BEING
(METAPHYSICS)

SUB-PAGES

• Definitions

Feminist:

• Feminist Perspectives on Being

Post-colonial:

• Post-colonial Perspectives on Being

ASSOCIATIONS

• International Institute for Metaphysics and Mystical Studies

• International Society for Metaphysics

• International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture

• International Society for the Study of Time (ISST)

• Metaphysical Society of America

• Philosophy of Time Society

CONFERENCES

2008:

• Perspectives on Ontology, Department of Philosophy, University of Leeds, September 5-7

• Mini-Metaphysics Day, Joint AHRC Metaphysics of Science Project at Universities of Bristol and Birmingham, September 3

• Eidos Metaphysics Conference, Department of Philosophy and eidos Centre of Metaphysics, University of Geneva, July 15-8

• Powers: their Grounding and their Realization, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oxford, July 7-9

• Language and Ontology, Third Joint Paris-Oxford Workshop, Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, Paris, June 26-28

• Meta-Metaphysics, LOGOS, University of Barcelona, June 19-21

• Modelling Matter, Durham University, March 26-28

• InterOntology08: Interdisciplinary Ontology Conference, Japanese Center for Ontological Research, National Center for Ontological Research (USA), and European Center for Ontological Research, Tokyo, February 26-27

• The Re-Enchantment of Nature across Disciplines: Critical Intersections of Science, Ethics, and Metaphysics, 2nd International Meeting, International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture, National Autonomous University of Mexico, January 17-20

2007:

• Structure and Identity, Royal Academy, Brussels, December 7-8

• Ontological Commitment, Centre for Time, Department of Philosophy, University of Sydney, November 30-December 1

• Levels of Reality, Mitteleuropa Foundation, Bolzano, September 27-29

• Nature and its Classification, Metaphysics of Science Project, University of Birmingham, September 12-14

• The Metaphysics of Time, Italian Society for Analytic Philosophy (SIFA), University of Bergamo, September 6-8

• Time: Limits and Constraints, 13th triennial conference, International Society for the Study of Time, Asilomar Conference Center, Monterey, California, July 28-August 3

• Norms and Analysis: from Personal Identity to the Rationality of Desire, University of Sydney, June 26-28

• Metaphysics and Anthropology: Convergence or Tension?, Pontifical Gregorian University, June 22

• Research(es) in Metaphysics, International Workshop in Metaphysics, LPHS--Archives H. Poincaré, Université Nancy 2, June 14-15

• The Metaphysics of Being Basic, University of St. Andrews, May 17

• Being qua Being, Annual Meeting, Metaphysical Society of America, Vanderbilt University, March 11-12

• Structure in Metaphysics, Centre for Metaphysics and Mind, Department of Philosophy, University of Leeds, March 10

• Metaphysics of Science Workshop, Department of Philosophy, University of Nottingham, February 10-11

• Essence and Essential Properties, Department of Philosophy, University of Nottingham, January 6

2006:

• Abstract Objects, Centre for Philosophy, University of Manchester, December 2
• Les Diviseurs de 'etre, l'équipe Identité et Subjectivité, l'Université de Caen Basse-Normandie, November 15-16

• Second International Colloquium on Metaphysics, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, November 6-9

• Metametaphysics, International Workshop on Methodological Issues in Contemporary Metaphysics, Department of Philosophy, Lund University, October 27-28

• Being: Developments in Contemporary Metaphysics, School of Philosophy, University of Leeds, September 1-3

• Time and Consciousness, Centre for Time, Department of Philosophy, University of Sydney and Centre for Consciousness, Australian National University, July 22-23

• Intervention, Time and Physics, Centre for Time, Department of Philosophy, University of Sydney, July 19-21

• Metafisica 2006: III Congresso Internazionale, Idente Foundation, Via Aurelia, Rome, July 6-9

• (Anti-)Realismes, Logique et metaphysique, Archives H. Poincaré, Université de Nancy 2, June 28-July 1

• Christians and the Future of Metaphysics, National Faculty Leadership Conference: Philosophy Section, Alexandria, Virginia, June 22-25

