Course Outline for Philosophy 3260- Metaphysics. Spring 2006
Metaphysics is a general study of what there is, what its characteristics are, how aspects
or elements of what there is are related to each other, and other very basic facts about ‘the
world’.
Questions that have been important for metaphysics include
1. Why is there something rather than nothing?
2. Do properties and other abstract entities exist: Does the word like ‘red’ act as
names for the ‘quality’ or property, being red? Does ‘triangularity’ have the
meaning it does by virtue of refering to something, do words like ‘two’ act as
names for numbers? Or do they have a different kind of meaning?
3. Is there really such a thing as space? Or time? Or are these just relations between
physical things (such as particles and/or events)?
4. Does the past (or the future) exist? Or does only the present exist, with the past
‘dead and gone’ and the future not (yet) existing either?
5. What makes one event a cause of another? Are events really what ‘causation’
links?
6. What are the basic building blocks or elements out of which the world is built?
7. Does truth (for basic descriptive claims) involve some kind of correspondence
between a sentence or proposition and the ‘intelligible structure’ of the world?
8. When we make a free and responsible choice, can that choice be determined by
the preceeding circumstances (including our state of mind)? Or must it be
undetermined in order to be free at all? (On the other hand, if it’s undetermined,
it seems that it can only be a kind of chance event—but then the idea that we are
somehow responsible for it seems indefensible anyway!)
Deep methodological questions arise. How can we tell when a metaphysical hypothesis
is correct? Consistency is not enough! Many incompatible hypotheses are consistent,
even if we add a good range of observations to them—and theories can differ a lot on
what they make of observations. We need a stronger test for a metaphysical theory to
pass—and even with a stronger test (say, some kind of best explanation criterion) it’s
easy to end up uncertain. For instance, when two apparently distinct hypotheses turn out
to be ‘translatable’, into each other. One important metaphysical question is just how
much of the ‘surface structure’ of our talk reflects features of reality, and how much is
just the superficial froth of a particular language’s engagement with the world. Reliance
on ‘intuitions’ is a very dangerous here—there is more than one way to skin a cat, and
intuitions often beg the question, or allow for simple (if discomfiting) re-interpretations.
A healthy, Humean modesty about our views & the arguments we give for them is
important here!
Text: Metaphysics: A guide and Anthology, edited by Tim Crane and Katalin Farkas,
Oxford University Press (2004).
Our anthology includes a selection of important readings (both historic and
contemporary) on a number of basic metaphysical issues. We will begin by discussing
those issues and selecting a few (about 6, I expect) for close examination. We’ll follow
through on each in turn, keeping in mind the need for arguments that aren’t questionbegging and don’t just circle repeatedly around a tight loop of intuitions.
Course work will include:
Midterm (30%)
paper- 2500 to 3000 words (35%).
Final exam (35%)
Course Schedule:
Week 1: Jan 6: Introduction; selection of topics for the course.
Week 2: Jan 9, 11, 13: Begin Topic 1
Week 3: Jan 16, 18, 20: End Topic 1
Week 4: Jan 23, 25, 27: Begin Topic 2.
Week 5: Jan 30, Feb 1, 3: End Topic 2
Week 6: Feb 6, 8, 10: Begin Topic 3
Week 7: Feb 13, 15, 17: End Topic 3 Midterm Test February 17; Suggested paper
topics distributed February 17.
Week 8: Reading Week: No classes.
Week 9: February 27, March 1, 3: Begin Topic 4:
Week 10: March 6, 8 10: End Topic 4
Week 11: March 13, 15, 17: Begin Topic 5
Week 12: March 20, 22, 24: End Topic 5
Week 13: March 27, 29, 31: Begin Topic 6
Week 14: April 3, 5, 7: End Topic 6 (Voluntary: Paper drafts for red-inking due.)
Week 15: April 10, 12: Review, discussion. Final Paper Due April 12.
Final Exam: Not yet scheduled.