cover of The Routledge Companion to Metaphysics

The Routledge Companion to Metaphysics

Edited by Robin Le Poidevin, Peter Simons, Andrew McGonigal, Ross Cameron

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About the Book

The Routledge Companion to Metaphysics is an outstanding, comprehensive and accessible guide to the major themes, thinkers, and issues in metaphysics. The Companion features over fifty specially commissioned chapters from international scholars which are organized into three clear parts:

Each section features an introduction which places the range of essays in context, while an extensive glossary allows easy reference to key terms and definitions. The Routledge Companion to Metaphysics is essential reading for students of philosophy and anyone interested in surveying the central topics and problems in metaphysics from causation to vagueness and from Plato and Aristotle to the present-day.

Reviews

‘The Routledge Philosophy Companions series has a deserved reputation for impressive scope and scholarly value. This volume is no exception … The editors successfully assemble chapters most relevant to contemporary work in metaphysics, a welcome trend in reference works for the 21st century. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All academic libraries supporting lower-level undergraduates and above.’ - CHOICE

‘The field of metaphysics is flourishing - and with an outstanding cast of contributors, the impressively-broad and satisfyingly-deep Routledge Companion to Metaphysics offers a superb guide to many of its most engaging and perplexing twists and turns, both historical and contemporary.’ - Hud Hudson, Western Washington University, USA

‘The Routledge Companion to Metaphysics promises to provide an accessible and historically informed survey of the field. It features over fifty articles, by some of the most prominent contemporary metaphysicians, covering virtually every major topic. Its combination of historical sweep and intellectual breadth set it apart from anything else on the market.’ - Jonathan Schaffer, Australian National University, Australia

‘This monumental volume presents a lively, up-to-date and extremely rich panorama of the present state of metaphysical debate. The 53 fully cross-referenced contributions are both admirably clear and deeply illuminating. It is difficult to imagine anything more useful for a course in metaphysics. This is bound to become a reference work for all scholars and students interested in metaphysics.’ - Andrea Bottani, Bergamo University, Italy

Table of Contents

General Introduction Part 1: History of Metaphysics 1. Pre-Socratic Themes: Being, Not-being and Mind 2. Plato: Arguments for Forms 3. Aristotle: Form, Matter and Substance 4. Aristotle: Time and Change 5. Medieval Metaphysics 1: The Problem of Universals 6. Medieval Metaphysics 2: Things, Non-things, God and Time 7. Descartes: The Real Distinction 8. Hobbes: Matter, Cause and Motion 9. Spinoza: Substance, Attribute and Mode 10. Locke: The Primary and Secondary Quality Distinction 11. Leibniz: Mind-body Causation and Pre-established Harmony 12. Berkeley: Arguments for Idealism 13. Hume: Necessary Connections and Distinct Existences 14. Kant: The Possibility of Metaphysics 15. Hegel and Schopenhauer: Reason and Will 16. Anti-Metaphysics I: Nietzsche 17. Bradley: the Supra-relational Absolute 18. Whitehead: Process and Cosmology Peter Simons 19. Heidegger: The Question of Being 20. Anti-Metaphysics II: Verificationism and Kindred Views 21. Metaphysics Revivified Part 2: Ontology: On What Exists 22. To Be 23. Not to Be 24. Razor Arguments 25. Substance 26. Intrinsic and Extrinsic Properties 27. Universals: The Contemporary Debate 28. Particulars 29. Persistence, Composition and Identity 30. Relations 31. Facts, Events and States of Affairs 32. Possible Worlds and Possibilia 33. Mathematical Entities 34. Fictional Objects 35. Vagueness 36. Minor Entities: Surfaces, Holes and Shadows 37. Truth-Makers and Truth-Bearers 38. Values Part 3: Metaphysics and Science 39. Space, Absolute and Relational 40. The Infinite 41. The Passage of Time 42. The Direction of Time 43. Causation 44. Laws and Dispositions 45. Probability and Determinism 46. Essences and Natural Kinds 47. Metaphysics and Relativity 48. Metaphysics and Quantum Physics 49. Supervenience, Reductionism and Emergence 50. Biometaphysics 51. Social Entities 52. The Mental and the Physical 53. The Self A Short Glossary of Metaphysics

About the Author(s)

Robin Le Poidevin is Professor of philosophy and Head of Humanities; Peter Simons is Professor of Philosophy; Andrew McGonigal is Lecturer and Ross Cameron Research Fellow all in the Philosophy Department, University of Leeds.