Contemporary Metaphysics: An Introduction

This intelligible yet challenging survey aims to introduce the student to central metaphysical issues while at the same time pursuing a coherent metaphysical view. The range of topics discussed is refreshingly different from the average metaphysics introduction thereby making it ideal for upper division undergraduates and beginning graduate students.

The author sets the scene by taking the student through general theoretical matters, including discussions on the nature of metaphysics and the nature of concepts, and offering a general conception of the nature of philosophy. He then proceeds to address a diversity of metaphysical issues, ranging from colour to modality to the nature of physical objects through to the question of truth in fiction. Exercises designed to stimulate further thinking and to indicate further dimensions of the topics are posed throughout the book to encourage a more advanced study of the discipline.

Preface.

1. Metaphysics.

2. Numbers.

3. Platonism.

4. Identity.

5. Is Truth Relative?.

6. Colour.

7. Modality.

8. Things and Their Parts.

9. Determinism, Freedom and Fatalism.

10. Is There Truth in Fiction?.

11. Cosmology.

References.

Index.

Michael Jubien is Professor of Philosophy at the University of California at Davis. He has published widely in the field of metaphysics, and is the author of Ontology, Modality and the Fallacy of Reference (1993).

"The text includes short exercises printed in bold every few pages. These are excellent devices for testing a student′s grasp of the material, and for sparking fresh thoughts about it." Chris Daly, Mind