Metaphysics

Robert C. Koons is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of Paradoxes of Belief and Strategic Rationality (2009), Realism Regained (2000), and co-editor of The Waning of Materialism (2010).Timothy Pickavance is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Talbot Department of Philosophy at Biola University, La Mirada, California. He has published a number of papers on topics relating to metaphysics and epistemology.

"Koons and Pickavance disclose uncommon and provocative insights regarding the role of Hirschian Exotic Objects in the perdurantism debate, and Powerist objections to the possibility of time travel, without swamping the reader in backstory .... In conclusion, Metaphysics: The Fundamentals provides a compendium of sources and tricky examples for any researcher seeking familiarization with a range of debates."—Nicholas Danne (Metaphysica 2017; 18(1): 151-154)

• Acknowledgments ix 1 What Is Metaphysics? 11.1 The Subject of Metaphysics 11.2 The Methods of Metaphysics 21.3 The Waxing and Waning of Metaphysics 31.4 Modern Challenges to Metaphysics 41.5 The Renaissance of Metaphysics in the Later “Analytic” Era 61.6 Metaphysics as First Philosophy 81.7 Overview of the Book 92 Truthmakers 152.1 Propositions 172.2 Classical Truthmaker Theory 202.3 Deflationism 342.4 Truth Supervenes on Being 362.5 Conclusion 383 Causation and Powers 403.1 Do Causes Exist? 413.2 Causal Dispositions and Conditionals 453.3 Four Metaphysical Theories 473.4 Neo-Humeism 533.5 Powerism 633.6 Conclusion 744 Properties 764.1 The Theoretical Role of Properties 774.2 Realism 794.3 Reductive Nominalism 884.4 Trope Theory 965 Particulars 1025.1 Facts 1025.2 Substances 1045.3 Conclusion 1246 Composition 1266.1 The Special Composition Question 1276.2 Ontological Free Lunch? 1316.3 Atomism and Monism 1386.4 Emergence and Compositional Pluralism 1446.5 Possible Evidence for Compositional Emergence 1456.6 Conclusion 1527 Modality 1547.1 Possible Worlds: Concretism versus Abstractionism 1577.2 Modality De Re: Transworld Identity versus Counterpart Theory 1758 The Passage of Time 1828.1 The A Theory and the B Theory 1828.2 Varieties of A Theories 1858.3 Arguments for the B Theory 1888.4 Arguments for the A Theory 1928.5 Conclusion 1989 Continuity and Persistence 1999.1 Discrete and Continuous Causation 2009.2 Instants versus Intervals: Which Are Fundamental? 2029.3 Possible and Impossible Super-Tasks 2069.4 Persistence: Fundamental or Non-Fundamental, Supervenient or Anti-Supervenient? 2119.5 The Persistence of Simple Things: The Problem of Intrinsic Motion 2159.6 The Persistence of Composite Things: Paradoxes of Intransitivity 2179.7 Extreme Perdurantism: Who Needs Persistence? 2249.8 Conclusion: Two Metaphysical Packages 22710 Concluding Unmetaphysical Postscript 23010.1 Metaphysical Truth: Anti-Realism 23110.2 Metaphysical Language: Nonsense and Verbal Disagreement 23410.3 Metaphysical Skepticism 23810.4 Metaphysical Fictions 24010.5 Conclusion: The Inevitability of Metaphysics 241References 242Index 250