The Routledge handbook of metametaphysics / edited by Ricki Bliss and J.T.M. Miller.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Bliss, Ricki, editor.

Miller, J. T. M. (James T. M.), editor.

Series:

Routledge handbooks in philosophy.

Routledge handbooks in philosophy

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Metaphysics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiii, 499 pages).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

London ; New York, New York : Routledge, [2021]

Summary:

"Philosophical questions surrounding the nature and methodology of philosophical inquiry have exploded in recent years, no more so than the area of metaphysics. The Routledge Handbook of Metametaphysics is an outstanding reference source to this growing subject. It comprises thirty-eight chapters written by a team of leading international contributors, and is organised into five clear parts: The History of Metametaphysics, Neo-Quineanism (and its objectors), Alternative Conceptions of Metaphysics The Epistemology of Metaphysics, Science and Metaphysics. Essential reading for students and researchers in metaphysics, philosophical methodology and ontology, The Routledge Handbook of Metametaphysics will also be of interest to those in closely related subjects such as philosophy of language, logic and philosophy of science"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Cover

Half Title

Series Page

Title Page

Copyright Page

Table of Contents

Notes on Contributors

Introduction What is metametaphysics?

The structure of this volume

Part I: The history of metametaphysics

Part II: Neo-Quineanism (and its objectors)

Part III: Alternative conceptions of metaphysics

Part IV: The epistemology of metaphysics

Part V: Science and metaphysics

Editors' acknowledgements

Part I

The history of metametaphysics

1 Metametaphysics in Plato and Aristotle

Introduction

Plato takes some time out to reflect on the meaning of the expression "to be"

Aristotle takes some time out to consider whether the multivocity of the expression "to be" is compatible with an enquiry into being

Notes

References

2 Kantian meta-ontology

1 Meta-ontology

2 The nature of existence

3 The problem of modal representation

4 Cognising the real modalities

5 Conclusion

3 Rudolf Carnap: pragmatist and expressivist about ontology

The data

The theory

Problems and complexities

Conclusion

4 Quine's metametaphysics

1 The view from a distance

2 'On what there is'

3 'Two dogmas of empiricism'

4 Word &amp

Object

5 'Ontological relativity'

5 Metaphysical realism and anti-realism

What is metaphysical realism?

Relationship to semantics and epistemology

Arguments against metaphysical realism

Metaphysical anti-realism

6 From modal to post-modal metaphysics

The modal revolution

Problems with modal metaphysics

Onwards to the post-modal future

Part II

Neo-Quineanism (and its objectors)

7 Ontological commitment and quantifiers

1 Quine and his successors.

2 Carnap and his successors

3 Meinong and his successors

4 Closing remarks

8 Quantifier variance

1 The claim

2 Arguments for quantifier variance

3 Challenges for quantifier pluralism

4 Challenges for quantifier egalitarianism

5 Quantifier variance and common-sense ontology

6 Conclusion

9 Verbal disputes and metaphysics

1 Introduction

2 Verbal disputes

3 Accounts of mere verbalness

4 The Hirsch/Sider debate

5 Merely verbal deflationism

6 Triviality and semantic under-specification

7 Conclusion

10 Absolute generality

1 The role of absolutism

2 Anti-absolutism

3 Recarving Anti-Absolutism

4 Strong Absolutism

5 Quantifying over everything

11 The metametaphysics of neo-Fregeanism

2 Background

3 Platonism and logicism

4 The neo-Fregean as quietist

5 Easy existence

6 Early Wright and Hale

7 Content recarving and implicit definition

8 The metaontology of abstraction

9 Concluding remarks

12 Easy ontology

1 A brief history of easy arguments

2 The importance of easy ontology

3 Objections to easy arguments

4 Conclusion

13 Defending the importance of ordinary existence questions and debates

I Ordinary questions about existence

II Conditions for cogent/serious ontological questioning and debates

III How Carnap and application-conditions neoCarnapians eliminate ontological debate

IV Quine's attempted resurrection of ontological debate

V Equivocality ontology

VI Coupling univocality with neutrality

VII Concluding homily about linguistic science and metametaphysics

14 Ontological pluralism

Elite quantifiers

Can pluralism be defined?.

Pluralism and generic quantification

Notational variance

Part III

Alternative conceptions of metaphysics

15 Grounding

1 Substantive questions

2 Theoretical economy

3 Location problems

16 Fundamentality

The view

What work the fundamental?

