What analytic metaphysics can do for scientific metaphysics

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...

What is metaphysics?

Th ere are, I believe, fi ve main features that serve to distinguish traditional metaphysics from other forms of enquiry. Th ese are: the aprioricity of its methods; the generality of its subject-matter; the transparency or ‘ non-opacity’ of its concepts; its eidicity or concern with the nature of things; and its role as a foundation for what there is. In claiming that these are distinguishing ...

The Problem of Universals in Analytic and Avicenna's Metaphysics

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...

Modern Metaphysics

Metaphysics is the science of being and asks the question “What really exists?” The answer to this question has been sought for by mankind since the beginning of recorded time. In the past 2500 years there have been many answers to this question and these answers dominate our view of how physics is done. Examples of questions which were originally metaphysical are the shape of the earth, the mo...