Metaphysics: A Contemporary Introduction: Third Edition

1 MetaphysicsMetaphysics: A Contemporary introduction is for students who have already donean introductory philosophy course. Michael J. Loux provides a fresh lookat the central topics in metaphysics, making this essential reading for anystudent of the subject. This Third Edition is revised and updated and includestwo new chapters on Time and addressed include: the problem of universals the nature of abstract entities the problem of individuation the nature of modality identity through time the nature of time the Realism/anti-Realism debateWherever possible, Michael J. Loux relates Contemporary views to theirclassical sources in the history of philosophy. As an experienced teacher ofphilosophy and an important contributor to recent debates, Loux is uniquelyqualified to write this Third Edition retains the student-friendly features of previous editions: chapter overviews summarizing the main topics of study examples to clarify difficult concepts annotated further reading at the end of each chapter endnotes and a full bibliography Michael J.

2 Loux is Shuster Professor of Philosophy at the University ofNotre Dame. He is also editor of Metaphysics: Contemporary Readings, designedto accompany this textbook and also published by Routledge. His bookSubstance and Attribute (1978) is one of the major metaphysics books of Contemporary Introductions to PhilosophySeries editor:Paul K. MoserLoyola University of ChicagoThis innovative, well-structured series is for students who have alreadydone an introductory course in philosophy. Each book introduces a coregeneral subject in Contemporary philosophy and offers students an access-ible but substantial transition from introductory to higher-level collegework in that subject. The series is accessible to non-specialists and eachbook clearly motivates and expounds the problems and positions intro-duced. An orientating chapter briefly introduces its topic and remindsreaders of any crucial material they need to have retained from a typicalintroductory course.

3 Considerable attention is given to explaining thecentral philosophical problems of a subject and the main competing solu-tions and arguments for those solutions. The primary aim is to educatestudents in the main problems, positions and arguments of contemporaryphilosophy rather than to convince students of a single PhilosophyChristopher ShieldsEpistemologySecond EditionRobert AudiEthicsHarry GenslerMetaphysicsThird editionMichael J. LouxPhilosophy of ArtNo l CarrollPhilosophy of LanguageWilliam G. LycanPhilosophy of MindSecond editionJohn HeilPhilosophy of ReligionKeith E. YandellPhilosophy of ScienceSecond editionAlex RosenbergSocial and Political PhilosophyJohn ChristmanPhilosophy of PsychologyJos Luis BermudezContinental PhilosophyAndrew CutrofelloClassical Modern PhilosophyJeffrey TlumakMetaphysicsA Contemporary introductionThird editionMichael J.

4 LouxFirst Edition 1998 Second Edition 2002 Third Edition published 2006 in the USA and Canadaby Routledge270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 Simultaneously published in the UKby Routledge2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4 RNRoutledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business 1998, 2002, 2006 Michael J. LouxAll rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted orreproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,including photocopying and recording, or in any informationstorage or retrieval system, without permission in writing fromthe of Congress Cataloging in Publication DataLoux, Michael : a Contemporary introduction / Michael J. Loux. 3rd cm. (Routledge Contemporary introductions to philosophy)Includes bibliographical references and I.

5 Title. II. 200610 dc212005057647 British Library Cataloguing in Publication DataA catalogue record for this book is available from the British LibraryISBN10: 0 415 40133 X (hbk)ISBN10: 0 415 40134 8 (pbk)ISBN13: 978 0 415 40133 3 (hbk)ISBN13: 978 0 415 40134 0 (pbk)This Edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006. To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge scollection of thousands of eBooks please go to For DianContentsPrefacexPreface to second editionxiiPreface to Third editionxiiiIntroduction1 Overview1 The nature of metaphysics some historical reflections2 Metaphysics as category theory10 Notes16 Further reading161 The problem of universals I: metaphysical realism17 Overview17 Realism and nominalism18 The ontology of metaphysical realism19 Realism and predication21 Realism and abstract reference26 Restrictions on realism exemplification30 Further restrictions defined and undefined predicates36 Are there any unexemplified attributes?

