This volume is a comprehensive survey of contemporary thought on a wide range of issues and provides students with the basic background to current debates in metaphysics.List of Contributors for State of the Art Essays.
Acknowledgements.
Introduction: Metaphysics and Ontology: Stephen Laurence and Cynthia MacDonald.
Part I: Methodology and Ontological Commitment: .
State of the Art Essay.
1. The Nature of Metaphysics: Peter van Inwagen.
Readings.
2. Descriptive and Revisionary Metaphysics: Susan Haack.
3. On What There Is: W. V. O. Quine.
4. Ontological Commitments: William P. Alston.
5. Quantifiers: Susan Haack.
6. Identity and Substitutivity: Richard Cartwright.
Part II: Possible Worlds and Possibilia:.
State of the Art Essay.
7. Possible Worlds and Possibilia: William G. Lycan.
Readings.
8. Possible Worlds: David Lewis.
9. Possible Worlds: Robert Stalnaker.
10. Ways Worlds Could Be: Peter Forrest.
Part III: Universals and Properties: .
State of the Art Essay.
11. Universals and Properties: George Bealer.
Readings.
12. On Properties: Hilary Putnam.
13. New Work for a Theory of Universals: David Lewis.
15. A Theory of Structural Universals: John Bigelow and Robert Pargetter.
Part IV: Substances:.
State of the Art Essay.
16. Beyond Substrata and Bundles: A Prolegomenon to a Substance Ontology: Michael J. Loux.
Readings.
17. Bare Particulars: l3t
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