Leibniz, God and Necessity

Leibniz, God and Necessity PDF Author: Michael V. Griffin
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521117089
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
This book presents a necessitarian interpretation of Leibniz which grounds modal concepts in theology.

Leibniz, God and Necessity

Leibniz, God and Necessity PDF Author: Michael V. Griffin
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521117089
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
This book presents a necessitarian interpretation of Leibniz which grounds modal concepts in theology.

Naming and Necessity

Naming and Necessity PDF Author: Saul A. Kripke
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674598461
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
If there is such a thing as essential reading in metaphysics or in philosophy of language, this is it. Ever since the publication of its original version, Naming and Necessity has had great and increasing influence. It redirected philosophical attention to neglected questions of natural and metaphysical necessity and to the connections between these and theories of reference, in particular of naming, and of identity. From a critique of the dominant tendency to assimilate names to descriptions and more generally to treat their reference as a function of their Fregean sense, surprisingly deep and widespread consequences may be drawn. The largely discredited distinction between accidental and essential properties, both of individual things (including people) and of kinds of things, is revived. So is a consequent view of science as what seeks out the essences of natural kinds. Traditional objections to such views are dealt with by sharpening distinctions between epistemic and metaphysical necessity; in particular by the startling admission of necessary a posteriori truths. From these, in particular from identity statements using rigid designators whether of things or of kinds, further remarkable consequences are drawn for the natures of things, of people, and of kinds; strong objections follow, for example to identity versions of materialism as a theory of the mind. This seminal work, to which today's thriving essentialist metaphysics largely owes its impetus, is here published with a substantial new Preface by the author.

Necessary Beings

Necessary Beings PDF Author: Bob Hale
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199669570
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 309

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Book Description
Bob Hale presents a broadly Fregean approach to metaphysics, according to which ontology and modality are mutually dependent upon one another. He argues that facts about what kinds of things exist depend on facts about what is possible. Modal facts are fundamental, and have their basis in the essences of things—not in meanings or concepts.

Norms and Necessity

Norms and Necessity PDF Author: Amie L. Thomasson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019009821X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
Claims about what is metaphysically necessary or possible have long played a central role in metaphysics and other areas of philosophy. Such claims are traditionally thought of as aiming to describe a special kind of modal fact or property, or perhaps facts about other possible worlds. But that assumption leads to difficult ontological, epistemological, and methodological puzzles. Should we accept that there are modal facts or properties, or other possible worlds? If so, what could these things be? How could we come to know what the modal facts or properties are? How can we resolve philosophical debates about what is metaphysically necessary or possible? Norms and Necessity develops a new approach to understanding our claims about metaphysical possibility and necessity: Modal Normativism. The Normativist rejects the assumption that modal claims aim to describe modal features or possible worlds, arguing instead that they serve as useful ways of conveying, reasoning with, and renegotiating semantic rules and their consequences. By dropping the descriptivist assumption, the Normativist is able to unravel the notorious ontological problems of modality, and provide a clear and plausible story about how we can come to know what is metaphysically necessary or possible. Most importantly, this approach helps demystify philosophical methodology. It reveals that resolving metaphysical modal questions does not require a special form of philosophical insight or intuition. Instead, it requires nothing more mysterious than empirical knowledge, conceptual mastery, and an ability to explicitly convey and renegotiate semantic rules.

The Nature of Necessity

The Nature of Necessity PDF Author: Alvin Plantinga
Publisher: Clarendon Press
ISBN: 0191037176
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
This is a reissue of a book which is an exploration and defence of the notion of modality 'de re', the idea that objects have both essential and accidental properties. It is one of the first full-length studies of the modalities to emerge from the debate to which Saul Kripke, David Lewis, Ruth Marcus and others have contributed. The argument is developed by means of the notion of possible worlds, and ranges over key problems including the nature of essence, trans-world identity, negative existential propositions, and the existence of unactual objects in other possible worlds. In the final chapters Professor Plantinga applies his logical theories to the clarification of two problems in the philosophy of religion - the Problem of Evil and the Ontological Argument.

