Metaphysics, v. 1: grounding and causation syllabus (original) (raw)

Where are You Going, Metaphysics, and How are You Getting There? - Grounding Theory as a Case Study

Quo Vadis, Metaphysics, ed. M. Szatkowski, De Gruyter, 2018

The viability of metaphysics as a field of knowledge has been challenged time and again. But in spite of the continuing tendency to dismiss metaphysics, there has been considerable progress in this field in the 20th- and 21st- centuries. One of the newest − though, in a sense, also oldest − frontiers of metaphysics is the grounding project. In this paper I raise a methodological challenge to the new grounding project and propose a constructive solution. Both the challenge and its solution apply to metaphysics in general, but grounding theory puts the challenge in an especially sharp focus. The solution consists of a new methodology, holistic grounding or holistic metaphysics. This methodology is modeled after a recent epistemic methodology, foundational holism, that enables us to pursue the foundational project of epistemology without being hampered by the problems associated with foundationalism.

Metaphysics: A Guided Tour for Beginners

Philosophy of Being, Cognition and Values, 2012

This book contains a concise introduction to one of the most fundamental branches of philosophy which deals with reality and its nature. It is based on a series of lectures which the author has been giving for several years to the first-year undergraduate students as part of their Philosophy of Being, Cognition and Value program at the University of Warsaw. Among the topics discussed are such metaphysical questions as “Are we fundamentally free?”, “Does time really pass?”, “Are there any abstract objects?”, “What is causation?”, “What are necessary and possible truths?”. The book is aimed at absolute beginners, so it does not presuppose any previous knowledge of philosophy from the reader. For those who would like to pursue the subject a bit deeper, the book comes equipped with an extended list of further reading.

New Work for a Theory of Ground

There has been much recent interest in a distinctively metaphysical kind of determinative explanation: ground. This paper concerns various skeptical challenges to ground's relevance to metaphysics, such as that it is an empty posit, that the work it is supposed to do is appropriated by other notions, and that it is inapt for specific issues it should serve. I argue against these challenges. My strategy is both critical and constructive. Critical because I argue that versions of these challenges raised by Elizabeth Barnes, Kathrin Koslicki, Mari Mikkola, and Jessica Wilson are not persuasive. Constructive because we may nevertheless learn from them new work for ground.

Grounding and Metaphysical Explanation

Attempts to elucidate grounding are often made by connecting grounding to metaphysical explanation, but the notion of metaphysical explanation is itself opaque, and has received little attention in the literature. We can appeal to theories of explanation in the philosophy of science to give us a characterisation of metaphysical explanation, but this reveals a tension between three theses: that grounding relations are objective and mind-independent; that there are pragmatic elements to metaphysical explanation; and that grounding and metaphysical explanation share a close connection. Holding fixed the mind-independence of grounding, I show that neither horn of the resultant dilemma can be blunted. Consequently, we should reject the assumption that grounding relations are mind-independent. This paper is about the grounding relation and the connection between grounding and explanation. Grounding is a relation of non-causal ontological dependence; a metaphysical determination relation which obtains between entities of various ontological categories including facts, properties, states of affairs, and actual concrete objects. Though discussion of grounding has become widespread, much of the literature about grounding is devoted to arriving at a proper characterisation of the notion. Difficulties arise because grounding is taken to be a metaphysical primitive – it resists reductive analysis. This leaves grounding vulnerable to the charge that it has no distinctive content, or no useful role to play. In response (as well as pre-emptively) grounding has been defended by appeal to intuitive examples of grounding; by highlighting the usefulness of a grounding relation; and by connecting grounding to other more familiar metaphysical notions. In particular, grounding has been connected to the notion of explanation (e.

