CURRENT ISSUES IN METAPHYSICS
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7.
Introduction
Universals (Text: Armstrong, Universals: An Opinionated Introduction)
Levels of Being (Text: Heil, From an Ontological Point of View)
Dispositions (Text: Martin, The Mind in Nature)
Laws of Nature (Text: Mumford, Laws in Nature)
Essentialism (Text: Mackie, How Things Might Have Been)
Truthmakers (Text: Armstrong, Truth and Truthmakers)
Further Reading
Introduction
E. J. Lowe, The Possibility of Metaphysics, Ch. 1.
P. van Inwagen, Metaphysics, Ch. 1.
M. Jubien, Contemporary Metaphysics, Ch. 1.
M. J. Loux, Metaphysics: A Contemporary Introduction, Introduction.
Universals (Principal Text: Armstrong, Universals: An Opinionated Introduction)
D.M. Armstrong. 1989. Universals: An Opinionated Introduction. Westview.
D. M. Armstrong. 1997. A World of States of Affairs. Cambridge UP.
K. Campbell. 1990. Abstract Particulars. Cambridge UP.
K. Campbell. 1981. “The Metaphysic of Abstract Particulars,” Midwest Studies in Philosophy, 6, p.
477-488.
J. Levinson. 1980. “The Particularisation of Attributes,” Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 58: 102114.
M. Loux, (ed.) 2001. Metaphysics: Contemporary Readings. London, New York: Routledge.
M. J. Loux (ed.). 1976. Universals and Particulars. Notre Dame UP.
E. J. Lowe. 2006. The Four-Category Ontology: A Metaphysical Foundation for Natural Science.
OUP.
E. J. Lowe. 2002. A Survey of Metaphysics. OUP. Ch. 19.
J. P. Moreland. 2001. Universals. Acumen.
G. Rodriguez-Pereyra. 2002. Resemblance Nominalism: A Solution to the Problem of Universals.
OUP.
P. Simons. 1994. “Particulars in Particular Clothing: Three Trope Theories of Substance,” Philosophy
and Phenomenological Research 54: 553-575
D. C. Williams. 1953. “The Elements of Being,” Review of Metaphysics 7: 3-18, 171-192
Levels of Being (Principal Text: Heil, From an Ontological Point of View)
J. Heil. 2003, From an Ontological Point of View. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
J. Heil. 2004. Philosophy of Mind: A Contemporary Introduction .Second Edition. Routledge : New
York.
J. Heil. 2003. ‘Levels of Reality’. Ratio.
Heil and Robb. 2003. ‘Mental Properties’. American Philosophical Quarterly.
Heil and Martin. 1999. ‘The Ontological Turn’. Midwest Studies in Philosophy.
E. J. Lowe. 2006. ‘Powerful Particulars: Review Essay on John Heil’s: From an Ontological Point of
View’ Philosophy and Phenomenological Research.
C. B. Martin, C. B. 2007. The Mind in Nature. OUP.
A. Varzi. 2006. Review of ‘From an Ontological Point of View’. Philosophical Books.
Dispositions (Principal Text: Martin, Mind in Nature)
Bird. 1998, "Dispositions and Antidotes", The Philosophical Quarterly.
Crane. (ed.) 1996. Dispositions: A Debate. Routledge
Blackburn. 1990, "Filling in Space", Analysis 50: 62–65.
Harré and Madden. 1975. Causal Powers. Oxford: Blackwell.
Heil. 2003. From an Ontological Point of View. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Heil.2005, "Dispositions", Synthese 144: 343–356.
E. J. Lowe. 2006. The Four-Category Ontology: A Metaphysical Foundation for Natural Science.
OUP.
Martin. 2007. The Mind in Nature. OUP.
Martin. 1994, "Dispositions and Conditionals", The Philosophical Quarterly 44: 1–8.
Martin. 1997. "On the Need for Properties: The Road to Pythagoreanism and Back", Synthese 112:
193–231.
Martin & Heil, J. 1999. "The Ontological Turn", Midwest Studies in Philosophy 23: 34–60.
Mellor. 1974. ‘In Defense of Dispositions’. Philosophical Review, 83, 157 -81
Mellor. 2000. ‘The Semantics and Ontology of Dispositions’. Mind, 109. 757-80
Molnar. 2003. Powers: A Study in Metaphysics. OUP.
Molnar. 1999. "Are Dispositions Reducible?" The Philosophical Quarterly 49: 1–17.
Mumford. 1998. Dispositions. OUP.
Prior, Pargetter & Jackson. 1982. "Three Theses About Dispositions", American Philosophical
Quarterly 19: 251–257.
Shoemaker. 1980. ‘Causality and Properties’, in van Inwagen (ed) Time and Cause
Tooley. 1972. "Armstrong's Proof of the Realist Account of Dispositional Properties", Australasian
Journal of Philosophy 50: 283–287.
Laws of Nature
Principal text:
Stephen Mumford, Laws in Nature (London: Routledge, 2004)
Other reading:
D.M. Armstrong, What Is a Law of Nature? (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983)
Helen Beebee, ‘The Non-Governing Conception of Laws of Nature (2000), Philosophy and
Phenomenological Research 61: 571-594
Alexander Bird, Nature’s Metaphysics: Properties and Laws (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007),
ch. 3, ch. 8 and ch. 9
John Carroll, ‘Nailed to Hume's Cross?’ in J. Hawthorne, T. Sider and D. Zimmerman, (eds.),
Contemporary Debates in Metaphysics, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 2008, pp. 67-81. (Available online at
http://www4.ncsu.edu/~carroll/HumeCross3shorter.pdf)
Brian Ellis, Scientific Essentialism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), ch. 6 and ch.7
Michael Tooley, ‘The Nature of Laws’ (1977), Canadian Journal of Philosophy 7: 667-98. (Available
online at http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/tennant9/tooley_cjp1977.pdf)
Essentialism
Principal text:
Penelope Mackie, How Things Might Have Been: Individuals, Kinds, and Essential Properties
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2006)
Other reading:
Kit Fine, ‘Essence and Modality’, in J. E. Tomberlin (ed), Philosophical Perspectives 8: Logic and
Language (Atascadero, CA: Ridgeview, 1994). (Available online at
http://as.nyu.edu/docs/IO/1160/essence.pdf )
Saul Kripke, Naming and Necessity (Oxford: Blackwell, 1980)
E. J. Lowe, A Survey of Metaphysics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), ch. 6
E. J. Lowe, 'Two Notions of Being: Entity and Essence' in R. Le Poidevin (ed.), Being: Developments
in Contemporary Metaphysics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008, pp. 23-48
Truthmakers
Principal text:
D. H. Armstrong, Truth and Truthmakers (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004)
Other reading:
Helen Beebee & Julian Dodd (eds), Truthmakers: The Contemporary Debate (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 2005)
John Heil, From an Ontological Point of View (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2003), ch. 7
E. J. Lowe, The Four-Category Ontology: A Metaphysical Foundation for Natural Science (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 2006), ch. 11 and ch. 12
E. J. Lowe & A. Rami (eds), Truth and Truth-Making, Stocksfield: Acumen, 2009.