After Finitude

After Finitude PDF Author: Quentin Meillassoux
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 0826496741
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 157

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Book Description
After Finitude provides readings of the history of philosophy and sets out a critique of the unavowed fideism at the heart of post-Kantian philosophy. Author Quentin Meillassoux introduces a philosophical alternative to the forced choice between dogmatism and critique. After Finitude proposes a new alliance between philosophy and science and calls for an unequivocal halt to the creeping return of religiosity in contemporary philosophical discourse.

Modal Logic as Metaphysics

Modal Logic as Metaphysics PDF Author: Timothy Williamson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019955207X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 481

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Book Description
Timothy Williamson gives an original and provocative treatment of deep metaphysical questions about existence, contingency, and change, using the latest resources of quantified modal logic. Contrary to the widespread assumption that logic and metaphysics are disjoint, he argues that modal logic provides a structural core for metaphysics.

Modality

Modality PDF Author: Bob Hale
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191572292
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
The philosophy of modality investigates necessity and possibility, and related notions—are they objective features of mind-independent reality? If so, are they irreducible, or can modal facts be explained in other terms? This volume presents new work on modality by established leaders in the field and by up-and-coming philosophers. Between them, the papers address fundamental questions concerning realism and anti-realism about modality, the nature and basis of facts about what is possible and what is necessary, the nature of modal knowledge, modal logic and its relations to necessary existence and to counterfactual reasoning. The general introduction locates the individual contributions in the wider context of the contemporary discussion of the metaphysics and epistemology of modality.

Rationally Speaking

Rationally Speaking PDF Author: Massimo Pigliucci
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781689600729
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 251

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Book Description
A collection of essays by Professor Massimo Pigliucci (currently at Stony Brook University in new York), on topics ranging from science to philosophy, from politics to religion. Rationally Speaking originated in 2000 as a monthly online column, eventually to be syndicated on more than 50 web sites worldwide. It was the beginning of a regular online presence, which evolved in 2006 into the more agile and open-ended form of a blog (rationallyspeaking.org). Why would a professional scientist who spends most of his time working on fairly specific scientific puzzles concerning gene-environment interactions (what is often referred to as "nature-nurture" questions) spend a considerable amount of time and emotional energy writing electronic "messages in a bottle" to be entrusted to the capricious currents of the Internet?Because Pigliucci firmly believes that academics have a duty to society to be public intellectuals. Of course, the word "intellectual" has, at best, a dubious reputation in the United States (as opposed to Europe, where it is not uncommon to see philosophers, sociologists and scientists appearing on tv talk shows). Indeed, anti-intellectualism as a phenomenon characteristic of American society almost from its inception, has been the object of much study by sociologists who have identified its various components (from disdain for "theoretical" pursuits because they are not in line with the capitalist ethos to religious fundamentalist attacks on evolution). Nonetheless, and indeed precisely because of the widespread anti-intellectualism, the U.S. desperately needs intellectuals, from the academic world as much from outside of it (artists, journalists, authors, etc.).Democracy, Winston Churchill once said, is the worst form of government except for every other one. Plato wasn't a friend of democratic government, especially after he saw the Athenian democracy kill his mentor, Socrates. If we want to have a truly liberal democracy, and not the kind of mob rule that Plato disdained, we need educated people. Education, in turn, is not just an accumulation of factual knowledge, nor is it the acquisition of skills useful to the large corporations who now run the world. It is, at its essence, the ability to think critically about anything that is relevant to our lives. We hope, therefore, that you will enjoy these essays in the spirit they were written, to provide good food for thinking and further discussion.

Logical Modalities from Aristotle to Carnap

Logical Modalities from Aristotle to Carnap PDF Author: Adriane Rini
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107077885
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 365

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Book Description
Introduces readers to the history of necessity and possibility, two modal concepts which play a key role in philosophy.