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A Survey of Metaphysics

E. J. Lowe

17 January 2002

ISBN: 9780198752530

416 pages
Paperback
234x156mm

In Stock

Price: £44.99

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Description

A systematic overview of modern metaphysics, covering all of the most important topics in the subject likely to be encountered on a metaphysics course. The emphasis is on contemporary views and issues rather than on the history of metaphysics.

  • E.J.Lowe is a leading contemporary metaphysician making this a well-informed and reliable guide to important recent developments in the subject
  • Offers comprehensive coverage of the subject and will serve well as the single core text for almost any metaphysics course
  • The survey is fully up-to-date with emphasis on contemporary views and issues enabling students to engage effectively with the latest literature on the subject
  • Provides an extensive bibliography of publications, most of which are recent, making this a very useful reference for further study

About the Author(s)

E. J. Lowe, Professor of Philosophy, University of Durham

Table of Contents

    1:Introduction: The nature of metaphysics
    Part I Identity and Change
    2:Identity over time and change of composition
    3:Qualitative change and the doctrine of temporal parts
    4:Substantial change and spatiotemporal coincidence
    Part II Necessity, Essence, and Possible Worlds
    5:Necessity and identity
    6:Essentialism
    7:Possible worlds
    Part III Causation and Conditionals
    8:Conterfactual conditionals
    9:Causes and conditions
    10:Conterfactuals and event causation
    Part IV Actions and Events
    11:Event causation and agent causation
    12:Actions and Events
    13:Events, things, and space-time
    Part V Space and Time
    14:Absolutism versus relationalism
    15:Incongruent conterparts and the nature of space
    16:The paradoxes of motion and the possibility of change
    17:Tense and the reality of time
    18:Causation and the direction of time
    Part VI Universals and Particulars
    19:Realism versus nominalism
    20:The abstract and the concrete

Reviews

"'E. J. Lowe, one of the UK's leading metaphysicians, has written a superb introduction to metaphysics. ... Lowe's book is the best introduction to metaphysics available.' THES"

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