• New Directions in Structuralism, Division of History and Philosophy of Science and Centre for Metaphysics and Mind, School of Philosophy, University of Leeds, June 21

• The Metaphysics of Material Objects, Department of Philosophy, University of Glasgow, June 16

• Objects, Institute of Philosophy, School for Advanced Studies, University of London, June 8-9

• The Metaphysics of E. J. Lowe, State University of New York, Buffalo, April 8-9

• Exploring Religion, Nature and Culture, Inaugural Conference, International Society for Religion, Nature and Culture, University of Florida, April 6-9

• The Ultimate Why Question: Why is there Anything at all rather than Nothing, Metaphysical Society of America, Catholic U of America, March 10-12

• Methodological Issues in Contemporary Metaphysics, Department of Philosophy, University of Nottingham, January 6-7

• Being: Developments in Contemporary Metaphysics, Department of Philosophy, University of Leeds,

2005:

• Dispositions and Causes, Department of Philosophy, University of Bristol, December 2-4

• Modality and Nothingness, Centre for Metaphysics and Mind, University of Leeds, November 26

• Metaphysics: Do Ontological Questions Have Determinate Answers?, Centre for Consciousness, Australian National University, June 30-July 1

• Existence and Time, Centre for Metaphysics and Mind, School of Philosophy, University of Leeds, June 4

• Identity: Ontological Perspectives, Faculty of Philosophy, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, May 25-27

• Mapping the Human Body: Spatial Reasoning at the Interface Between Human Anatomy and Geographic Information Science, National Center for Ontological Research, Department of Philosophy, University at Buffalo, April 16-17

• Time and Identity, 8th Annual Inland Northwest Philosophy Conference, Philosophy Departments of University of Idaho and Washington State University, April 1-3

2004:

• Criteria of Identity, Institute of Philosophy, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, December 2-3

• Medicine and Metaphysics, Department of Philosophy, SUNY, Buffalo, November 13-14

• Metaphysics and Paradox, Centre for Metaphysics and Mind, Department of Philosophy, University of Leeds, November 13

• Theorising Ontology, Girton College, University of Cambridge, August 17-19

• The Origins of Temporal Experience, Centre for Time, University of Sydney and Department of Philosophy, Macquarie University, July 15-19
• Metaphysics Workshop, Department of Philosophy, University of Edinburgh, June 4
• The Number of Substance, Department of Philosophy, University of Edinburgh, May 28-29

• Metaphysics in Science, Ratio Conference, Department of Philosophy, University of Reading, May 1

• Truthmakers and Modality, Centre for Metaphysics and Mind, University of Leeds, March 20

• The Metaphysics of Parts and Wholes, Departments of Philosophy, University of St Andrews, March 13

2003:

• Truthmakers, Time and Change, Centre for Metaphysics and Mind, University of Leeds, December 6

• Metaphysics 2003: Metaphysics for the New Millenium, Second World Conference, International Institute for Metaphysics and Mystical Studies, Assumption Institute for Advanced Study, Rome, July 2-5

• The Question of Nature in Modern European Philosophy, Institute for the Environment, Philosophy and Public Policy, Lancaster University, May 17

• The Nature of Space: Inner and Outer, King Alfred's College, Winchester, United Kingdom, April 11-13

2002:

2001:

2000:

• Metaphysics 2000, First World Conference, International Institute for Metaphysics and Mystical Studies, Assumption Institute for Advanced Study, Rome, September

COURSES

• Brock University: Metaphysics (Miles)

• University of Colorado: Seminar in Metaphysics: Causation (Tooley)

• Montclair State University: Existence and Reality (Bridges)

• University of the West Indies, Cave Hill: Metaphysics (Brandon)

JOURNALS

• AntiMatters

• Applied Ontology: an Interdisciplinary Journal on Ontological Analysis and Conceptual Modeling (or here)

• KronoScope: Official Journal of the International Society for the Study of Time

• Metaphysica

• Metaphysical Review

• Oxford Studies in Metaphysics

• Quaestio: Yearbook of the History of Metaphysics

PHILOSOPHERS / THEORISTS

• Ancient (Classical):

