A Critical Introduction To The Metaphysics Of Modality

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A Critical Introduction to the Metaphysics of Modality

Author : Andrea Borghini
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 233 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2016-02-25
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781472521941

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A Critical Introduction to the Metaphysics of Modality by Andrea Borghini Pdf

A Critical Introduction to the Metaphysics of Modality examines the eight main contemporary theories of possibility behind a central metaphysical topic. Covering modal skepticism, modal expressivism, modalism, modal realism, ersatzism, modal fictionalism, modal agnosticism, and the new modal actualism, this comprehensive introduction to modality places contemporary debates in an historical context. Beginning with a historical overview, Andrea Borghini discusses Parmenides and Zeno; looks at how central Medieval authors such as Aquinas, and Buridan prepared the ground for the Early Modern radical views of Leibniz, Spinoza, and Hume and discusses advancements in semantics in the later-half of the twentieth century a resulted in the rise of modal metaphysics, the branch characterizing the past few decades of philosophical reflection. Framing the debate according to three main perspectives - logical, epistemic, metaphysical- Borghini provides the basic concepts and terms required to discuss modality. With suggestions of further reading and end-of-chapter study questions, A Critical Introduction to the Metaphysics of Modality is an up-to-date resource for students working in contemporary metaphysics seeking a better understanding of this crucial topic.

Modality

Author : Joseph Melia
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 192 pages
File Size : 43,6 Mb
Release : 2014-12-18
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781317489672

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Modality by Joseph Melia Pdf

This introduction to modality places the emphasis on the metaphysics of modality rather than on the formal semetics of quantified modal logic. The text begins by introducing students to the "de re/de dicto" distinction, conventionalist and conceptualist theories of modality and some of the key problems in modality, particularly Quine's criticisms. It then moves on to explain how possible worlds provide a solution to many of the problems in modality and how possible worlds themselves have been used to analyse notions outside modality such as properties and propositions. Possible worlds introduce problems of their own and the book argues that to make progress with these problems a theory of possible worlds is required. The pros and cons of various theories of possible worlds are then examined in turn, including those of Lewis, Kripke, Adams, Stalnaker and Plantinga.

Metaphysics

Author : Michael C. Rea
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 2007
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 0415397510

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Metaphysics by Michael C. Rea Pdf

This four-volume collection will gather together many of the most important writings on the central topics in metaphysics.

A Critical Introduction to Properties

Author : Sophie Allen
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 256 pages
File Size : 55,5 Mb
Release : 2016-02-25
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781472575586

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A Critical Introduction to Properties by Sophie Allen Pdf

What do blue things have in common? Or electrons? Or planets? Distinct things appear to share properties; but what are properties and what is the best philosophical account of them? A Critical Introduction to Properties introduces different ontological accounts of properties, exploring how their formulation is shaped by the explanatory demands placed upon them. This accessible introduction begins with a discussion of universals, tropes, sets and resemblance classes, the major objections to them and their responses, providing readers with a firm grasp on the competing ontological accounts of what (if anything) grounds similarity and difference. It then explores issues concerning the formulation and justification of property theories such as: how many properties are there? Should we accept a sparse ontology of properties, or an abundant one? Can we make a distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic properties? Do properties have their causal roles necessarily? What is the relationship between properties and other metaphysical phenomena such as causality, laws and modality? These questions get to the heart of why a coherent theory of properties is so important to metaphysics, and to philosophy more generally. By concluding with the question of the ontological status of properties, the reader is introduced to some Carnapian and contemporary themes about the content and methodology of metaphysics. For students looking for an accessible resource and a more comprehensive understanding of contemporary metaphysics, A Critical Introduction to Properties is a valuable starting point.

Modality

Author : Sònia Roca-Royes
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 148 pages
File Size : 42,6 Mb
Release : 2023-05-11
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781009008709

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Modality by Sònia Roca-Royes Pdf

Modality is a vast phenomenon. In fact, it is arguably a plurality of phenomena. Within it, one type of modality warrants distinctive interest in philosophy and, in particular, in metaphysics. In view of this, this Element has a first part devoted to modality as a general phenomenon, where different types of modalities are distinguished, and where the question of unification is raised. Following this, the second part is focused on metaphysical modality: the type of modality that is of distinctive interest in metaphysics, and thus for the series of this Element. In this second part, the overarching question is about the source of metaphysical modality, and the discussion here informs back, and is informed by, the question of unification from the first part. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.