Open issues

17 Metaphysical explanation

1 'Explanation'

2 Why believe in metaphysical explanation?

3 Grounding and metaphysical explanation

4 Models of metaphysical explanation

5 Realism and anti-realism

6 Concluding remarks

18 Truthmaking and metametaphysics

1 Ontological commitment: Quine versus truthmaking

2 Truthmaking, easy ontology, and (very) hard ontology

19 Essence

1 Introducing essence

2 Modalism about essence

3 Beyond modalism

4 Extending essence

5 Essence and identity

20 Fictionalist strategies in metaphysics

2 The analogy with fiction

3 Fictionalist paraphrases

4 Objections to fictionalism

5 The benefits of fictionalism

21 Global expressivism

1 Globalizing expressivism

2 Global-expressivism I

3 Global-expressivism II (inferentialism)

4 Expressivism about meaning

5 Metasemantics meets metametaphysics

22 Hylomorphic unity

How many unities?

Hylomorphic divisions

The potentiality of matter

Matter:form = potentiality:actuality

The unity of a definition: double hylomorphism

Aristotle's two accounts of hylomorphic unity

My account of the unity of substance

23 Feminist metametaphysics

The importance of the social

Metaphysical concepts and political power

24 Social ontology.

I Eliminativism and reduction

II Fundamentality and mind-dependence

III Naturalness

IV Conclusion

Further reading

25 Natural language ontology

1 The role of ontology in the semantics of natural language

2 How can natural language ontology be situated within metaphysics?

3 Recognizing natural language ontology as a discipline of its own

4 What sorts of linguistic data reflect the ontology of natural language and how is the ontology of natural language to be characterized?

5 Universals of natural language ontology

6 The syntactic core-periphery distinction

7 The ontology of natural language and other ontologies

8 Conclusion

Acknowledgments

26 Phenomenology as metaphysics

The metaphysical neutrality of phenomenology

The metaphysical implications of phenomenology

Phenomenology and idealism

Part IV

The epistemology of metaphysics

27 A priori or a posteriori?

1 The role of the distinction in metametaphysics1

2 How can we distinguish between a priori and a posteriori knowledge?

3 Bootstrapping and cyclical processing

4 Connection to modal epistemology

5 Connection to science and naturalistic metaphysics

28 The epistemology of modality

1 Background

2 The epistemic challenge in modality

3 Uniformity vs non-uniformity

4 The structure of modal knowledge

5 Final remarks and further reading

29 Ideology and ontology

Ideological commitments

Lewis' contribution

Quine's contribution

Sider's contribution

Open questions about ideology

30 Primitives

Theories and their primitives - some examples

"Problem-solvers"

The functional view

On explanatory power

Note.

References

31 Conceptual analysis in metaphysics

2 What is metaphysics?

3 What is conceptual analysis?

4 How much does conceptual analysis matter to metaphysics?

5 Conceptual analysis and the discovery of properties

6 The bearing of conceptual claims and analyses on issues in metaphysics: three case studies

7 The inevitability of conceptual analysis

8 Conceptual analysis and rewriting sentences

9 A quick summary

32 Contingentism in metaphysics

2 Entity contingentism

3 Metaphysical contingentism

33 Is metaphysics special?

What is the question?

Metaphysics

Is metaphysics especially glorious?

Is metaphysics especially problematic?

Part V

Science and metaphysics

34 Science-guided metaphysics

The norms of 'science-guided metaphysics'

The conceptual problem

The practice problem

The progress problem

35 Methods in science and metaphysics

1 What are science and metaphysics?

2 What are the methodologies of science and metaphysics?

3 The relationship between science and metaphysics

36 Thing and non-thing ontologies

Discrete objects: from Aristotelian metaphysics to ontic structural realism

Discrete objects: events instead of substances

Continuous stuff

37 Moderately naturalistic metaphysics

1 Kinds of metaphysics, and the naturalistic option

2 Radically naturalistic metaphysics

3 Moderately naturalistic metaphysics

4 Further remarks

Conclusions

38 Metaphysics as the 'science of the possible'

1 Stating the view

2 Some further details.

3 Floating free from science?.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-315-11259-0

1-351-62249-8

9781315112596

OCLC:

1141028985