The Possibility of Metaphysics

Substance, Identity, and Time
Erscheinungsjahr 1998
ISBN: 978-0-19-823683-2
Verlag: OUP Oxford

Buch, Englisch, 288 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 599 g

Jonathan Lowe argues that metaphysics should be restored to a central position in philosophy, as the most fundamental form of rational inquiry, whose findings underpin those of all other disciplines. He portrays metaphysics as charting the possibilities of existence, by identifying the categories of being and the relations of ontological dependency between entities of different categories. He proceeds to set out a unified and original metaphysical system: he defends
a substance ontology, according to which the existence of the world as one world in time depends upon the existence of persisting things which retain their identity over time and through processes of qualitative change. And he contends that even necessary beings, such as the abstract objects of
mathematics, depend ultimately for their existence upon there being a concrete world of enduring substances. Within his system of metaphysics Lowe seeks to answer many of the deepest and most challenging questions in philosophy.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Lowe, E. J.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Metaphysik, Ontologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1: The Possibility of Metaphysics
2: Objects and Identity
3: Identity and Unity
4: Time and Persistence
5: Persistence and Substance
6: Substance and Dependence
7: Primitive Substances
8: Categories and Kinds
9: Matter and Form
10: Abstract Entities
11: Facts and the World
12: The Puzzle of Existence
Bibliography
Index

Über Autor(innen)

E. J. Lowe is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Durham.