin Heidegger in terms of the doctrine of the ‘univocity of being'. According to
For a thing to be real, it must be able to communicate with other things. If this is so, then the problem of being receives a straightforward resolution: to be is to be in communion. So the fundamenta
What is it for an object to persist through time? Do things have essences? What is the relation between an object and its parts? Are objects more real than their parts, or vice versa? Could there be spatio-temporally coincident objects? Do we need an ontology of truth-makers? These interrelated questions reflect the central concerns of contemporary metaphysics, which in recent years has seen an intensification of interest in ontological issues. They are the focus of the essays collected in this volume, which arose from the Being: Developments in Contemporary Metaphysics conference held at the University of Leeds in September, 2006.