A Philosophy of the Possible

Author : Mikhail Epstein
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 379 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2019-06-07
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9789004398344

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A Philosophy of the Possible by Mikhail Epstein Pdf

In this book, Mikhail Epstein offers a systematic theory of modalities (possible, actual, necessary) and their impact on the philosophy and culture of modernity and postmodernity, focusing on the creative potentials of possibilistic thinking for the humanities.

Essays in the Metaphysics of Modality

Author : Alvin Plantinga
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 248 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 2003-03-27
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780198026389

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Essays in the Metaphysics of Modality by Alvin Plantinga Pdf

Perhaps no one has done more in the last 30 years to advance thinking in the metaphysics of modality than has Alvin Plantinga. Collected here are some of his most important essays on this influential subject. Dating back from the late 1960's to the present, they chronicle the development of Plantinga's thoughts about some of the most fundamental issues in metaphysics: what is the nature of abstract objects like possible worlds, properties, propositions, and such phenomena? Are there possible but non-actual objects? Can objects that do not exist exemplify properties? Plantinga gives thorough and penetrating answers to all of these questions and many others. This volume contains some of the best work in metaphysics from the past 30 years, and will remain a source of critical contention and keen interest among philosophers of metaphysics and philosophical logic for years to come.

Modality

Author : Bob Hale,Aviv Hoffmann
Publisher : OUP Oxford
Page : 384 pages
File Size : 40,6 Mb
Release : 2010-03-25
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780191572296

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Modality by Bob Hale,Aviv Hoffmann Pdf

The philosophy of modality investigates necessity and possibility, and related notions—are they objective features of mind-independent reality? If so, are they irreducible, or can modal facts be explained in other terms? This volume presents new work on modality by established leaders in the field and by up-and-coming philosophers. Between them, the papers address fundamental questions concerning realism and anti-realism about modality, the nature and basis of facts about what is possible and what is necessary, the nature of modal knowledge, modal logic and its relations to necessary existence and to counterfactual reasoning. The general introduction locates the individual contributions in the wider context of the contemporary discussion of the metaphysics and epistemology of modality.

Modality and Anti-metaphysics

Author : Stephen K. McLeod
Publisher : Ashgate Publishing
Page : 208 pages
File Size : 48,7 Mb
Release : 2001
Category : Mathematics
ISBN : UOM:39015049987731

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Modality and Anti-metaphysics by Stephen K. McLeod Pdf

Modality and Anti-Metaphysics critically examines the most prominent approaches to modality among analytic philosophers in the twentieth century, including essentialism. Defending both the project of metaphysics and the essentialist position that metaphysical modality is conceptually and ontologically primitive, McLeod argues that the logical positivists did not succeed in banishing metaphysical modality from their own theoretical apparatus, and he suggests that standard essentialist approaches to some issues in the philosophies of logic and language require revision. This book offers valuable insights to professional philosophers, postgraduates and advanced undergraduates interested in metaphysics, philosophy of logic or the history of twentieth-century analytic philosophy.

Kant's Modal Metaphysics

Author : Nicholas F. Stang
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 352 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 2016-03-18
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780191021091

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Kant's Modal Metaphysics by Nicholas F. Stang Pdf

What is possible and why? What is the difference between the merely possible and the actual? In Kants Modal Metaphysics Nicholas Stang examines Kants lifelong engagement with these questions and their role in his philosophical development. This is the first book to trace Kants theory of possibility all theway from the so-called pre-Critical writings of the 1750s and 1760s to the Critical system of philosophy inaugurated by the Critique of Pure Reason in 1781. Stang argues that the key to understanding both the change and the continuity between Kants pre-Critical and Critical theory of possibility is his transformation of the ontological question about possibility-what is it for a being to be possible?-into a question in transcendental philosophy-what is it to represent an object as possible? The first half of Kants Modal Metaphysics explores Kants pre-Critical theory of possibility, including his answer to the ontological question about the nature of possibility, his rejection of the traditional ontological argument for the existence of God, and his own argument that God must exist to ground all possibility. The second half examines why Kant reoriented his theory of possibility around the transcendental question, what this question means, and how Kant answered it in the Critical philosophy. Stang shows that, despite this reorientation, Kants basic scheme for thinking about possibility remains constant from the pre-Critical period through the Critical system. What had been an ontological theory of possible being is reinterpreted, in the Critical system, as a theory of how we must represent possible objects, given the nature of our intellect.

