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Philosopher M. Oreste Fiocco here examines the question
what is a thing? and in so doing, reveals what it is to exist, and what a being, any being at all, really is. In so doing, he illuminates reality as a whole and what it is to be real. Fiocco employs a special methodology to answer this question, called
original inquiry, which begins with no assumptions about reality and is independent of figures, trends, or traditions in the history of philosophy. Fiocco shows how this method can confront questions about the world in all its diversity, and thus come to a secure account of what it is to be.
List of contents
- Part I - Introduction: Confronting the World
- Chapter 1: What Is All This?
- Part II - Metaphysics, Ontology and Time: The Significance of Time
- Chapter 2: Metaphysics and Its Distinctive Problem
- Chapter 3: The Method of Original Inquiry
- Chapter 4: Radical Ontology and Its Principles
- Chapter 5: The Metaphysics of Time
- Part III - A General Account of Temporal Reality: The Heterogeneity of the World in Time
- Chapter 6: Two General Views of Temporal Reality
- Chapter 7: Against the Ontological Homogeneity of Temporal Reality
- Chapter 8: Against Mere Qualitative Heterogeneity in Temporal Reality
- Chapter 9: Absolute Becoming and the Contingency in the World
- Part IV - The Specific Account of Temporal Reality: Transient Presentism and its Limitations
- Chapter 10: Temporal Reality and Inconstancy
- Chapter 11: Atemporal Reality and Constancy
- Part V - Conclusion: The World in Its Entirety
- Chapter 12: All This and Why It Matters
About the author
M. Oreste Fiocco is Professor of Philosophy at University of California, Irvine. He is the author of many papers on metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of mind and metaethics, which have appeared in a number of leading journals and collections.
Summary
This is a book about everything. Literally. It is also a book about how anything whatsoever happens. By answering the question what is a thing?, philosopher M. Oreste Fiocco reveals what it is to exist, what a being, any being at all, is. In this way, he illuminates reality as a whole and what it is to be real. Such profound matters require a special method of inquiry, which Fiocco introduces and elaborates. Any assumption about the world or anything in it might distort the correct answer to a question as general as what it is to exist. Thus, the method employed herein -- original inquiry -- begins with no assumptions about reality. It is, then, a method independent of any figure, trend, or tradition in the history of philosophy. Via this method, one simply confronts all this, the world, an all-encompassing diverse array of whatnot, and on this basis can come to a secure account of what it is to be. In simply confronting the world, however, one's experience shifts, is transient: all this goes from one way--with, say, a cat here--to some other way--the cat being over there. This manifest inconstancy must be accounted for in any comprehensive account of the world. Yet so must a manifest constancy. If the cat is now, at this moment, over there, that the cat is now, at this moment, over there is forever true.
These seemingly contradictory phenomena, inconstancy and constancy, demonstrate the importance of time to understanding the world. Since any legitimate inquiry is directed at something or other and since many objects of inquiry (including inquiry itself) occur over time, correct accounts of temporal reality and of being - of time and the world - provide insight into all inquiry. These accounts provide constraints on and, hence, guidelines for investigating any subject matter in any field. Therefore, this is a book for anyone curious about such grand, abstruse matters as the nature of reality or of time itself, as well as a book for someone curious about any thing at all.
Additional text
Marcello Oreste Fioccos aim in this absorbing and thought-provoking book is nothing less than to inquire into the character of 'all this', where 'all this' is the impetus to any inquiry whatsoever. This means that he is trying to achieve insight into literally everything. It is an ambitious aim, but the ambition is reined in illuminating ways and is provided with rigorous justification.
