Author: Fabio Bacchini
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443868272
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 190
Book Description
Metaphysics and ontology feature among the traditional and fundamental concerns of philosophers. Gaining a picture of the world and the kind of objects that exist out there is for most philosophers (past and present) a preliminary aim upon which other theoretical activities depend. In fact, it seems that sound conclusions on topics relevant to ethics, aesthetics, psychology, and common and scientific knowledge can be achieved only after one has been given a picture of that sort. What is worth stressing, though, is that from time to time the tribunal of history has managed to put its finger on some flawed conclusions. To take a time-worn example, who would now accept Plato’s claim that the spatiotemporal world is just an imperfect copy of a world of abstract objects conceived of as perfect unchanging models of concrete things? The picture Plato gave us is nothing but a myth – an account which is too far away from what common sense and science could accept, too detached from the usual ways of conducting a rational discussion. Therefore, pictures of this kind appear to be supported by nothing but dogmas, i.e. uncompromising principles taken as true without any previous critical analysis. And Plato has no shortage of company. Issues of this kind revolving around metaphysics and ontology are tackled in the essays in this volume, which approach a secular debate in fresh and original ways, providing the necessary tools for clearing the field of unpalatable metaphysical and ontological items.
Metaphysics and Ontology Without Myths
Author: Fabio Bacchini
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443868272
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 190
Book Description
Metaphysics and ontology feature among the traditional and fundamental concerns of philosophers. Gaining a picture of the world and the kind of objects that exist out there is for most philosophers (past and present) a preliminary aim upon which other theoretical activities depend. In fact, it seems that sound conclusions on topics relevant to ethics, aesthetics, psychology, and common and scientific knowledge can be achieved only after one has been given a picture of that sort. What is worth stressing, though, is that from time to time the tribunal of history has managed to put its finger on some flawed conclusions. To take a time-worn example, who would now accept Plato’s claim that the spatiotemporal world is just an imperfect copy of a world of abstract objects conceived of as perfect unchanging models of concrete things? The picture Plato gave us is nothing but a myth – an account which is too far away from what common sense and science could accept, too detached from the usual ways of conducting a rational discussion. Therefore, pictures of this kind appear to be supported by nothing but dogmas, i.e. uncompromising principles taken as true without any previous critical analysis. And Plato has no shortage of company. Issues of this kind revolving around metaphysics and ontology are tackled in the essays in this volume, which approach a secular debate in fresh and original ways, providing the necessary tools for clearing the field of unpalatable metaphysical and ontological items.
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443868272
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 190
Book Description
Metaphysics and ontology feature among the traditional and fundamental concerns of philosophers. Gaining a picture of the world and the kind of objects that exist out there is for most philosophers (past and present) a preliminary aim upon which other theoretical activities depend. In fact, it seems that sound conclusions on topics relevant to ethics, aesthetics, psychology, and common and scientific knowledge can be achieved only after one has been given a picture of that sort. What is worth stressing, though, is that from time to time the tribunal of history has managed to put its finger on some flawed conclusions. To take a time-worn example, who would now accept Plato’s claim that the spatiotemporal world is just an imperfect copy of a world of abstract objects conceived of as perfect unchanging models of concrete things? The picture Plato gave us is nothing but a myth – an account which is too far away from what common sense and science could accept, too detached from the usual ways of conducting a rational discussion. Therefore, pictures of this kind appear to be supported by nothing but dogmas, i.e. uncompromising principles taken as true without any previous critical analysis. And Plato has no shortage of company. Issues of this kind revolving around metaphysics and ontology are tackled in the essays in this volume, which approach a secular debate in fresh and original ways, providing the necessary tools for clearing the field of unpalatable metaphysical and ontological items.