Necessity and Possibility

Author : Michael Tooley
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
Page : 428 pages
File Size : 48,7 Mb
Release : 1999
Category : Causation
ISBN : 081533382X

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Necessity and Possibility by Michael Tooley Pdf

First published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The Actual and the Possible

Author : Mark Sinclair
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 250 pages
File Size : 55,9 Mb
Release : 2017
Category : PHILOSOPHY
ISBN : 9780198786436

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The Actual and the Possible by Mark Sinclair Pdf

The Actual and the Possible presents new essays by leading specialists on modality and the metaphysics of modality in the history of modern philosophy from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries. It revisits key moments in the history of modern modal doctrines, and illuminates lesser-known moments of that history. The ultimate purpose of this historical approach is to contextualise and even to offer some alternatives to dominant positions within the contemporary philosophy of modality. Hence the volume contains not only new scholarship on the early-modern doctrines of Baruch Spinoza, G. W. F. Leibniz, Christian Wolff and Immanuel Kant, but also work relating to less familiar nineteenth-century thinkers such as Alexius Meinong and Jan Lukasiewicz, together with essays on celebrated nineteenth- and twentieth-century thinkers such as G. W. F. Hegel, Martin Heidegger and Bertrand Russell, whose modal doctrines have not previously garnered the attention they deserve. The volume thus covers a variety of traditions, and its historical range extends to the end of the twentieth century, addressing the legacy of W. V. Quine's critique of modality within recent analytic philosophy.

The Routledge Handbook of Modality

Author : Otávio Bueno,Scott A. Shalkowski
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 510 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 2020-12-30
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781317585275

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The Routledge Handbook of Modality by Otávio Bueno,Scott A. Shalkowski Pdf

Modality - the question of what is possible and what is necessary - is a fundamental area of philosophy and philosophical research. The Routledge Handbook of Modality is an outstanding reference source to the key topics, problems and debates in this exciting subject and is the first collection of its kind. Comprising thirty-five chapters by a team of international contributors the Handbook is divided into seven clear parts: worlds and modality essentialism, ontological dependence, and modality modal anti-realism epistemology of modality modality in science modality in logic and mathematics modality in the history of philosophy. Within these sections the central issues, debates and problems are examined, including possible worlds, essentialism, counterfactuals, ontological dependence, modal fictionalism, deflationism, the integration challenge, conceivability, a priori knowledge, laws of nature, natural kinds, and logical necessity. The Routledge Handbook of Modality is essential reading for students and researchers in epistemology, metaphysics and philosophy of language. It will also be very useful for those in related fields in philosophy such as philosophy of mathematics, logic and philosophy of science.

The Metaphysics of Modality

Author : Graeme Forbes
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 280 pages
File Size : 54,7 Mb
Release : 1985
Category : Metaphysics
ISBN : UOM:39015008988795

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The Metaphysics of Modality by Graeme Forbes Pdf

Analytic philosophy has recently demonstrated a revived interest in metaphysical problems about possibility and necessity. Graeme Forbes here provides a careful description of the logical background of recent work in this area for those who may be unfamiliar with it, moving on to d discuss the distinction between modality de re and modality de dicto and the ontological commitments of possible worlds semantics. In addition, Forbes offers a unified theory of the essential properties of sets, organisms, artefacts, substances, and events, based on the doctrine that identity facts must be intrinsically grounded, and analyzes and rejects apparent counterexamples to this doctrine.

Modal Logic as Metaphysics

Author : Timothy Williamson
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 481 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2013-03-28
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780199552078

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Modal Logic as Metaphysics by Timothy Williamson Pdf

Timothy Williamson gives an original and provocative treatment of deep metaphysical questions about existence, contingency, and change, using the latest resources of quantified modal logic. Contrary to the widespread assumption that logic and metaphysics are disjoint, he argues that modal logic provides a structural core for metaphysics.