6 40 Notes43 Further reading452 The problem of universals II: nominalism46 Overview46 The motivation for nominalism46 Austere nominalism52 Metalinguistic nominalism62 Trope theory71 Fictionalism79 Notes82 Further reading833 Concrete particulars I: substrata, bundles, andsubstances84 Overview84 Substratum and bundle theories85An objection to the bundle theory subject-predicate discourse92 Another objection to the bundle theory the Identity ofIndiscernibles97An argument for the substratum theory101 Problems for the substratum theory104 Aristotelian substances107 Notes117 Further reading1204 Propositions and their neighbors121 Overview121 The traditional theory of propositions121 Nominalism about propositions130 Facts, states of affairs, and events142 Notes150 Further reading1525 The necessary and the possible153 Overview153 Problems about modality154 Possible worlds158 Possible worlds nominalism162 The metaphysics of possible worlds nominalism David Lewis166 Actualism and possible worlds Alvin Plantinga173 Notes184 Further reading1856 Causation187 Overview187 Hume s account of causation187 The response to Hume192 Neo-Humean approaches195 Notes203 Further reading2047 The nature of time205 Overview205 McTaggart s argument205 The B-theory212 The A-theory217 The new B-theory224 Notes228 Further reading2298 Concrete particulars II.

7 Persistence through time230 Overview230 Two theories of persistence endurantism and perdurantism230 Persistence and the nature of time234viii ContentsThe ontology of perdurantism238An argument for perdurantism change in properties242A second argument for perdurantism change in parts247 Notes256 Further reading2589 The challenge of anti-Realism259 Overview259 Two views about the nature of reality259 Dummett s anti-Realist265 The inscrutability of reference272 Putnam s anti-Realism279 Realism or anti-Realism?284 Notes293 Further reading295 Bibliography296 Index303 Contents ixPrefaceMetaphysics is a discipline with a long history; and over the course of thathistory, the discipline has been conceived in different ways. These differentconceptions associate different methodologies and even different subject mat-ters with the discipline; and anyone seeking to write an introductory text onmetaphysics must choose from among these different conceptions.

8 For reasonsI try to make clear in the introduction, I have chosen to follow a very oldtradition (one that can be traced back to Aristotle) that interprets metaphys-ics as the attempt to provide an account of being qua being. On this concep-tion, metaphysics is the most general of all the disciplines; its aim is toidentify the nature and structure of all that there is. Central to this project isthe delineation of the categories of being. Categories are the most general orhighest kinds under which anything that exists falls. On this conception ofmetaphysics, what the metaphysician is supposed to do is to identify therelevant kinds, to specify the characteristics or categorial features peculiar toeach, and to indicate the ways those very general kinds are related to eachother. It turns out, however, that metaphysicians have disagreed about thecategorial structure of reality.

9 They have disagreed about the categories themetaphysician ought to recognize; and even where they have agreed aboutthe categories to be included in our metaphysical theory, they have disagreedabout the characteristics associated with those categories and about the rela-tions of priority that tie the various categories together. These disagreementshave given rise to debates that lie at the very core of the philosophicalenterprise; those debates are the focus of this the first two chapters, we examine one of the oldest and most funda-mental of the debates over categories, the debate over the existence and natureof universals. Here, the central question is whether our metaphysical theorymust include among its basic categories things which can be common to orshared by numerically different objects. In Chapter One, we examine theviews of those (called metaphysical realists ) who answer the questionaffirmatively, and in Chapter Two, we consider the accounts provided bythose (called nominalists ) who defend a negative answer to the question.

10 InChapter Three, we turn to an examination of the nature and structure offamiliar concrete particulars. Again, the question is whether the objects inquestion constitute a basic or irreducible metaphysical category. In ChapterFour, we examine debates about the existence and nature of a family ofcomplex entities. The emphasis here is on what philosophers have called propositions, but we also consider debates over what appear to be thingsfrom other categories facts, states of affairs, and events. Next, we considerone feature of propositions, the fact that they can be said to be possible,necessary, impossible, or contingent, the fact that they are subject to what arecalled the modalities. This feature of propositions has been the focus ofmuch recent work in metaphysics.