Metaphysics Contem Intro

By John F. Post

ISBN-13: 9781557782045 Publisher: Paragon House Publishers Publication date: 4/14/1998 Series: Issues in Philosophy Series Edition description: 1st ed Edition number: 1 This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1557782040
• ISBN13: 9781557782045
• Release Date: April 1998
• Publisher: Paragon House Publishers
• Length: 213 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

nice

I have just begun to read this one, but my first impression is that John F. Post is as concerned with how things are as I am. I see no indications that he is up to some ulterior agenda. "Let the evidence lead where it may" is what this book pursues. I will update this review when I have completed the book. Sept. 13, 2005 Update: Reading this book led me to take up the author's previous work "Faces of Existence" which I have been unable to set aside. Faces of Existence is stunning. It is what I had hoped philosophy would be when I first began studying it. I am now able to understand where I went wrong, as well as where philosophers in general have gone wrong. When I am finished reading Faces of Existence enough times so that I am familiar with the information there, then I will take up this Introduction to Metaphysics again. If you obtain a copy of Faces of Existence and find it tough sledding in places, please stick with it. It will be worth it.

Why Does Anything at All Exist?

Chapter 4 is particularly well written. Also more of Professor John Post's work and some excerpts from this book are available on his website. http://www.vanderbilt.edu/~postjf/ Table of Contents, Metaphysics: A Contemporary Introduction -- Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1. Is Metaphysics Possible? § What Is Metaphysics? Metaphysics Versus Essentialism § A Challenge for Metaphysics Chapter 2. Language and Reality § Linguistic Antimetaphysics Positivism Contingency Indeterminacy of Meaning Structuralism Deconstruction § Realism Essentialist? Totalizing? Slave to Common Sense? Noumenal ? Final? Chapter 3. Piercing the Veil of Language § Truth and Metaphysics § Causal Theories of Reference § Biosemantics Chapter 4. Why Does Anything at All Exist? § A Traditional Answer § Principles of Sufficient Reason § Mystery and Ultimate Explanation § Is There a Ground of Beings? § What Is a Thing? § Does the Universe Have a Beginning? Chapter 5. Unifying the Phenomena § The Thales Project § Nonreductive Unifications § Nonreductive Determination? § Connective Generalizations § Dependency, Bruteness, Evidence § Determination via History § Determination-at-a-Distance § Global Determination Chapter 6. Metaphysics and Human Being § Intentionality § Consciousness § Value Antirealism and Meaninglessness The Arguments from Disagreement and Queerness Queerness and Proper Function Bioethics An Argument for the Determinacy of Valuation Chapter 7. God § Ideas of God § Is the Idea of God Coherent? § Faith and Reason § Arguments for the Existence of God § Arguments Against the Existence of God Epilogue: Metaphysics and Meaningful Existence