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Metaphysics: Contemporary Readings

2nd Edition

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Series: Routledge Contemporary Readings in Philosophy.

Metaphysics: Contemporary Readings is a comprehensive anthology that draws together leading philosophers writing on the major themes in Metaphysics. Chapters appear under the headings:

  • Universals
  • Particulars
  • Modality and Possible Worlds
  • Causation
  • Time
  • Persistence
  • Realism and Anti-Realism.

Each section is prefaced by an introductory essay by the editor which guides students gently into each topic. Articles by the following leading philosophers are included:

Allaire, Anscombe, Armstrong, Black, Broad, Casullo, Dummett, Ewing, Heller, Hume, Kripke, Lewis, Mackie, McTaggart, Mellor, Merricks , Parfit, Plantinga, Price, Prior, Putnam, Quine, Russell, Smart, Swinburne, Taylor , Van Cleve, van Inwagen, Williams.

Featuring a new section on causation, this new edition is highly accessible and provides a broad-ranging exploration of the subject. Ideal for any philosophy student, this reader will prove essential reading for any metaphysics course. The sections and selections of readings have been updated to complement Michael Loux’s textbook Metaphysics: A Contemporary Introduction, third edition.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Universals

Bertrand Russell, "the World of Universals"

H.H. Price, "Universals and Resemblances"

W.V. Quine "On What There Is"

D.C. Williams "The Elements of Being"

David Armstrong "Universals as Attributes"

Particulars

Max Black "The Identity of Indiscernibles"

Edwin B. Allaire "Bare Particulars"

James Van Cleve "Three Versions of the Bundle Theory"

Albert Casullo, "A Fourth Version of the Bundle Theory"

Modality and Possible Worlds

David Lewis "Possible Worlds"

Alvin Plantinga "Actualism and Possible Worlds"

David Lewis "Counterparts or Double Lives?"

Saul Kripke "Identity and Necessity"

Causation

David Hume, "Treatise or Inquiry on Causation"

A.C.Ewing, "Fundamental Questions of Philosophy: Causation"

Elizabeth Anscombe, "Causation and Determination"

J.L.Mackie "Causes and Conditions"

David Lewis, "Causation"

Time

J.M.E McTaggart, "Time

C.D Broad, "Ostensible Temporality"

Richard Taylor, "Time and Eternity"

A.N. Prior, "The Notion of the Present"

J.J.C. Smart, "The Space-Time World"

D.H. Mellor, "The Need for Tense"

Persistence

Mark Heller, "Temporal Parts of Four-Dimensional Objects"

Trenton Merricks, "Endurance and Indiscernibility"

Derek Parfit, "Personal Identity"

David Lewis, "Survival and Identity"

Richard Swinburne, "Personal Identity: the Dualist Theory"

Realism and Anti-Realism

Michael Dummett, "Realism"

W.V. Quine, "Ontological Relativity"

Hilary Putnam, "A Problem About Reference"

Peter Van Inwagen, "Objectivity"

Reviews

Praise for the First Edition:

'This anthology is clearly exceptionally good."

-Quentin Smith, Western Michigan University

"This anthology has many excellent features: the choice of readings is very good, mixing in an interesting way established and much-anthologised classics with new material.'

- Tim Crane, University College London

Author/Editor Biography

Michael J. Loux is the George N. Schuster Professor of Philosophy at Notre Dame University, Indiana. He is the author of Substance and Attribute (1978) and Primary Ousia (1991), as well Metaphysics: a Contemporary Introduction, the third edition of which is also published by Routledge.