A Survey of Metaphysics provides a systematic overview of modern metaphysics, covering all of the most important topics likely to be encountered on a metaphysics course. The conception of metaphysics underlying the book is the fairly traditional and widely-shared one that metaphysics deals with the deepest questions that can be raised concerning the fundamental structure of reality as a whole. The book is divided into six main parts, each relatively
self-contained, focusing in turn on the following major themes: identity and change, necessity and essence, causation, agency and events, space and time, and universals and particulars. In an introductory chapter,
the conception of metaphysics underlying the book is explained and defended against the many and varied opponents of metaphysics those students are likely to encounter. While the book makes reference when necessary to the history of metaphysics, its emphasis is on contemporary views and issues. The author's approach is not narrowly partisan, but avoids bland neutrality in matters of controversy.
A Survey of Metaphysics provides a systematic overview of modern metaphysics, covering all of the most important topics likely to be encountered on a metaphysics course. The conception of metaphysics underlying the book is the fairly traditional and widely-shared one that metaphysics deals with the deepest questions that can be raised concerning the fundamental structure of reality as a whole. The book is divided into six main parts, each relatively
self-contained, focusing in turn on the following major themes: identity and change, necessity and essence, causation, agency and events, space and time, and universals and particulars. In an introductory chapter,
the conception of metaphysics underlying the book is explained and defended against the many and varied opponents of metaphysics those students are likely to encounter. While the book makes reference when necessary to the history of metaphysics, its emphasis is on contemporary views and issues. The author's approach is not narrowly partisan, but avoids bland neutrality in matters of controversy.
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
E.J. Lowe is Professor of Philosophy at University of Durham
`This is a great book. It will immediately become--and will remain
for
some time--one of the two or three books that are seriously
considered for
any metaphysics course that uses a textbook.
'
Professor Trenton Merricks, University of Virginia, US
`This book provides excellent coverage for typical courses in
metaphysics...Lowe has avoided unnecessary technicalities and
jargon; the writing is both clear and accessible to typical
philosophy undergraduates. He has done a remarkable job on this
score.'
Professor Gary Rosenkrantz, University of North Carolina, Greenboro
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