Varieties of Things

Cynthia Macdonald is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. She is Associate Editor of the Australasian Journal of Philosophy and the author or editor of numerous publications, including The Philosophy of Psychology: Debates on Psychological Explanation (co-edited with Graham Macdonald, Blackwell, 1994), Connectionism: Debates on Psychological Explanation (co-edited with Graham Macdonald, Blackwell, 1995) and Contemporary Readings in the Foundations of Metaphysics (co-edited with Stephen Laurence, Blackwell, 1998).

Varieties of Things: Foundations of Contemporary Metaphysics explores the fundamental ontological categories of things; things that we encounter in everyday life, such as material substances, persons, events and universals.

Preface. PART I: METAPHYSICS AND ITS TOOLS . 1: The Nature and Function of Metaphysics. The Methodology and Subject Matter of Metaphysics. Aristotle's Conception of Metaphysics. Kant's Conception of Metaphysics. A Working Conception of Metaphysics. 2: Some Tools of Metaphysics. Criteria of Ontological Commitment: Two Examples. 'No Entity Without Identity': Identity Conditions for Objects. Individuation Conditions, Identity Conditions, and Metaphysical Kinds. Principles and Criteria of Identity. PART II: PARTICULARS. 3: Material Substances. Our Ontological Commitment to Material Substances. The Bundle Theory and the Principle of the Identity of Indiscernibles. Problems with the Bundle Theory. The Bare Substratum Theory and The Principle of Acquaintance. Objections to the Bare Substratum Theory. An Alternative. 4: Persons and Personal Identity. Our Ontological Commitment to Persons. Candidates for Persistence Conditions for Persons. The Closest Continuer Theory. Does the Concept of Identity Apply to Persons?. The Multiple Occupancy Thesis. Back to Basics: Continuity and Fission. A Suggestion. 5: Events. Our Ontological Commitment to Events. Three Criteria: Spatio-temporal Coincidence, Necessary Spatio-temporal Coincidence, and Sameness of Cause and. Effect. The Property Exemplification Account of Events. PART III: UNIVERSALS. 6: Universals and the Realism/Nominalism Dispute. The Issue. Varieties of Nominalism. Two Conceptions of Universals. The Regress Charge and Two Unsuccessful Attempts to Meet It. An Alternative. Notes. Bibliography. Index