Kripke and Putnam have convinced most philosophers that we cannot do metaphysics of nature by analysing the senses of natural kind terms – simply because natural kind terms do not have senses. Neo-descriptivists, especially Frank Jackson and David Chalmers, believe that this view is mistaken. Merging classical descriptivism with a Kaplan-inspired two-dimensional framework, neo-descriptivists de...

In this article, I attempt to make use of Western metaphysical notions to explicate the cosmological variances in Chinese philosophical thinking, with specific reference to the debates among the NeoConfucian thinkers. While I do not presume and argue that Chinese philosophers dealt with the same Western issues, I do believe that a comparative study of this nature can point to a new direction of...

The reigning questions of metaphysics generate passion. These are questions such as concern death, a hereafter, and the meaning of suffering. They are questions that haunt us. Philosophical inquiries into these topics are often constructed Socratically. In turn, such logical machinations are founded upon the belief that a discernible outcome or answer to metaphysical questions exists. Western t...