What are the basic building blocks of the world? This book presents a naturalistic theory saying that the universe and everything in it can be reduced to three fundamental entities: a field, a set of ...values that can be actualized at different places in the field, and an actualizer of the values. The theory is defended by using it to answer the main questions in metaphysics, such as: What is causality, existence, laws of nature, consciousness, thinking, free will, time, mathematical entities, ethical values, etc.? The theory is compared with the main alternatives and argued to solve problems better than the existing theories. Several new theories are suggested, such as how to understand mental causation, free will and the truth of ethics and mathematics.
This paper aims to better motivate the naturalization of metaphysics by identifying and criticizing a class of theories I call ’free range metaphysics’. I argue that free range metaphysics is ...epistemically inadequate because the constraints on its content—consistency, simplicity, intuitive plausibility, and explanatory power—are insufficiently robust and justificatory. However, since free range metaphysics yields clarity-conducive techniques, incubates science, and produces conceptual and formal tools useful for scientifically engaged philosophy, I do not recommend its discontinuation. I do recommend, however, ending the discipline’s bad faith. That is, I urge that free range metaphysics not be taken to have fully satisfactory epistemic credentials over and above its pragmatic ones.
The link between language and thought formed a major new exploration of twentieth-century philosophy. Languages nuance our ideas and perceptions. Though from various angles, Heidegger, Derrida, ...Wittgenstein forged new ways of understanding the relationship between our views of the external world and our culturally and linguistically pre-determined modes of expression. Another giant in this field of exploration is the Romanian philosopher Constantin Noica (1909–1987), who has so far remained generally unknown to the Western World because of the Iron Curtain. The Romanian Sentiment of Being (Sentimentul românesc al ființei), first published in Romanian in 1978, is a philosophical work at the intersection of metaphysics and philosophy of language. The title of this book may be deceptive. “Romanian” does not mean ethnically circumscribed; it does not limit ontology to nationality but rather reflects on how language can carry ontological thought. The Romanian Sentiment of Being invites the readers to meditate on the fundamental theme of being and how it is expressed in a culture in time. This being in time marks the tension between moment and eternity, captured in the fairytale ""Ageless Youth and Deathless Life"" (""Tinerețe fără batrânețe și viață fără de moarte""), which Noica interprets in detail. The translation of the story will be found in the appendix. Noica also analyzes one of the most famous poems in Romanian, Mihai Eminescu’s ""The Evening Star"" (""Luceafărul""), and readers will find its translation in the appendix.
With thoughtful and engaging prose, noted scholar Peter van Inwagen provides a comprehensive introduction to metaphysics in this essential text.
Metaphysics
covers the gamut of historical and ...contemporary arguments of metaphysics, engaging readers through three profound questions: What are the most general features of the world? Why is there a world? And, what is the place of human beings in the world?
The thoroughly revised fourth edition includes an updated and rewritten chapter on temporality and significant improvements to the clarity and accessibility of the language, making it an even more valuable text for undergraduate students.Metaphysicsremains the quintessential book in this field of study, and a fascinating book for a wide range of readers, from those new to the subject to the most sophisticated philosophers.
CATEGORIILE KANTIENE SI INTERPRETAREA LUI NOICA Diaconu, Mircea
Anuarul Institutului de Istorie "George Bariț" din Cluj-Napoca. Series Humanistica,
2015, Letnik:
XIII, Številka:
13
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Our study presents the ontological interpretation given by Constantin Noica to the table of categories in his main work „Becoming within Being”. The main stages of interpretation are being followed, ...while pointing out the lack of rigor in the Kantian critical discourse regarding certain matters. These matters are related to the category of limitation or the disjunctive judgment and the category of community. At the same time we will put forward some objections concerning Romanian philosopher’s interpretation showing that the problem of ontological interpretation of the categorical table remains open to newer, more determined and rigorous approaches.
This dissertation consists of three papers on the role of ground in the metaphysics of transcendental idealism. In the first two papers, I provide novel reconstructions of Kant’s two main arguments ...for transcendental idealism. I show that both arguments rely on assumptions about the metaphysics and epistemology of ground that were commonplace in Kant’s time. In the third paper, I provide a new interpretation of transcendental idealism, by drawing a conceptual distinction between two forms of intentionality: reference and truthmaking. I argue that this interpretation manages to avoid many of the traditional problems for traditional readings of Kant.
G.K. Chesterton once suggested that "There is something not only imaginative but intimately true about the idea of goblins being below the house and capable of besieging it from the cellars. When the ...evil things besieging us do appear, they do not appear outside but inside."1 This thesis intends to build on this very idea by drawing on Margaret Atwood's unfinished doctoral thesis, "English Metaphysical Romance," and examining George MacDonald's Phantastes, Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, and G. K. Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday as metaphysical romances. Though Atwood never fully defined what she meant by "metaphysical romance," I argue that it is any fantasy work that draws on the literary elements of dream-vision, hero's journey, and literary alchemy as a means to approach theological themes. Indeed, these three authors created various patterns of the fantastic as a means to reveal something much more spiritual than may be initially discerned. Ultimately, this thesis seeks to explore Phanastes, Alice in Wonderland, and The Man Who Was Thursday as the origin of fantasy by considering howworks of fantasy may embody theological significance as metaphysical romances.
This dissertation will explore the topic of disposition ascriptions. A disposition ascription is any statement that ascribes a disposition to an object. The statement ‘Glass is fragile’ is one ...example. A popular account – called the conditional account – attempts to understand these statements in terms of counterfactuals. Recently, however, philosophers have offered objections to the conditional account on the grounds that it succumbs to counterexamples or that it rests on an incorrect assumption. I attempt to defend the account against some of these objections by offering an alternative analysis that builds on a distinction between single-track and multi-track ascriptions. In chapter one, I defend the conditional account from the problem of antidotes. I argue that antidotes admit of two different interpretations, and only one of them threatens the conditional account. In chapter two, I describe some problems for the traditional approach to analyzing disposition ascriptions, and I use these problems to motivate looking for an alternative account. This account is the subject of chapter three, in which I present and defend my proposal. Finally, in chapter four, I explain why my alternative is preferrable to another account that was developed recently by Barbara Vetter.
This book covers the gamut of historical and contemporary arguments of metaphysics, engaging readers through three profound questions: what are the most general features of the world, why is there a ...world and what is the place of human beings in the world?.
