Metaphysics

Peter van Inwagen is John Cardinal O'Hara Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of God, Knowledge, and Mystery: Essays in Philosophical Theology (1995), Metaphysics (1993), Material Beings (1990), and An Essay on Free Will (1983). Dean Zimmerman is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University. He has published articles on metaphysics in The American Philosophical Quarterly, Analysis, The Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Mind, The Monist, Nous, The Philosophical Review, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, and other journals and collections.

Preface.Introduction: What is Metaphysics?Part I: What are the most General Features of the World?Introduction.A. What is the Relationship between an Individual and its Characteristics?1. Universals and Resemblances: Chapter 1 of Thinking and Experience. (H. H. Price)2. The Elements of Being. (D. C. Williams)3. The Principle of Individuation: An Excerpt from Human Knowledge, its Scope and Limits. (Bertrand Russell)4. Distinct Indiscernibles and the Bundle Theory. (Dean W. Zimmerman)B. What is Time? What is Space?5. Time: an Excerpt from The Nature of Existence. (J. McT. E. McTaggart)6. McTaggart's Arguments against the Reality of Time: An Excerpt from Examination of McTaggart's Philosophy.7. The Notion of the Present. (A. N. Prior)8. The General Problem of Time and Change: An Excerpt from Scientific Thought. (C. D. Broad)9. The Space-Time World: An Excerpt from Philosophy and Scientific Realism. (J. J. C. Smart)10. Topis, Soris, Noris: An Excerpt from The Existence of Space and Time. (Ian Hinckfuss)11. Some Free Thinking about Time. (A. N. Prior)12. The Fourth Dimension: An Excerpt from The Ambidextrous Universe. (Martin Gardner)13. Incongruent Counterparts and Higher Dimensions. (James Van Cleve)14. Achilles and the Tortoise. (Max Black)15. A Contemporary Look at Zeno's Paradoxes: An Excerpt from Space, Time and Motion. (Wesley C. Salmon)16. Grasping the Infinite. (Jose A. Bernadete)17. The Paradoxes of Time Travel. (David Lewis)C. How do things Persist through Changes of Parts and Properties?18. Of Confused Subjects which are Equivalent to Two Subjects: An Excerpt from The Port-Royal Logic. (Antoine Arnauld and Pierre Nicole)19. Identity Through Time. (Roderick M. Chisholm)20. Identity, Ostension, and Hypostasis. (W. V. O. Quine)21. Identity: an Excerpt From Quiddities. (W. V. O. Quine)22. In Defense of Stages: Postscript B to 'Survival and identity'. (David Lewis)23. Some Problems About Time. (Peter Geach)24. The Problem of Temporary Intrinsics: An Excerpt from On the Plurality of Worlds. (David Lewis)25. Temporary Intrinsics and Presentism. (Dean W. Zimmerman)D. How do Causes Bring about their Effects?26. Constant Conjunction: an excerpt from A Treatise of Human Nature. (David Hume)27. Efficient Cause and Active Power: An excerpt from Essays on the Active Powers of the Human Mind. (Thomas Reid)28. Psychological and Physical Causal Laws: An Excerpt from The Analysis of Mind. (Bertrand Russell)29. Causality: an Excerpt from A Modern Introduction to Logic. (L. Susan Stebbing)30. Causality and Determination. (G. E. M. Anscombe)Part II: What is our Place in the World?Introduction.A. How is the Appearance of a Thing Related to the Thing that Appears?31. The Theory of Sensa: An Excerpt from Scientific Thought. (C. D. Broad)32. Qualities: An Excerpt from Consciousness and Causality. (D. M. Armstrong)33. The Status of Appearances: An Excerpt from Theory of Knowledge, 1st edition. (Roderick M. Chisholm)B. What is the Relation Between Mind and Body?34. Which Physical Thing am I? An Excerpt From 'Is There a Mind Body Problem?' (Roderick M. Chisholm)35. Personal Identity: a Materialist Account. (Sydney Shoemaker)36. Dividend Minds and the Nature of Persons. (Derek Parfit)37. Body and Soul: An Excerpt from The Evolution of the Soul. (Richard Swinburne)38. The Puzzle of Conscious Experience. (David Chalmers)C. Is it Possible for us to Act Freely?39. Free Will as Involving Determination and Inconceivable Without it. (R. E. Hobart)40. Human Freedom and the Self. (Richard M. Chisholm)41. The Mystery of Metaphysical Freedom. (Peter van Inwagen)42. The Agent as Cause. (Timothy O'Connor)Part III: Is There Just One World?Introduction.43. Speaking of Objects. (W. V. O. Quine)44. After Metaphysics, What? (Hilary Putnam)45. Truth and Convention. (Hilary Putnam)46. Nonabsolute Existence and Conceptual Relativity: An Excerpt from 'Putnam's Pragmatic Realism' (Ernest Sosa)47. Addendum to 'Nonabsolute Existence and Conceptual Relativity': Objections and Replies. (Ernest Sosa)Part IV: Why is There a World?Introduction.A. Is There an Answer?48. The Problem of Being: Chapter 3 of Some Problems of Philosophy. (William James)49. The Puzzle of Reality. (Derek Parfit)50. Reply to Parfit. (Richard Swinburne)B. Does the Answer Involve a Necessary Being?51. The Cosmological Argument and the Principle of Sufficient Reason. (William L. Rowe)52. The Ontological Argument: Chapters II-IV of the Proslogion. (St. Anselm)53. Anselm's Ontological Arguments. (Norman Malcolm)Part V: Is Metaphysics Possible?Introduction.54. The Rejection of Metaphysics: Chapter 1 of Philosophy and Logical Syntax. (Rudolf Carnap)55. Postmodernism, Feminism, and Metaphysics: An excerpt from Thinking Fragments. (Jane Flax)56. Metaphysics and Feminist Theory: Excerpts from 'Feminist Metaphysics' and 'Anti-Essentialism in Feminist Theory'. (Charlotte Witt)Index.