METAPHYSICS

I use the term Metaphysics (from the Greek μετά [meta], 'after,' and φύσις [phúsis], 'nature') to refer to the use of logical and scientific methods to explain the fundamental nature of being, existence or reality. 

Stanford University's Metaphysics Research Lab offers a useful account of both the bond and the difference between Physics and Metaphysics:

"whereas physics is the attempt to discover the laws that govern fundamental concrete objects, metaphysics is the attempt to discover the laws that systematize the fundamental abstract objects presupposed by physical science, such as natural numbers, real numbers, functions, sets and properties, physically possible objects and events, to name just a few." 

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SUB-PAGES

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)

  • 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)

• 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:

    • Marxism:

    • Mythology:

    • Neo-Hegelian Idealism:

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

    • Psychoanalysis:

    • (Post-)Structuralisms:

      • Deconstruction:

      • Deleuzean Theory:

      • Dialogism:

      • Foucauldian Theory:

      • Semiotics / Semiology / Structuralism:

      • Structuralist Marxism:

      • Structuralist Psychoanalysis:

  • Pragmatism:

    • Charles Sanders Peirce (1839 - 1914)
    • 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)

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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:

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

• 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

• 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

• Metaphysical Review

• Oxford Studies in Metaphysics

• Quaestio: Yearbook of the History of Metaphysics

SOURCES: PRIMARY

Off-Line:

• Anthologies:
  • 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.
  • 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.
• Selected Individual Works:

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

  • 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.
  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

On-Line:

SOURCES: SECONDARY

Off-Line:

• Anthologies:
  • 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.
  • Kim, Jaegwon and Sosa Ernest, eds.  Companion to Metaphysics.  Cambridge: Blackwell, 1995.
  • Kalderon, Mark Eli, ed.  Fictionalism in Metaphysics.  Oxford: OUP, 2005.
  • Loux, Michael J., and Dean W. Zimmerman, eds.  Oxford Handbook of Metaphysics.  Oxford: OUP, 2003.
  • MacBride, Fraser, ed.  Identity and Modality.  Oxford: OUP, 2006.
• Selected Individual Works:
  • 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, .

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

• Analytic Philosophy:

  • 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)

  • Petrement, Simone: Dualism in Philosophy and Religion (Dictionary of the History of Ideas)

  • Robinson, Howard: Substance (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

  • Robinson, R. J.: History of Human Reason

  • Schaffer, Jonathan: The Metaphysics of Causation (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

  • Smith, Barry: Ontology Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Computing and Information.  Oxford: Blackwell, 2003.  155-166

  • Stoljar, Daniel: Physicalism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

  • Swoyer, Chris: Properties (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

  • Weinberg, Julius: Causation (Dictionary of the History of Ideas)

  • Wikipedia Encyclopedia:

    • Cosmology

    • Ontology:

      • Being

      • Causality

      • Essentialism

      • Existence

      • Idealism

      • Materialism (Physicalism)

      • Metaphysics

      • Object (Philosophy)

      • Particular

      • Presence

      • Process

      • Property (Philosophy)

      • Reality

      • Space

      • Structure

      • Substance

      • Time

      • Universal (Metaphysics)

UNIVERSITY PROGRAMMES / RESEARCH CENTRES / RESEARCH PROJECTS

Australasia:

• University of Sydney: Centre for Time

Europe:

• Germany:

  • Universitat des Saarlandes:

    • European Centre for Ontological Research

    • Institute for Formal Ontology and Medical Information Science (IFOMIS)

• UK:

  • University of Birmingham: Metaphysics of Science Research Project

  • University of Leeds: Centre for Metaphysics and Mind

USA:

• National Center for Ontological Research

• SUNY, Buffalo: Ontology Site

• Stanford University: Center for the Study of Language and Information: Metaphysics Research Lab

WWW GATEWAYS

• Corazzon, Raul: Ontology: a Resource Guide for Philosophers

• Heyloghen, F., C. Joslyn and V. Turchin: Metaphysics

• Janz, Bruce: Metaphysics Resource Page

• Smith, Barry: Buffalo Ontology Site: Analytic Metaphysics Portal

PHILWEB was last updated: August 28, 2007

PHILWEB is edited by Richard L. W. Clarke

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