Download or read book The Semantics and Metaphysics of Natural Kinds written by Helen Beebee and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-05-05 with total page 509 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Essentialism--roughly, the view that natural kinds have discrete essences, generating truths that are necessary but knowable only a posteriori--is an increasingly popular view in the metaphysics of science. At the same time, philosophers of language have been subjecting Kripke’s views about the existence and scope of the necessary a posteriori to rigorous analysis and criticism. Essentialists typically appeal to Kripkean semantics to motivate their radical extension of the realm of the necessary a posteriori; but they rarely attempt to provide any semantic arguments for this extension, or engage with the critical work being done by philosophers of language. This collection brings authors on both sides together in one volume, thus helping the reader to see the connections between views in philosophy of language on the one hand and the metaphysics of science on the other. The result is a book that will have a significant impact on the debate about essentialism, encouraging essentialists to engage with debates about the semantic presuppositions that underpin their position, and, encouraging philosophers of language to engage with the metaphysical presuppositions enshrined in Kripkean semantics.

Download or read book Carving Nature at Its Joints written by Joseph Keim Campbell and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2011-10-28 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reflections on the metaphysics and epistemology of classification from a distinguished group of philosophers. Contemporary discussions of the success of science often invoke an ancient metaphor from Plato's Phaedrus: successful theories should "carve nature at its joints." But is nature really "jointed"? Are there natural kinds of things around which our theories cut? The essays in this volume offer reflections by a distinguished group of philosophers on a series of intertwined issues in the metaphysics and epistemology of classification. The contributors consider such topics as the relevance of natural kinds in inductive inference; the role of natural kinds in natural laws; the nature of fundamental properties; the naturalness of boundaries; the metaphysics and epistemology of biological kinds; and the relevance of biological kinds to certain questions in ethics. Carving Nature at Its Joints offers both breadth and thematic unity, providing a sampling of state-of-the-art work in contemporary analytic philosophy that will be of interest to a wide audience of scholars and students concerned with classification.

Download or read book Meaning Diminished written by Kenneth A. Taylor and published by . This book was released on 2019-04-18 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Meaning Diminished examines the complex relationship between semantic analysis and metaphysical inquiry. Kenneth A. Taylor argues that we should expect linguistic and conceptual analysis of natural language to yield far less metaphysical insight into what there is - and the nature of whatthere is - than many philosophers have imagined. Taking a strong stand against the so-called linguistic turn in philosophy, Taylor contends that philosophers as diverse as Kant, with his Transcendental Idealism, Frege, with his aspirational Platonism, Carnap with his distinction between internal andexternal questions, and Strawson, with his descriptive metaphysics, have placed too much confidence in the ability of linguistic and conceptual analysis to achieve deep insight into matters of ultimate metaphysics. He urges philosophers who seek such insight to turn away from the interrogation oflanguage and concepts and back to the more direct interrogation of reality itself. In doing so, he maps out the way forward toward a metaphysically modest semantics, in which semantics carries less weighty metaphysical burdens, and toward a revisionary and naturalistic metaphysics, untethered to thea priori analysis of ordinary language.

Download or read book Metaphysics and Science written by Stephen Mumford and published by . This book was released on 2013-06-27 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection brings together the latest new work within an emerging philosophical discipline: the metaphysics of science. A new definition of this line of philosophical enquiry is developed, and leading academics offer original essays on four key topics at the heart of the subject—laws, causation, natural kinds, and emergence.

Download or read book Towards Non Being written by Graham Priest and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2005-05-19 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Towards Non-Being presents an account of the semantics of intentional language - verbs such as 'believes', 'fears', 'seeks', 'imagines'. Graham Priest's account tackles problems concerning intentional states which are often brushed under the carpet in discussions of intentionality, such as their failure to be closed under deducibility. Drawing on the work of the late Richard Routley (Sylvan), it proceeds in terms of objects that may be either existent or non-existent, atworlds that may be either possible or impossible. Since Russell, non-existent objects have had a bad press in Western philosophy; Priest mounts a full-scale defence. In the process, he offers an account of both fictional and mathematical objects as non-existent.The book will be of central interest to anyone who is concerned with intentionality in the philosophy of mind or philosophy of language, the metaphysics of existence and identity, the philosophy or fiction, the philosophy of mathematics, or cognitive representation in AI.