  • Plato (c.427 - c.347 BCE)

  • Aristotle (c.384 - c.322 BCE)

• Medieval:

  • St. Augustine (354 - 430)

  • St. Thomas Aquinas (1225 - 1274)

• Early Modern:

  • René Descartes (1596 - 1650)

  • Baruch Spinoza (1632 - 1677)

  • John Locke (1632 - 1704)

  • Gottfried Leibniz (1646 - 1716)

  • George Berkeley (1685 - 1753)

  • Giambattista Vico (1688 - 1744)

  • David Hume (1711 - 1776)

  • Immanuel Kant (1724 - 1804) (see also Early Modern Thought)

• Nineteenth Century:

  • Johann Gottfried Herder (1744 - 1803) (see also Early Modern Thought)

  • Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762 - 1814)

  • G. W. F. Hegel (1770 - 1831)

  • Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (1775 - 1854)

  • Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 - 1860)

  • Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882)

  • Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 - 1900)Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 - 1900)

• Twentieth Century:

  • Analytic:

    • Gottlob Frege (1848 - 1925)

    • Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970)

    • Rudolf Carnap (1891 - 1970)

    • Gustav Bergmann (1906 - 1987)

    • D. M. Armstrong (1926 - )

    • David Kellog Lewis (1941 - 2001)

    • Peter van Inwagen ( - )

  • Continental:

    • Idealism:

    • Marxism:

      • Karl Marx (1818 - 1883) (see also Marxism)

    • Phenomenology / Existentialism / Hermeneutics:
      • Franz Brentano (1838 - 1917)
      • Edmund Husserl (1859 - 1938)
      • Martin Heidegger (1889 - 1976)

    • Psychoanalysis:

    • (Post-)Structuralisms:

      • Deconstruction:

      • Deleuzean Theory:

      • Dialogism:

      • Foucauldian Theory:

        • Ian Hacking (1936 - )

      • Semiotics / Semiology / Structuralism:

      • Structuralist Marxism:

      • Structuralist Psychoanalysis:

  • Pragmatism:

    • Charles Sanders Peirce (1839 - 1914)
    • Stephen C. Pepper (1889 - 1972)
    • Nelson Goodman (1906 - 1998) (see also Logical Positivism)
    • W. V. O. Quine (1908 - 2000)  (see also Logical Positivism)
    • Nicholas Rescher (1928 - ) (see also Recent Analytic Philosophy)

SOURCES: PRIMARY

Off-Line:

• Anthologies:
  • Metaphysics:
    • Blackman, Larry Lee, ed.  Classics of Analytical Metaphysics.  Washington: UP of America, 1984.
    • Cooper, David, ed.  Metaphysics: the Classic Readings.  Oxford: Blackwell, 1999.
    • Hales, Steven, ed.  Metaphysics: Contemporary Readings.  Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1999.
    • Hoy, Ronald C., et al., eds.  Metaphysics: Classic and Contemporary Readings.  Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1991.
    • Kim, Jaegwon, and Ernest Sosa, eds.  Metaphysics: an Anthology.  Oxford: Blackwell, 1998.

    • Laurence, Stephen, and Cynthia MacDonald, eds.  Contemporary Readings in the Foundations of Metaphysics.  Blackwell: OUP, 1998.

    • Loux, Michael J., ed.  Metaphysics: Contemporary Readings.  London: Routledge, 2002.
    • Pears, D. F., ed.  The Nature of Metaphysics.  London: Macmillan, 1957.
    • Schoedinger, Andrew.  Introduction to Metaphysics: the Fundamental Questions.  Buffalo, New York: Prometheus, 1990.
    • Sider, Theodore, John Hawthorne, and Dean W. Zimmerman, eds.  Contemporary Debates in Metaphysics.  Oxford: Blackwell, 2008.
    • Van Inwagen, Peter, and Dean W. Zimmerman, eds.  Metaphysics: the Big Questions.  Oxford: Blackwell, 1998.
    • Zimmerman, Dean W., ed.  Oxford Studies in Metaphysics.  Oxford: OUP, 2004.
  • Theories of Being:
    • Wood, David, and Robert Bernasconi, eds.  Time and Metaphysics.  1982.
• Selected Individual Works:

  • Metaphysics:

    • Baker, Lynne Rudder.  The Metaphysics of Everyday Life: an Essay in Practical Realism.  Cambridge: CUP, 2007.

