Metametaphysics: New Essays on the Foundations of OntologyDavid Chalmers, David Manley, Ryan Wasserman Metaphysics asks questions about existence: for example, do numbers really exist? Metametaphysics asksquestions about metaphysics: for example, do its questions have determinate answers? If so, are these answers deep and important, or are they merely a matter of how we use words? What is the proper methodology for their resolution? These questions have received a heightened degree of attention lately with new varieties of ontological deflationism and pluralism challenging the kind of realism that has become orthodoxy in contemporary analytic metaphysics.This volume concerns the status and ambitions of metaphysics as a discipline. It brings together many of the central figures in the debate with their most recent work on the semantics, epistemology, and methodology of metaphysics. |
Contents
A Guided Tour of Metametaphysics | 1 |
2 Composition Colocation and Metaontology | 38 |
3 Ontological AntiRealism | 77 |
4 Carnap and Ontological Pluralism | 130 |
5 The Question of Ontology | 157 |
6 The Metaontology of Abstraction | 178 |
7 Superficialism in Ontology | 213 |
8 Ontology and Alternative Languages | 231 |
The Ghost Who Walks? | 320 |
12 On What Grounds What | 347 |
13 Ontological Realism | 384 |
the QuineCarnap Dispute | 424 |
15 Answerable and Unanswerable Questions | 444 |
16 Being Existence and Ontological Commitment | 472 |
17 Must ExistenceQuestions have Answers? | 507 |
| 527 | |
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Common terms and phrases
abstract objects analytic answer anti-realism anti-realist application conditions apply argue argument candidate meanings Carnap composition concept context correct debate deflationist determinate disagreement discussion distinction domain Eklund Empiricism endurantism English entities example existence questions existential quantifier expressions fact false framework fundamental furnishing function grounding heavyweight Heidegger Hirsch Hofweber hold Hume's Principle interpretation intuitions Inwagen issue kind language Lewis lightweight linguistic logical mathematics mereological sums metaphysicians metaphysics natural nihilist nominalist notion numbers exist ontological anti-realism ontological commitment ontological disputes ontological existence assertions ontological pluralism ontological questions ontological realism ontologists ordinary existence assertions Oxford University Press P-English particles perdurantism perdurantists Philosophical plural quantification pluralist possible predicate prime numbers principle problem properties propositions quantifier variance Quine Quine's Quinean reference relations relevant restricted quantifiers semantic sense sentence Sider singular terms sort sortal speakers statements structure substantive supervenience supposed theory thesis things trivial true truth truth-conditions truth-value unrestricted verbal disputes