Download or read book Mere Possibilities written by Robert Stalnaker and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2012-01-08 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It seems reasonable to believe that there might have existed things other than those that in fact exist, or have existed. But how should we understand such claims? Standard semantic theories exploit the Leibnizian metaphor of a set of all possible worlds: a proposition might or must be true if it is true in some or all possible worlds. The actualist, who believes that nothing exists except what actually exists, prefers to talk of possible states of the world, or of ways that a world might be. But even the actualist still faces the problem of explaining what we are talking about when we talk about the domains of other possible worlds. In Mere Possibilities, Robert Stalnaker develops a framework for clarifying this problem, and explores a number of actualist strategies for solving it. Some philosophers have hypothesized a realm of individual essences that stand as proxies for all merely possible beings. Others have argued that we are committed to the necessary existence of everything that does or might exist. In contrast, Mere Possibilities shows how we can make sense of ordinary beliefs about what might and must exist without making counterintuitive metaphysical commitments. The book also sheds new light on the nature of metaphysical theorizing by exploring the interaction of semantic and metaphysical issues, the connections between different metaphysical issues, and the nature of ontological commitment.

Download or read book Natural Kinds written by Terence Edward Wilkerson and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What makes something the kind of thing it is? And do certain objects have a special status in the scheme of things? According to Aristotle, some things (and particularly plants and animals) are what they are in virtue of their intrinsic properties: in more modern terms, they are members of natural kinds and therefore have a special status. Furthermore, it is the job of the natural scientist to discover those intrinsic properties. In this work, the author defends a modern version of Aristotle's view. He carefully analyzes the notion of natural kind, and then uses it to attack a number of connected philosophical problems. He writes about the natural sciences, the social sciences, the nature of scientific laws, the semantics of general names, ontology and metaphysics, and the philosphy of biology.

Download or read book Between Logic and the World written by Bernhard Nickel and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In our everyday thought and talk, we put things into categories in order to generalize about them: 'Lions have manes', 'Ravens are black'. Bernhard Nickel presents a theory of generic sentences and the modes of thought they express, integrating compositional semantics with metaphysics to solve the problems of what they mean and how they work.

Download or read book The Metaphysics of Knowledge written by Keith Hossack and published by Oxford University Press on Demand. This book was released on 2007-09-20 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Keith Hossack presents an original approach to philosophy founded on the thesis that knowledge is an absolutely fundamental relation. He takes knowledge as the key to understanding a wide range of issues in metaphysics, philosophical logic, and philosophy of mind and language.

Download or read book Necessary Intentionality written by Ori Simchen and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2012-01-19 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is it possible for the name of a particular person not to refer to that person? Ori Simchen defends a negative answer to this question, and presents a new account of aboutness, or intentionality. He argues that intentional items—such as words, thoughts, photos—are about whatever they are about as a matter of necessity, rather than contingency.

Download or read book Natural Kinds and Conceptual Change written by Joseph LaPorte and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2003-12-08 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: According to the received tradition, the language used to to refer to natural kinds in scientific discourse remains stable even as theories about these kinds are refined. In this illuminating book, Joseph LaPorte argues that scientists do not discover that sentences about natural kinds, like 'Whales are mammals, not fish', are true rather than false. Instead, scientists find that these sentences were vague in the language of earlier speakers and they refine the meanings of the relevant natural-kind terms to make the sentences true. Hence, scientists change the meaning of these terms, This conclusions prompts LaPorte to examine the consequences of this change in meaning for the issue of incommensurability and for the progress of science. This book will appeal to students and professional in the philosophy of science, the philosophy of biology and the philosophy of language.

Download or read book Neo Davidsonian Metaphysics written by Samuel C Wheeler and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-09-11 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Much contemporary metaphysics, moved by an apparent necessity to take reality to consist of given beings and properties, presents us with what appear to be deep problems requiring radical changes in the common sense conception of persons and the world. Contemporary meta-ethics ignores questions about logical form and formulates questions in ways that make the possibility of correct value judgments mysterious. In this book, Wheeler argues that given a Davidsonian understanding of truth, predication, and interpretation, and given a relativised version of Aristotelian essentialism compatible with Davidson’s basic thinking, many metaphysical problems are not very deep. Likewise, many philosophers' claims that common sense needs to be modified are unfounded. He argues further that a proper consideration of questions of logical form clarifies and illuminates meta-ethical questions. Although the analyses and arguments he gives are often at odds with those at which Davidson arrived, they apply the central Davidsonian insights about semantics, understanding, and interpretation.

Download or read book Rigid Designation and Theoretical Identities written by Joseph LaPorte and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Joseph LaPorte offers an original account of the connections between the reference of words for properties and kinds, and theoretical identity statements. He argues that terms for properties, as well as for concrete objects, are rigid designators, and defends the Kripkean tradition of theoretical identities.