    • Benovsky, Jiri.  Persistence Through Time, and Across Possible Worlds.  Frankfurt: Ontos, 2006.

    • Bird, Alexander.  Nature's Metaphysics: Laws and Properties.  Oxford: OUP, 2007.

    • Bourne, Craig.  A Future for Presentism.  Oxford: OUP, 2006.

    • Chihara, C.  The Worlds of Possibility: Modal Realism and the Semantics of Modal Logic.  Oxford: Clarendon, 1998.

    • Correia, Fabrice.  Existential Dependence and Cognate Notions.  Munich: Philosophia, 2005.

    • Forbes, G.  The Metaphysics of Modality.  Oxford: Clarendon, 1985.

    • Brown, Harvey R.  Physical Relativity: Space-time Structure from a Dynamical Perspective.  Oxford: OUP, 2005.
    • Felt, James W.  Aims: a Brief Metaphysics for Today.  Notre Dame: U of Notre Dame P, 2007.
    • Fine, Kit.  Modality and Tense: Philosophical Papers.  Oxford: OUP, 2005.
    • French, Steven, and Décio Krause.  Identity in Physics: a Historical, Philosophical, and Formal Analysis.  Oxford: OUP, 2006.
    • Gracia, Jorge J. E.  Metaphysics and its Task: the Search for the Categorial Foundation of Knowledge.  Albany: SUNY Press, 1999.
    • Hawthorne, John.  Metaphysical Essays.  Oxford: OUP, 2006
    • Hudson, Hud.  The Metaphysics of Hyperspace.  Oxford: OUP, 2005.
    • Jackson, Frank.  From Metaphsics to Ethics: a Defence of Conceptual Metaphysics.  Oxford: OUP, 1998.
    • Lazerowitz, M.  The Structure of Metaphysics.  London: Routledge, Kegan and Paul, 1955.

    • Le Poidevin, Robin.  The Images of Time: an Essay on Temporal Representation.  Oxford: OUP, 2007.

    • Loux, Michael J., ed.  The Possible and the Actual: Readings in the Metaphysics of Modality.  Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1979.

    • Lowe, E. J.  The Four-Category Ontology: a Metaphysical Foundation for Natural Science.  Oxford: Clarendon, 2006.

    • Lowe, E. J.  The Possibility of Metaphysics: Substance, Identity, and Time.  Oxford: OUP, 1998.

    • Lowe, E. J.  Kinds of Being: a Study of Individuation, Identity and the Logic of Sortal Terms.  Oxford: Blackwell, 1989.

    • Maudlin, Tim.  The Metaphysics within Physics.  Oxford: OUP, 2007.

    • Meixner, Uwe.  The Theory of Ontic Modalities.  Frankfurt: Ontos, 2006.

    • Priest, Graham.  Towards Non-Being: the Logic and Metaphysics of Intentionality.  Oxford: OUP, 2005.

    • Robinson, R. J.  The History of Human Reason.  Amherst, NY: Prometheus, 2004.

    • Rosenberg, Gregg.  A Place for Consciousness: Probing the Deep Structure of the Natural World.  Oxford: OUP, 2004.

    • Sattig, Thomas.  The Language and Reality of Time.  Oxford: OUP, 2006.

    • Sider, Ted.  Four-Dimensionalism: an Ontology of Persistence and Time.  Oxford: Clarendon, 2001.

    • Skrbina, David.  Panpsychism in the West.  Cambridge: MIT Press, 2005.

    • Thomasson, Amie L.  Ordinary Objects.  Oxford: OUP, 2007.

  • Theories of Being:

    • Abbott, Andrew.  Time Matters: on Theory and Method.  Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2001.

