Analytic Metaphysics Versus Naturalized Metaphysics: The Relevance of Applied Ontology

Humean metaphysics versus a metaphysics of powers

The paper considers the opposition between Humean metaphysics and the metaphysics of powers, focusing on laws, probabilities and causation. It argues that within Humean metaphysics, everything is a matter of contingency. Consequently, there is no deep metaphysical difference between a deterministic world and a world in which only probabilistic laws hold. This position is contrasted with the fou...

The Problem of Universals in Analytic and Avicenna's Metaphysics

The Role of Standpoints in Applied Metaphysics

Applied metaphysics, which contains the knowledge of objects a priori, makes a system out of pure reason, and that system of pure rational knowledge is called metaphysics in the strict sense. Transcendental philosophy is the propaedeutic of metaphysics proper. Reason determines nothing [in metaphysics proper] but rather speaks always of only its own ability, and in metaphysics proper it makes u...

Stance relativism: empiricism versus metaphysics

In The empirical stance, Bas van Fraassen argues for a reconceptualization of empiricism, and a rejection of its traditional rival, speculative metaphysics, as part of a larger and provocative study in epistemology. Central to his account is the notion of voluntarism in epistemology, and a concomitant understanding of the nature of rationality. In this paper I give a critical assessment of thes...

What is Analytic Metaphysics For?1

We divide analytic metaphysics into naturalistic and non-naturalistic metaphysics. The latter we define as any philosophical theory that makes some ontological claim (as opposed to conceptual claim), where that ontological claim has no observable consequences. We discuss further features of non-naturalistic metaphysics, including its methodology of appealing to intuition, and we explain the way...