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Metaphysics >> Content Detail



Study Materials



Readings

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Text


There is one book for this course - Amazon logo Kim, Jaegwon, and Ernest Sosa, eds. Metaphysics: An Anthology. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1999. ISBN: 063120279X.



Reading Questions


Prof. Yablo provided the following reading questions for selected lectures:

Lecture 3: "RQ1: Universals." (PDF)
Lecture 7: "RQ2: Existence." (PDF)
Lecture 12: "RQ3: Necessity." (PDF)
Lecture 17: "RQ4: Causation." (PDF)
Lecture 23: "RQ5: Mind." (PDF)



Readings by Session


LEC #TOPICSREADINGS
1What and why is a metaphysician?
2Things and PropertiesAmazon logo Kim, Jaegwon, and Ernest Sosa, eds. "Intro to 'Universals, properties, kinds.'" In Metaphysics: An Anthology. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1999, p. 197. ISBN: 063120279X.
3Properties = Universals

Amazon logo Armstrong. "Universals as attributes." In Metaphysics: An Anthology. Edited by Jaegwon Kim, and Ernest Sosa. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1999, pp. 198-208. ISBN: 063120279X.

4Properties = (Special) ParticularsAmazon logo Lewis. "New work for a theory of universals." In Metaphysics: An Anthology. Edited by Jaegwon Kim, and Ernest Sosa. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1999, pp. 209-215. ISBN: 063120279X.
5Properties at WorkAmazon logo Lewis. "New work." In Metaphysics: An Anthology. Edited by Jaegwon Kim, and Ernest Sosa. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1999, pp. 215-223. ISBN: 063120279X.
6Non-existenceAmazon logo Russell. "Existence and description." In Metaphysics: An Anthology. Edited by Jaegwon Kim, and Ernest Sosa. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1999, pp. 23-35. ISBN: 063120279X.

Amazon logo Parsons. "Referring to non-existent objects." In Metaphysics: An Anthology. Edited by Jaegwon Kim, and Ernest Sosa. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1999, pp. 36-44. ISBN: 063120279X.
7ExistenceAmazon logo Quine. "On what there is." In Metaphysics: An Anthology. Edited by Jaegwon Kim, and Ernest Sosa. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1999, pp. 4-12. ISBN: 063120279X.

Amazon logo Carnap. "Empiricism, semantics, and ontology." In Metaphysics: An Anthology. Edited by Jaegwon Kim, and Ernest Sosa. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1999, pp. 13-22. ISBN: 063120279X.
8As-if ExistenceAmazon logo Walton, Kendall. "Existence as metaphor." In Empty Names, Fiction and the Puzzles of Non-Existence. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications, 2000, pp. 69-94. ISBN: 1575862549.

Yablo, Stephen. "Does Ontology Rest on a Mistake?" Supplement to the Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 72, no. 1 (June 1998): 229-262.
9Identity of IndiscerniblesAmazon logo Black. "The identity of indiscernibles." In Metaphysics: An Anthology. Edited by Jaegwon Kim, and Ernest Sosa. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1999, pp. 66-71. ISBN: 063120279X.

Amazon logo Adams. "Primitive thisness and primitive identity." In Metaphysics: An Anthology. Edited by Jaegwon Kim, and Ernest Sosa. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1999, pp. 172-183. ISBN: 063120279X.
10Contingent IdentityAmazon logo Kripke. "Identity and necessity." In Metaphysics: An Anthology. Edited by Jaegwon Kim, and Ernest Sosa. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1999, pp. 72-84. ISBN: 063120279X.

Amazon logo Yablo. "Identity, essence, and indiscernibility." In Metaphysics: An Anthology. Edited by Jaegwon Kim, and Ernest Sosa. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1999, pp. 116-129. ISBN: 063120279X.
11Transworld IdentityAmazon logo Kripke. "Identity and necessity." In Metaphysics: An Anthology. Edited by Jaegwon Kim, and Ernest Sosa. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1999, pp. 77-80. ISBN: 063120279X.

Amazon logo Lewis. "Counterparts or double lives?" In Metaphysics: An Anthology. Edited by Jaegwon Kim, and Ernest Sosa. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1999, pp. 154-71. ISBN: 063120279X.
12Necessary and ContingentAmazon logo Kim, Jaegwon, and Ernest Sosa, eds. "Intro to 'Modalities and possible worlds.'" In Metaphysics: An Anthology. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1999, pp. 133-34. ISBN: 063120279X.

Amazon logo Plantinga. "Modalities." In Metaphysics: An Anthology. Edited by Jaegwon Kim, and Ernest Sosa. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1999, pp. 136-48. ISBN: 063120279X.
13De Re ModalityAmazon logo Kripke. "Identity and necessity." In Metaphysics: An Anthology. Edited by Jaegwon Kim, and Ernest Sosa. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1999, pp. 80-83. ISBN: 063120279X.
14Essence and AccidentFine, Kit. "Essence and Modality: The Second Philosophical Perspectives Lecture." Philosophical Perspectives 8, Logic and Language (1994): 1-16.

Amazon logo Fine, Kit. "Senses of Essence." In Modality, morality and belief. Essays in honor of Ruth Barcan Marcus. Edited by Sinnott- Armstrong Walter. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1994, pp. 53-73. ISBN: 0521440823.
15Possible WorldsRosen, Gideon. "Modal Ficitionalism." Mind 99, no. 395 (July 1990): 327-354.

Fine, Kit. "The Problem of Possibilia." (PDF)
16Causation as RegularityAmazon logo Mackie. "Causes and conditions." In Metaphysics: An Anthology. Edited by Jaegwon Kim, and Ernest Sosa. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1999, pp. 413-27. ISBN: 063120279X.

Amazon logo Davidson. "Causal relations." In Metaphysics: An Anthology. Edited by Jaegwon Kim, and Ernest Sosa. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1999, pp. 428-35. ISBN: 063120279X.
17Causation as DependenceAmazon logo Lewis. "Causation." In Metaphysics: An Anthology. Edited by Jaegwon Kim, and Ernest Sosa. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1999, pp. 436-43. ISBN: 063120279X.
18Causal NetworksHitchcock, Christopher. "The Intransitivity of Causation Revealed in Equations and Graphs." Journal of Philosophy 98 (2001): 273-299.
19Holding Fixed
20Sufficient ReasonHitchcock, Christopher. "Prevention, Preemption, and the Principle of Sufficient Reason." Faculty Working Paper, Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology.
21De Facto DependenceAmazon logo Yablo, Stephen. "Advertisement for a Sketch of an Outline of a Proto-Theory of Causation." In Causation and Counterfactuals. Edited by John Collins, Ned Hall, and L. A. Paul. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004, pp. 119-138. ISBN: 0262532565.
22Pains and BrainsAmazon logo Kripke. "Identity and necessity." In Metaphysics: An Anthology. Edited by Jaegwon Kim, and Ernest Sosa. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1999, pp. 83-86. ISBN: 063120279X.

Yablo, Stephen. "Textbook Kripkeanism & the Open Texture of Concepts." Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 81 (2000): 98-122.
23Multiple RealizationAmazon logo Fodor. "Special sciences." In Metaphysics: An Anthology. Edited by Jaegwon Kim, and Ernest Sosa. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1999, pp. 504-14. ISBN: 063120279X.

Amazon logo Kim. "Multiple realization & metaphysics of reduction." In Metaphysics: An Anthology. Edited by Jaegwon Kim, and Ernest Sosa. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1999, pp. 515-30. ISBN: 063120279X.
24Special Sciences

 

25Last Class and Course Summary

 








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