Familiar Objects and Their Shadows

Argues that sceptical metaphysicians employ shadows of familiar objects, while denying that the entities which cast those shadows really exist.

List of contents

Introduction; 1. Two false friends of an ontology of familiar objects; 2. Conventionalism as ontological relativism; 3. Realism about material objects: persistence, persistence conditions, and natural kinds; 4. Ontological preference for the temporally small; 5. Ontological preference for microphysical causes; 6. Ontological preference for the spatially small; 7. A third false friend of familiar objects: universal mereological composition; 8. Concluding Hegelian postscript; Appendix: 'mutually interfering' dimensions of difference; Reference.

About the author

Crawford L. Elder is Professor and Head of the Philosophy Department at the University of Connecticut.

Summary

Most contemporary metaphysicians are sceptical about the reality of familiar objects. They prefer an ontology of the spatially tiny or temporally tiny (or both). Crawford L. Elder argues that all such attempts to 'explain away' familiar objects project downwards, onto the tiny entities, structures and features of familiar objects themselves.

Product details

• Authors: Crawford L. Elder, Crawford L. (University of Connecticut) Elder, Elder Crawford L.
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 19.09.2013
• EAN: 9781107665781
• ISBN: 978-1-107-66578-1
• No. of pages: 224
• Series: Cambridge Studies in Philosoph; Cambridge Studies in Philosophy
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Philosophy > General, dictionaries; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Philosophy: general, reference works; PHILOSOPHY / Epistemology, Philosophy: metaphysics & ontology, Philosophy: metaphysics and ontology