Being: A Study in Ontology

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Peter van Inwagen (John Cardinal O'Hara Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, John Cardinal O'Hara Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, University of Notre Dame)

Being

A Study in Ontology

Peter van Inwagen (John Cardinal O'Hara Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, John Cardinal O'Hara Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, University of Notre Dame)

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English

Oxford University Press
16 March 2023

Philosophy: metaphysics & ontology; Philosophy: epistemology & theory of knowledge; Philosophy of religion

"For millennia, philosophers have debated about the existence of things - not only the existence of things like God, demons and the soul, but things like mathematical objects, qualities and attributes, or merely possible states of affairs and people. Ontology is the present-day name for the part of philosophy that addresses such questions. Being attempts to answer these old questions-and the question of how one should go about attempting to answer them.

This book presents and defends a meta-ontology and an ontology. Quine has taught us to use the word 'ontology' as a label for the part of philosophy that addresses ""the ontological question"" - 'What is there?' Meta-ontology, then, is the part of philosophy that addresses two questions, 'What is it to be (or to exist)?' and 'How should one attempt to answer the ontological question?' Chapters 1 and 5 are devoted to meta-ontology - Chapter 1 to a defense of the ""neo-Quinean"" meta-ontology, Chapter 5 to an examination of various alternative meta-ontologies. The essence of neo-Quineanism is that 'x exists' and 'Something is x' and 'The number of things that are x is not 0' mean more or less the same thing'. Neo-Quineanism obviously entails that there are no non-existent things, for nothing is such that nothing is it and everything is such that the number of things identical with it is 1. Chapter 2 is an examination of various positions that imply that there are non-existent things. The topic of Chapter 3 is the ancient ""problem of universals,"" or the problem of the existence and nature of abstract objects. Chapter 4 is devoted to questions concerning possible worlds and other objects belonging to the ontology of modality."

By: Peter van Inwagen (John Cardinal O'Hara Professor Emeritus of Philosophy John Cardinal O'Hara Professor Emeritus of Philosophy University of Notre Dame)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 242mm, Width: 163mm, Spine: 25mm
Weight: 1g
ISBN: 9780192883964
ISBN 10: 0192883968
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 16 March 2023
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Preface Introduction Summary I: Being and Existence II: Being and Non-Being III: Being and Abstraction IV: Being and Possibility V: Being and Generality VI: Lightweight Platonism: An Ontological Framework Bibliography Index

Peter van Inwagen is the John Cardinal O'Hara Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has delivered the Maurice Lectures at King's College, London, the Wilde Lectures on Natural Religion at Oxford University, the Stewart Lectures at Princeton University, and the Gifford Lectures at the University of St Andrews, where he received an honorary doctorate. He is the author of eight books and over two hundred essays and critical studies, and has had three books and four international conferences devoted to his work.

Reviews for Being: A Study in Ontology

The book is something of a historical document... this book will be very welcome to those working in the resurgence of analytic meta-ontology because it uncovers the roots of contemporary thinking about being. * Choice *