Metaphysics AN INTRODUCTION AND REVIEW.docx

Modern Metaphysics, 2007

Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the fundamental nature of reality, including the relationship between mind and matter, between substance and attribute, and between possibility and actuality. Reviewing these papers will set the scene for a REVIEW of the very popular KANTISM of Today. Metaphysics is the science of being and ask the question “What really exists?” The answer to this question has been sought for by mankind since the beginning of recorded time. In the past 2500 years there have been many answers to this question and these answers dominate our view of how physics is done. Examples of questions which were originally metaphysical are the shape of the earth, the motion of the earth, the existence of atoms, the relativity of space and time, the uncertainty principle, the renormalization of field theory and the existence of quarks and strings. we should explore our changing conception of what constitutes reality by examining the views of Aristotle, Ptolemy, St. Thomas Aquinas, Copernicus, Galileo, Bacon, Descartes, Newton, Leibnitz, Compte, Einstein, Bohr, Feynman, Schwinger, Yang, Gell-Mann, Wilson and Witten ET AL https://cds.cern.ch/record/311040/files/9609160.pdf IE IS THE INTERNATIONAL DEBT SIMPLY A FIGMENT OF ALL OUR IMAGINATION? IT MAY NEVER BE REPAID IN FULL HENCE IT MAY FOLLOW THAT IN FACT IT DOES NOT EXIST THEREFORE: ""WHY WORRY?"" Metaphysics Peter van Inwagen Meghan Sullivan SEE PDF

A Powerful Particulars View of Causation—Routledge Studies in Metaphysics, 2021

2021

This book critically examines the recent discussions of powers and powers-based accounts of causation. The author then develops an original view of powers-based causation that aims to be compatible with the theories and findings of natural science. Recently, there has been a dramatic revival of realist approaches to properties and causation, which focus on the relevance of Aristotelian metaphysics and the notion of powers for a scientifically informed view of causation. In this book, R.D. Ingthorsson argues that one central feature of powers-based accounts of causation is arguably incompatible with what is today recognized as fact in the sciences, notably that all interactions are thoroughly reciprocal. Ingthorsson's powerful particulars view of powers-based causation accommodates for the reciprocity of interactions. It also draws out the consequences of that view for issue of causal necessity and offers a way to understand the constitution and persistence of compound objects as causal phenomena. Furthermore, Ingthorsson argues that compound entities, so understood, are just as much processes as they are substances. A Powerful Particulars View of Causation will be of great interest to scholars and advanced students working in metaphysics, philosophy of science, and neo-Aristotelian philosophy, while also being accessible for a general audience.

Physics' Contribution to Causation

Kriterion, 2020

Most philosophers of physics are eliminativists about causation. Following Bertrand Russell's lead, they think that causation is a folk concept that cannot be rationally reconstructed within a worldview informed by contemporary physics. Against this thesis, I argue that physics contributes to shaping the concept of causation, in two ways. 1. Special Relativity is a physical theory that expresses causal constraints. 2. The physical concept of a conserved quantity can be used in the functional reduction of the notion of causation. The empirical part of this reduction makes the hypothesis that the transference of an amount of a conserved quantity is a necessary and sufficient condition for causation. This hypothesis is defended against several objections from physics: that amounts of energy do not possess the appropriate identity conditions required for being able to be transmitted, that there is no universal principle of the conservation of energy in General Relativity, and that there are at least two types of physical systems in which causation does not involve any transference: entangled systems in quantum mechanics and the Aharanov-Bohm effect. In order to show that physics provides means to elaborate the concept of causation it is important to avoid certain misunderstandings. In particular, the claim that there is causation in a physical world does not mean that causation is an additional ingredient of the "furniture" of the world, over and above the ingredients identified by physics.

The metaphysical notion of causality

Maraka Charles , 2022

In the universe, we find things becoming and we realize that they come into being through the action of others. We have therefore chosen this theme on THE METAPHYSICAL NOTION OF CAUSALITY so as to understand this. We want to get to know the different causes, and whether there is that which causes all but is itself not caused. We are going to use the library sources to achieve this.