Download or read book The Four Category Ontology written by E. J. Lowe and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: E. J. Lowe sets out and defends his theory of what there is. His four-category ontology is a metaphysical system that recognizes two fundamental categorial distinctions which cut across each other to generate four fundamental ontological categories. The distinctions are between the particular and the universal and between the substantial and the non-substantial. The four categories thus generated are substantial particulars, non-substantial particulars, substantial universals andnon-substantial universals. Non-substantial universals include properties and relations, conceived as universals. Non-substantial particulars include property-instances and relation-instances, otherwise known as non-relational and relational tropes or modes. Substantial particulars include propertiedindividuals, the paradigm examples of which are persisting, concrete objects. Substantial universals are otherwise known as substantial kinds and include as paradigm examples natural kinds of persisting objects.This ontology has a lengthy pedigree, many commentators attributing it to Aristotle on the basis of certain passages in his apparently early work, the Categories. At various times during the history of Western philosophy, it has been revived or rediscovered, but it has never found universal favour, perhaps on account of its apparent lack of parsimony as well as its commitment to universals. In pursuit of ontological economy, metaphysicians have generally preferred to recognize fewerthan four fundamental ontological categories. However, Occam's razor stipulates only that we should not multiply entities beyond necessity; Lowe argues that the four-category ontology has an explanatory power unrivalled by more parsimonious systems, and that this counts decisively in its favour. He shows thatit provides a powerful explanatory framework for a unified account of causation, dispositions, natural laws, natural necessity and many other related matters, such as the semantics of counterfactual conditionals and the character of the truthmaking relation. As such, it constitutes a thoroughgoing metaphysical foundation for natural science.

Download or read book More Kinds of Being written by E. J. Lowe and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2015-02-23 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Taking into account significant developments in the metaphysical thinking of E. J. Lowe over the past 20 years, More Kinds of Being: A Further Study of Individuation, Identity, and the Logic of Sortal Terms presents a thorough reworking and expansion of the 1989 edition of Kinds of Being. Brings many of the original ideas and arguments put forth in Kinds of Being thoroughly up to date in light of new developments Features a thorough reworking and expansion of the earlier work, rather than just a new edition Reflects the author's conversion to what he calls 'the four-category ontology,' a metaphysical system that takes its inspiration from Aristotle Provides a unified discussion of individuation and identity that should prove to be essential reading for philosophers working in metaphysics.

Download or read book A Metaphysics for Scientific Realism written by Anjan Chakravartty and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2007-10-18 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scientific realism is the view that our best scientific theories give approximately true descriptions of both observable and unobservable aspects of a mind-independent world. Debates between realists and their critics are at the very heart of the philosophy of science. Anjan Chakravartty traces the contemporary evolution of realism by examining the most promising strategies adopted by its proponents in response to the forceful challenges of antirealist sceptics, resulting in a positive proposal for scientific realism today. He examines the core principles of the realist position, and sheds light on topics including the varieties of metaphysical commitment required, and the nature of the conflict between realism and its empiricist rivals. By illuminating the connections between realist interpretations of scientific knowledge and the metaphysical foundations supporting them, his book offers a compelling vision of how realism can provide an internally consistent and coherent account of scientific knowledge.

Download or read book Roads to Reference written by Mario Gómez-Torrente and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-11-28 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How is it that words come to stand for the things they stand for? Is the thing that a word stands for - its reference - fully identified or described by conventions known to the users of the word? Or is there a more roundabout relation between the reference of a word and the conventions that determine or fix it? Do words like 'water', 'three', and 'red' refer to appropriate things, just as the word 'Aristotle' refers to Aristotle? If so, which things are these, and how do they come to be referred to by those words? In Roads to Reference, Mario Gómez-Torrente provides novel answers to these and other questions that have been of traditional interest in the theory of reference. The book introduces a number of cases of apparent indeterminacy of reference for proper names, demonstratives, and natural kind terms, which suggest that reference-fixing conventions for them adopt the form of lists of merely sufficient conditions for reference and reference failure. He then provides arguments for a new anti-descriptivist picture of those kinds of words, according to which the reference-fixing conventions for them do not describe their reference. This book also defends realist and objectivist accounts of the reference of ordinary natural kind nouns, numerals, and adjectives for sensible qualities. According to these accounts these words refer, respectively, to 'ordinary kinds', cardinality properties, and properties of membership in intervals of sensible dimensions, and these things are fixed in subtle ways by associated reference-fixing conventions.