A Survey of Metaphysics

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"