Synopses & Reviews
Metaphysics, at least roughly speaking, is the systematic investigation of fundamental presuppositions underlying commonsense and scientific views of the world. Most of us believe that we have bodies and minds, that we are free, that some things in the world are composed of other things and that these things interact causally with one another; we believe that, in addition to the way things are, there are other ways things could have been, and so on. Common sense tells us that things change and time passes, but contemporary physics tells us (or seems to tell us) that past, present, and future are somehow metaphysically on a para that the past isna (TM)t gone and the future is already real. Common sense and science both take it for granted that the world is governed by laws, and that the laws in some sense represent how things must go in the world (as opposed simply to telling us how they in fact happen to go). Metaphysicians investigate all of these assumptions, and more. They ask what it is to be a body or a mind, and what the relation between body and mind might be; they ask what freedom consists in, and whether freedom is possible; they ask about the nature and possibility of causation, change, and the passage of time; they try to figure out what it takes to be a law of nature and whether the laws of nature might be necessary or contingent; and so on.
This four-volume collection will gather together many of the most important classic and contemporary writings on these and other central topics in metaphysics. Unlike some of the other collections in this series, the classic writings will not occupy their own volume (or even their own section); rather, they will be sprinkled throughout as appropriate to the topics under consideration. Below is a tentative list of volume-titles, along with select tentative section headings (to give some indication of the topics that will be covered in each volume).
Structure:
Vol. I: Foundations
a Meta-Ontology
a Propositions, States of Affairs, and Events
a Universals, Properties, and Kinds
a Substances, Bundles, and Substrata
Vol. II: Metaphysics of Modality
a Possible Worlds
a Actualism and Possibilism
a Essentialism
a Causation and Laws of Nature
a Reduction and Supervenience
Vol. III: Time and Identity
a Time
a Individuation
a Composition and Material Constitution
a Change and Persistence
a Realism, Anti-Realism, and Vagueness
Vol. IV: God and Persons
a The Existence of God
a Mind and Body
a Personhood and the Self
a Fatalism, Determinism, and Free Agency
Synopsis
Metaphysics: The Basics is a concise and engaging introduction to the philosophical study of the world and universe in which we live. Concerned with questions about reality, existence, time, identity and change, metaphysics has long fascinated people but to the uninitiated some of the issues and problems can appear very complex. In this lively and lucid book, Michael Rea examines and explains key questions in the study of metaphysics such as:
Can two things be in the same place at the same time?
Do creatures of fiction exist?
Are human beings free?
Is time travel possible?
Is there just one world or many worlds?
With a glossary of key terms and suggestions for further reading, the book considers key philosophical arguments around Metaphysics, making this an ideal starting point for anyone seeking a full introduction to the debates both within and about metaphysics."