Metaphysics: The Big Questions, 2nd Edition

Sources.

Introduction: What is metaphysics?.

Part I: What Are the Most General Features of the World?:.

A. What is existence?.

1. Holes:David Lewis and Stephanie Lewis.

2. On What There Is:W. V. O. Quine.

3. Beyond Being and Nonbeing:Roderick M. Chisholm.

B. What is the relationship between an individual and its characteristics?.

4. Universals: an Excerpt from The Problems of Philosophy:Bertrand Russell.

5. Universals as Attributes:.

An Excerpt from Universals: an Opinionated Introduction,David M. Armstrong.

6. Universals and Resemblances: Chapter 1 of Thinking and Experience H. H. Price.

7. The Elements of Being:D.C. Williams.

8. The Identity of Indiscernibles:Max Black.

9. Distinct Indiscernibles and the Bundle Theory:Dean W. Zimmerman.

C. What is time? What is space?.

10. Time: an Excerpt from The Nature of Existence:J. McT. E. McTaggart.

11. McTaggart’s Arguments against the Reality of Time: an Excerpt from Examination of McTaggart’s Philosophy.

C. D. Broad.

12. The Notion of the Present:A. N. Prior.

13. Changes in Events and Changes in Things:A. N. Prior.

14. The General Problem of Time and Change: an Excerpt from Scientific Thought:C. D. Broad.

15. The Myth of Passage:D. C. Williams.

16. Some Free Thinking about Time:A. N. Prior.

17. The Fourth Dimension: an Excerpt from The Ambidextrous Universe:Martin Gardner.

18. Incongruent Counterparts and Higher Dimensions:James Van Cleve.

19. The Traditional Conception of Space, and the Principle of Extensive Abstraction:.

An Excerpt from Scientific Thought:C. D. Broad.

20. Achilles and the Tortoise: Max Black.

21. A Contemporary Look at Zeno’s Paradoxes: an Excerpt from Space, Time, and Motion.

Wesley C. Salmon.

22. Grasping the Infinite: José A. Benardete.

23. The Paradoxes of Time Travel: David Lewis.

D. How do Things Persist through Changes of Parts and Properties?.

24. Of Confused Subjects Which Are Equivalent to Two Subjects:.

An Excerpt from The Port-Royal Logic:Antoine Arnauld and Pierre Nicole.

25. The Paradox of Increase:Eric T. Olson.

26. Identity, Ostension, and Hypostasis:W. V. O. Quine.

27. In Defense of Stages: Postscript B to “Survival and Identity”.

David Lewis.

28. The Problem of Temporary Intrinsics: an Excerpt from On the Plurality of Worlds.

David Lewis.

29. Temporary Intrinsics and Presentism:Dean W. Zimmerman.

E. How do Causes Bring about their Effects?.

30. Constant Conjunction: an Excerpt from A Treatise of Human Nature.

David Hume.

31. Efficient Cause and Active Power: an Excerpt from Essays on the Active Powers of the Human Mind.

Thomas Reid.

32. Psychological and Physical Causal Laws: an Excerpt from The Analysis of Mind.

Bertrand Russell.

33. Causality: an Excerpt from A Modern Introduction to Logic: L. Susan Stebbing.

34. Causality and Determination: G. E. M. Anscombe.

Part II: What Is Our Place in the World?:.

A. How Are Mind and Body Related?.

35. Which Physical Thing Am I?: an Excerpt from “Is There a Mind–Body Problem?”.

Roderick M. Chisholm.

36. Personal Identity: a Materialist Account: Sydney Shoemaker.

37. An Argument for Animalism: Eric T. Olson.

38. Divided Minds and the Nature of Persons: Derek Parfit.

39. Personal Identity: the Dualist Theory: Richard Swinburne.

40. The Causal Theory of the Mind: David M. Armstrong.

41. The Puzzle of Conscious Experience: David J. Chalmers.

42. Neutral Monism: an Excerpt from Philosophy: Bertrand Russell.

B. Is it Possible for Us to Act Freely?.

43. We Are Never Free: an Excerpt from The System of Nature.

Paul-Henri Dietrich, Baron d’Holbach.

44. Free Will as Involving Determination and Inconceivable without It.

R. E. Hobart.

45. Freedom, Causation, and Preexistence: an Excerpt from Problems of Mind and Matter.

John Wisdom.

46. Human Freedom and the Self: Roderick M. Chisholm.

47. The Consequence Argument: Peter van Inwagen.

48. The Mystery of Metaphysical Freedom: Peter van Inwagen.

49. The Agent as Cause: Timothy O’Connor.

50. Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility: Harry G. Frankfurt.

51. Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person: Harry G. Frankfurt.

Part III: Are There Many Worlds?:.

A. Are There Worlds Other than the Actual World?.

52. Modal Realism at Work: an Excerpt from On the Plurality of Worlds.

David Lewis.

53. Counterparts of Persons and Their Bodies: David Lewis.

54. Identity and Necessity: Saul Kripke.

B. Is There More than One Actual World?.

55. After Metaphysics, What?: Hilary Putnam.

56. Truth and Convention: Hilary Putnam.

57. Nonabsolute Existence and Conceptual Relativity: an Excerpt from “Putnam’s Pragmatic Realism”.

Ernest Sosa.

58. Addendum to “Nonabsolute Existence and Conceptual Relativity”: Objections and Replies.

Ernest Sosa.

Part IV: Why Is There a World?:.

59. The Problem of Being: Chapter 3 of Some Problems of Philosophy: William James.

60. Why Anything? Why This?: Derek Parfit.

61. Response to Derek Parfit: Richard Swinburne.

62. The Cosmological Argument: an Excerpt from A Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God.

Samuel Clarke.

63. The Cosmological Argument and the Principle of Sufficient Reason: William L. Rowe.

64. The Ontological Argument: Chapters II–IV of the Proslogion: St Anselm.

65. Anselm’s Ontological Arguments: Norman Malcolm.

Index