Ontology Without Borders
Author: Jody Azzouni
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190622571
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 321
Book Description
Our experience of objects (and consequently our theorizing about them) is very rich. We perceive objects as possessing individuation conditions. They appear to have boundaries in space and time, for example, and they appear to move independently of a background of other objects or a landscape. In Ontology Without Boundaries Jody Azzouni undertakes an analysis of our concept of object, and shows what about that notion is truly due to the world and what about it is a projection onto the world of our senses and thinking. Location and individuation conditions are our product: there is no echo of them in the world. Features, the ways that objects seem to be, aren't projections. Azzouni shows how the resulting austere metaphysics tames a host of ancient philosophical problems about constitution ("Ship of Theseus," "Sorities"), as well as contemporary puzzles about reductionism. In addition, it's shown that the same sorts of individuation conditions for properties, which philosophers use to distinguish between various kinds of odd abstracta-universals, tropes, and so on, are also projections. Accompanying our notion of an object is a background logic that makes cogent ontological debate about anything from Platonic objects to Bigfoot. Contemporary views about this background logic ("quantifier variance") make ontological debate incoherent. Azzouni shows how a neutral interpretation of quantifiers and quantifier domains makes sense of both philosophical and pre-philosophical ontological debates. Azzouni also shows how the same apparatus makes sense of our speaking about a host of items--Mickey Mouse, unicorns, Martians--that nearly all of us deny exist. It's allowed by what Azzouni shows about the background logic of our ontological debates, as well as the semantics of the language of those debates that we can disagree over the existence of things, like unicorns, without that background logic and semantics forcing ontological commitments onto speakers that they don't have.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190622571
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 321
Book Description
Our experience of objects (and consequently our theorizing about them) is very rich. We perceive objects as possessing individuation conditions. They appear to have boundaries in space and time, for example, and they appear to move independently of a background of other objects or a landscape. In Ontology Without Boundaries Jody Azzouni undertakes an analysis of our concept of object, and shows what about that notion is truly due to the world and what about it is a projection onto the world of our senses and thinking. Location and individuation conditions are our product: there is no echo of them in the world. Features, the ways that objects seem to be, aren't projections. Azzouni shows how the resulting austere metaphysics tames a host of ancient philosophical problems about constitution ("Ship of Theseus," "Sorities"), as well as contemporary puzzles about reductionism. In addition, it's shown that the same sorts of individuation conditions for properties, which philosophers use to distinguish between various kinds of odd abstracta-universals, tropes, and so on, are also projections. Accompanying our notion of an object is a background logic that makes cogent ontological debate about anything from Platonic objects to Bigfoot. Contemporary views about this background logic ("quantifier variance") make ontological debate incoherent. Azzouni shows how a neutral interpretation of quantifiers and quantifier domains makes sense of both philosophical and pre-philosophical ontological debates. Azzouni also shows how the same apparatus makes sense of our speaking about a host of items--Mickey Mouse, unicorns, Martians--that nearly all of us deny exist. It's allowed by what Azzouni shows about the background logic of our ontological debates, as well as the semantics of the language of those debates that we can disagree over the existence of things, like unicorns, without that background logic and semantics forcing ontological commitments onto speakers that they don't have.
The Elements and Patterns of Being
Author: Donald C. Williams
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198810385
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 254
Book Description
Donald C. Williams (1899-1983) was a key figure in the development of analytic philosophy. This book will be the definitive source for his highly original work, which did much to bring metaphysics back into fashion. It presents six classic papers and six previously unpublished, revealing his full philosophical vision for the first time.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198810385
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 254
Book Description
Donald C. Williams (1899-1983) was a key figure in the development of analytic philosophy. This book will be the definitive source for his highly original work, which did much to bring metaphysics back into fashion. It presents six classic papers and six previously unpublished, revealing his full philosophical vision for the first time.
Fields of Sense
Author: Markus Gabriel
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 0748692916
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 350
Book Description
Markus Gabriel proposes a radical form of ontological pluralism that divorces ontology from metaphysics, understood as the most fundamental theory of absolutely everything (the world). He argues that the concept of existence is incompatible with the exist
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 0748692916
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 350
Book Description
Markus Gabriel proposes a radical form of ontological pluralism that divorces ontology from metaphysics, understood as the most fundamental theory of absolutely everything (the world). He argues that the concept of existence is incompatible with the exist
Metaphysics or Ontology?
Author: Piotr Jaroszyński
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004359877
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 482
Book Description
Metaphysics or Ontology? treats the evolution of the object of metaphysics from being, to the concept of being, to, finally, the object (thought). Possible being must be non-contradictory, but an object of thought includes anything a human being can think, including contradictions and nothingness. When the concept of being, or object of thought, replaces existence as the object of metaphysics, it becomes something other than metaphysics—ontology, or something beyond ontology. However, ontology cannot examine existence because it only investigates concepts and possibility. Only classical metaphysics investigates reality qua reality. This book masterfully treats the history of this controversy and many other important metaphysical questions raised over the centuries
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004359877
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 482
Book Description
Metaphysics or Ontology? treats the evolution of the object of metaphysics from being, to the concept of being, to, finally, the object (thought). Possible being must be non-contradictory, but an object of thought includes anything a human being can think, including contradictions and nothingness. When the concept of being, or object of thought, replaces existence as the object of metaphysics, it becomes something other than metaphysics—ontology, or something beyond ontology. However, ontology cannot examine existence because it only investigates concepts and possibility. Only classical metaphysics investigates reality qua reality. This book masterfully treats the history of this controversy and many other important metaphysical questions raised over the centuries
The Oxford Handbook of Metaphysics
Author: Michael J. Loux
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780199284221
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 740
Book Description
Some of the world's specialists provide in this handbook essays about what kinds of things there are, in what ways they exist, and how they relate to each other. They give the word on such topics as identity, modality, time, causation, persons and minds, freedom, and vagueness.
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780199284221
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 740
Book Description
Some of the world's specialists provide in this handbook essays about what kinds of things there are, in what ways they exist, and how they relate to each other. They give the word on such topics as identity, modality, time, causation, persons and minds, freedom, and vagueness.
Realism and antirealism in metaphysics, science and language
Author: AA. VV.
