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Informationen zum Autor Cynthia Macdonald is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. She is Associate Editor of the Australasian Journal of Philosophy and the author or editor of numerous publications, including The Philosophy of Psychology: Debates on Psychological Explanation (co-edited with Graham Macdonald, Blackwell, 1994), Connectionism: Debates on Psychological Explanation (co-edited with Graham Macdonald, Blackwell, 1995) and Contemporary Readings in the Foundations of Metaphysics (co-edited with Stephen Laurence, Blackwell, 1998). Klappentext Varieties of Things: Foundations of Contemporary Metaphysics explores the fundamental ontological categories of things; things that we encounter in everyday life, such as material substances, persons, events and universals. The author begins with a thorough and accessible discussion of the nature and aims of metaphysics. She then goes on to develop tools that can be used to engage in metaphysical thinking about the basic varieties of things. The book both surveys existing accounts of the natures of these kinds of things, and argues for unique original positions of its own. The arguments support a systematically anti-reductionist view of the basic ontological categories. Zusammenfassung * A book about the things that we encounter in everyday experience. * Contains a thorough and accessible discussion of the nature and aims of metaphysics. * Examines a wide range of ontological categories! including both particulars and universals. * Mounts a forceful and persuasive case for anti-reductionism. Inhaltsverzeichnis Preface vii Part I: Metaphysics and Its Tools 1 The Nature and Function of Metaphysics 3 The Methodology and Subject Matter of Metaphysics 4 Aristotle's Conception of Metaphysics 8 Kant's Conception of Metaphysics 11 A Working Conception of Metaphysics 14 2 Some Tools of Metaphysics 36 Criteria of Ontological Commitment: Two Examples 36 'No Entity without Identity': Identity Conditions for Objects 56 Individuation Conditions, Identity Conditions, and Metaphysical Kinds 59 Principles and Criteria of Identity 63 Part II: Particulars 3 Material Substances 79 Our Ontological Commitment to Material Substances 79 The Bundle Theory and the Principle of the Identity of Indiscernibles 81 Problems with the Bundle Theory 84 The Bare Substratum Theory and the Principle of Acquaintance 110 Objections to the Bare Substratum Theory 113 An Alternative 114 4 Persons and Personal Identity 135 Our Ontological Commitment to Persons 135 Candidates for Persistence Conditions for Persons 138 The Closest Continuer Theory and Its Problems 150 Does the Concept of Identity Apply to Persons? 155 The Multiple Occupancy Thesis 162 Back to Basics: Continuity and Fission 164 A Suggestion 169 5 Events 181 Our Ontological Commitment to Events 183 Three Criteria: Spatio-temporal Coincidence, Necessary Spatio-temporal Coincidence, and Sameness of Cause and Effect 186 The Property Exemplification Account of Events (PEE) 193 Part III: Universals 6 Universals and the Realism/Nominalism Dispute 219 The Issue 223 Varieties of Nominalism 225 Two Conceptions of Universals 236 The Regress Charge and Two Unsuccessful Attempts to Meet It 239 An Alternative 245 Bibliography 260 Index 272 ...