    • Aveni, Anthony F.  Empires of Time: Calendars, Clocks, and Cultures.  Boulder: U of Colorado P, 2002.

    • Dohrn-van Rossum, Gerhard. 

      • History of the Hour: Clocks and Modern Temporal Orders.  Trans. Thomas Dunlap.  Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1998.

    • Emmet, Dorothy.  The Nature of Metaphysical Thinking.  London: , 1945.

    • Fabian, Johannes.  Time and the Other: How Anthropology Makes its Object. 

    • Frayn, Michael.  The Human Touch: Our Part in the Creation of a Universe.  Metropolitan, 2007.

    • Ginzburg, Carlo.  Il Formaggio e i vermi.  Giulio Einaudi, 1976.

      • The Cheese and the Worms: the Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller.  Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1980.  Rpt. 1992.

    • Grant, Iain Hamilton.  On an Artificial Earth: Philosophies of Nature after Schelling.  London: Continuum, 2006.
    • Grosz, Elizabeth.  Time Travels: Feminism, Nature, Power.  Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 2005.
    • Grosz, Elizabeth.  The Nick of Time: Politics, Evolution and the Untimely.  Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 2004.

    • Hadot, Pierre.  The Veil of Isis: an Essay on the History of the Idea of Nature.  Trans. Michael Chase.  Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2006.

    • Koselleck, Reinhart.  Futures Past: on the Semantics of Historical Time.  Trans. Keith Tribe.  Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1985.  Rpt. New York: Columbia UP, 2004.

    • Landes, David S.  Revolution in Time: Clocks and the Making of the Modern World.  Cambridge: Belknap, 1989.

    • Levine, Robert B.  A Geography of Time: the Temporal Misadventures of a Social Psychologist, or How Every Culture Keeps Time Just a Little Bit Differently.  New York: Basic, 1998.

    • Lippincot, Kristen.  The Story of Time.  Merrell, 1999.

    • Matar, Anat.  Modernism and the Language of Philosophy.  London: Routledge, 2006.

    • Meyer, Michel.  Pour une histoire de l'ontologie.  Paris: PUF, 1999.

    • Meyer, Michel.  From Metaphysics to Rhetoric.  Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1989.

    • Nicholson, Graeme.  Illustrations of Being: Drawing upon Heidegger and upon Metaphysics.  Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities, 1992.

    • Perkins, Maureen.  The Reform of Time: Magic and Modernity.  London: Pluto, 2001.

    • Rosen, Stanley.  The Elusiveness of the Ordinary.  New Haven: Yale UP, 2002.

    • Rosen, Stanley.  Metaphysics in Ordinary Language.  New Haven: Yale UP, 1999.

    • Rosen, Stanley.  The Question of Being: a Reversal of Heidegger.  New Haven: Yale UP, 1993.

    • Rosen, Stanley.  The Limits of Analysis.  New York: Basic Books, 1980.

    • Rosen, Stanley.  Nihilism: a Philosophical Essay.  New Haven: Yale UP, 1969.

    • Stallknecht, Newton R., and Robert S. Brumbaugh.  The Compass of Philosophy.  New York: , 1945.

    • Stenner, P. and C. Eccleston.  "On the Textuality of Being: Towards an Invigorated Social Constructionism."  Theory and Psychology 4.1 (1994): 85-103.

    • Wood, David.  Time After Time.  Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2007.

    • Wood, David.  The Deconstruction of Time.  Atlantic Highlands: Humanities, 1988.  Rpt. Evanston, IL: Northwestern UP, 2001.

    • Zerubavel, Eviatar.  The Seven Day Circle: the History and Meaning of the Week.  New York: Free Press, 1985.

    • Zerubavel, Eviatar.  Hidden Rhythms: Schedules and Calendars in Social Life.  Berkeley: U of California P, 1981.

    • Zerubavel, Eviatar.  Patterns of Time in Hospital Life: a Sociological Perspective.  Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1979.