Publisher: FrancoAngeli
ISBN: 8835158125
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 307
Book Description
490.113
Publisher: FrancoAngeli
ISBN: 8835158125
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 307
Book Description
490.113
Myths of the Self
Author: Olav Bryant Smith
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 9780739108437
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 222
Book Description
According to Olav Bryant Smith, Kant's "critical philosophy," precisely his defense of necessary knowledge, inadvertantly opened the door to discussions of interpretive philosophy and ultimately postmodernity. This unique opening to a discussion of postmodern thought framesMyths of the Self: Narrative Identity and Postmodern Metaphysics. Author Olav Smith uses process philosophy, specifically the constructive postmodern metaphysics of Alfred North Whitehead, to move away from the skepticism of modernity. This maneuver, along with an invigorating discussion of not often paired philosophers: Kant, Heidegger, Whitehead, and Ricoeur, leads readers into a discussion of the self that is a synthesis of a narrative theory of identity and a constructive "postmodern" metaphysics. Smith's original approach to Kant'sCritique of Reason, his unique pairing of Heidegger and Whitehead as well as Whitehead and Ricoeur makes this book essential reading for philisophers working in the Continental and especially the Analytic American tradition.
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 9780739108437
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 222
Book Description
According to Olav Bryant Smith, Kant's "critical philosophy," precisely his defense of necessary knowledge, inadvertantly opened the door to discussions of interpretive philosophy and ultimately postmodernity. This unique opening to a discussion of postmodern thought framesMyths of the Self: Narrative Identity and Postmodern Metaphysics. Author Olav Smith uses process philosophy, specifically the constructive postmodern metaphysics of Alfred North Whitehead, to move away from the skepticism of modernity. This maneuver, along with an invigorating discussion of not often paired philosophers: Kant, Heidegger, Whitehead, and Ricoeur, leads readers into a discussion of the self that is a synthesis of a narrative theory of identity and a constructive "postmodern" metaphysics. Smith's original approach to Kant'sCritique of Reason, his unique pairing of Heidegger and Whitehead as well as Whitehead and Ricoeur makes this book essential reading for philisophers working in the Continental and especially the Analytic American tradition.
Fundamentals of Ontological Commitment
Author: Paolo Valore
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110459035
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 262
Book Description
Scientific literature on particular themes in ontology is extremely abundant, but it is often very hard for freshmen or sophomores to find a red thread between the various proposals. This text is an opinionated introduction, a preliminary text to research in ontology from the so called standard approach to ontological commitment, that is from the particular point of view that connects ontological questions to quantificational questions. It offers a survey of this viewpoint in ontology together with their possible applications through a broad array of examples and open problems and, at the same time, essential references to the classics of philosophy, so as to allow non-specialists to understand the terms and analysis procedures characterizing the discipline. Its result is a wide-ranging overview of the issued tackled by ontology, with a particular focus on the most relevant problems of contemporary debate (categorial taxonomies, nonexistent objects, case studies of ontological debates in specific fields of knowledge).
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110459035
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 262
Book Description
Scientific literature on particular themes in ontology is extremely abundant, but it is often very hard for freshmen or sophomores to find a red thread between the various proposals. This text is an opinionated introduction, a preliminary text to research in ontology from the so called standard approach to ontological commitment, that is from the particular point of view that connects ontological questions to quantificational questions. It offers a survey of this viewpoint in ontology together with their possible applications through a broad array of examples and open problems and, at the same time, essential references to the classics of philosophy, so as to allow non-specialists to understand the terms and analysis procedures characterizing the discipline. Its result is a wide-ranging overview of the issued tackled by ontology, with a particular focus on the most relevant problems of contemporary debate (categorial taxonomies, nonexistent objects, case studies of ontological debates in specific fields of knowledge).
The Theory and Practice of Ontology
Author: Leo Zaibert
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137552786
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 278
Book Description
This book provides close examination of ontology and the work of Professor Barry Smith, one of the most prolific philosophers of the modern day. In this book numerous scholars who have collaborated with Smith explore the various disciplines in which the impact of his work has been felt over the breadth of his career, including biology, computer science and informatics, cognitive science, economics, genetics, geography, law, neurology, and philosophy itself. While offering in-depth perspectives on ontology, the book also expands upon the breadth of Smith’s influence. With insights from renowned and influential scholars from many different countries, this book is an informative and enlightening celebration of all Smith has contributed to numerous academic schools of thought.
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137552786
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 278
Book Description
This book provides close examination of ontology and the work of Professor Barry Smith, one of the most prolific philosophers of the modern day. In this book numerous scholars who have collaborated with Smith explore the various disciplines in which the impact of his work has been felt over the breadth of his career, including biology, computer science and informatics, cognitive science, economics, genetics, geography, law, neurology, and philosophy itself. While offering in-depth perspectives on ontology, the book also expands upon the breadth of Smith’s influence. With insights from renowned and influential scholars from many different countries, this book is an informative and enlightening celebration of all Smith has contributed to numerous academic schools of thought.