|  | Beebee, Helen / Dodd, Julian (eds.)
Reading Metaphysics
Selected Texts with Interactive Commentary
Reading Philosophy
 1. Edition December 2006
30.90 Euro
2006. 256 Pages, Softcover
ISBN 978-1-4051-2367-9 - John Wiley & Sons
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| Detailed description
This collection brings together key contemporary texts in metaphysics and features an interactive commentary which helps readers engage the texts critically and to use them to develop their own views.
* Each text is followed by a detailed commentary, setting it in context
* Includes questions designed to help readers think hard about what the author is saying and why, to think of objections, and to formulate his or her own views
* Aims to improve the reader's ability to engage critically with philosophical texts, and to use them as a springboard for philosophical thought and writing
* Introduces readers to the perennial problems of metaphysics and the ways that different analytic philosophers have approached them
From the contents
Sources and Acknowledgements.
Introduction.
1 Personal Identity.
Introduction.
Derek Parfit, 'Personal Identity'.
Commentary on Parfit.
Marya Schechtman, 'Personhood and Personal Identity'.
Commentary on Schechtman.
Further Reading.
Essay Questions.
2 Free Will.
Introduction.
Peter van Inwagen, 'The Incompatibility of Free Will and Determinism'.
Commentary on van Inwagen.
Daniel Dennett, 'Could Have Done Otherwise' (extract from Elbow Room).
Commentary on Dennett.
Further Reading.
Essay Questions.
Appendix.
3 Realism and Anti-realism.
Introduction.
Donald Davidson, 'On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme'.
Commentary on Davidson.
Thomas Nagel, 'Thought and Reality' (extract from The View from Nowhere).
Commentary on Nagel.
Further reading.
Essay questions.
4 Realism and Nominalism.
Introduction.
Michael Devitt, '"Ostrich Nominalism" or "Mirage Realism"?'.
Commentary on Devitt.
D. M. Armstrong, 'Against "Ostrich" Nominalism: A Reply to Michael Devitt'.
Commentary on Armstrong.
Further reading.
Essay questions.
5 Possible Worlds.
Introduction.
David Lewis, extract from Counterfactuals.
Commentary on Lewis.
Saul Kripke, extract from Naming and Necessity.
Commentary on Kripke.
Further reading.
Essay questions.
6 Persistence over Time.
Introduction.
David Lewis, extract from On the Plurality of Worlds.
Commentary on Lewis.
Sally Haslanger, 'Endurance and Temporary Intrinsics'.
Commentary on Haslanger.
David Lewis, 'Tensing the Copula'.
Commentary on Lewis.
Further reading.
Essay questions.
Bibliography.
Index
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