On-Line:

SOURCES: SECONDARY

Off-Line:

• Anthologies:
  • Metaphysics:
    • Bottani, Andrea, and Richard Davies, eds.  Modes of Existence: Papers in Ontology and Philosophical Logic.  Frankfurt: Ontos, 2006.
    • Burkhardt, Hans, and Barry Smith, eds.  Handbook of Metaphysics and Ontology.  Munich: Philosophia, 1991.
    • Gasser, Georg, ed.  How Successful Is Naturalism?.  Frankfurt: Ontos, 2007.
    • Kim, Jaegwon and Sosa Ernest, eds.  Companion to Metaphysics.  Cambridge: Blackwell, 1995.
    • Kalderon, Mark Eli, ed.  Fictionalism in Metaphysics.  Oxford: OUP, 2005.
    • Kanzian, Christian, ed.  Persistence.  Frankfurt: Ontos, 2008.
    • Loux, Michael J., and Dean W. Zimmerman, eds.  Oxford Handbook of Metaphysics.  Oxford: OUP, 2003.
    • MacBride, Fraser, ed.  Identity and Modality.  Oxford: OUP, 2006.
    • Rayo, Agustín, and Gabriel Uzquiano, eds.  Absolute Generality.  Oxford: OUP, 2006.
  • Theories of Being:
• Selected Individual Works:
  • Metaphysics:
    • Benardete, José A.  Metaphysics: the Logical Approach.  Oxford: OUP, 1989.
    • Bruce, Aune.  Metaphysics: the Elements.  Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1985.
    • Crane, Tim, and David Wiggins.  "Metaphysics."  Philosophy: a Guide Through the Subject.  Ed. A. C. Grayling.  Oxford: OUP, 1995. 189-249.
    • Gale, Richard M.  The Blackwell Guide to Metaphysics.  Oxford: Blackwell, 2002.
    • Hamlyn, D. W.  Metaphysics.  Cambridge: CUP, 1984.
    • Harris, Errol Eustace.  The Foundations of Metaphysics in Science.  New York: Humanities Press, 1965.  Rpt. 1993.
    • Hawley, John F., and Katerine A. Holcomb.  Foundations of Modern Cosmology.  Oxford: OUP, 1998.
    • Kim, Jaegwon.  A Companion to Metaphysics.  Oxford: Blackwell, 1996.
    • Körner, Stephan.  Metaphysics: its Structure and Function.  Cambridge: CUP, 1984.
    • Loux, Michael J.  Metaphysics: a Contemporary Introduction.  London: Routledge, 1998.
    • Lowe, E. J.  A Survey of Metaphysics.  Oxford: OUP, 2002.
    • Lowe, E. J.  The Possibility of Metaphysics: Substance, Identity and Time.  Oxford: OUP, 1998.
    • Rescher, Nicholas.  Process Metaphysics: an Introduction to Process Philosophy.  Albany: SUNY Press, 1996.
    • Smith, Barry.  "Ontology."  Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Computing and Information.  Oxford: Blackwell, 2003.  155-166
    • Taylor, Richard.  Metaphysics.  Prentice-Hall, .
  • Theories of Being:

On-Line:

• General:

  • Anderson, Alan.  Metaphysics: Multiple Meanings

  • University of California, San Diego: Backs to the Future: a Different Conception of Time

  • Catholic Encyclopedia: Metaphysics

• Metaphysics:

  • Craig, Edward.  Metaphysics (Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy Online)

  • Corazzon, Raul:

    • The Concept of Being in Philosophy and Linguistics

    • Existence: its Origins and Definitions

    • Substance

    • Truth

    • Universals:

      • Historical Perspective

      • Theoretical Perspective

    • "What is Ontology?  Definitions by Leading Philosophers":

      • Part 1

      • Part 2

  • Laycock, Henry: Object (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

  • Le Poidevin, Robin: The Experience and Perception of Time (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

  • McLeod, Mary C., and Eric M. Rubinstein: Universals (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

  • Miller, Barry: Existence (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

  • Newall, Paul:

    • Metaphysics 1

    • Metaphysics 2

  • Noonan, Harold: Identity (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

  • Overbye, Dennis: Laws of Nature, Source Unknown New York Times December 18, 2007

  • Petrement, Simone: