Indeterminate Identity

Indeterminate Identity
Author: Terence Parsons
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2000
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780198250449

Terence Parsons presents a lively and controversial study of philosophical questions about identity. Is a person identical with that person's body? If a ship has all its parts replaced, is the resulting ship identical with the original ship? If the discarded parts are reassembled, is the newlyassembled ship identical with the original ship? Because these puzzles remain unsolved, some people believe that they are questions that have no answers, perhaps because the questions are improperly formulated; they believe that there is a problem with the language used to formulate them. Parsonsexplores a different possibility: that such puzzles lack answers because of the way the world is (or because of the way the world is not); there is genuine indeterminacy of identity in the world. He articulates such a view in detail and defends it from a host of criticisms that have been levelledagainst the very possibility of indeterminacy in identity.

The Metaphysics of Identity

The Metaphysics of Identity
Author: André Gallois
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 202
Release: 2016-06-23
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 113501566X

The philosophical problem of identity and the related problem of change go back to the ancient Greek philosophers and fascinated later figures including Leibniz, Locke, and Hume. Heraclitus argued that one could not swim in the same river twice because new waters were ever flowing in. When is a river not the same river? If one removes one plank at a time when is a ship no longer a ship? What is the basic nature of identity and persistence? In this book, André Gallois introduces and assesses the philosophical puzzles posed by things persisting through time. Beginning with essential historical background to the problem he explores the following key topics and debates: mereology and identity, including arguments from 'Leibniz's Law' the constitution view of identity the 'relative identity' argument concerning identity temporary identity four-dimensionalism, counterpart and multiple counterpart theory supervenience the problem of temporary intrinsics the necessity of identity Indeterminate identity presentism criteria of identity conventionalism about identity. Including chapter summaries, annotated further reading and a glossary, this book is essential reading for anyone seeking a clear and informative introduction to and assessment of the metaphysics of identity.

Sameness and Substance Renewed

Sameness and Substance Renewed
Author: David Wiggins
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2001-09-06
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780521456197

In this book, which thoroughly revises and greatly expands his classic work Sameness and Substance (1980), David Wiggins retrieves and refurbishes in the light of twentieth-century logic and logical theory certain conceptions of identity, of substance and of persistence through change that philosophy inherits from its past. In this new version, he vindicates the absoluteness, necessity, determinateness and all or nothing character of identity against rival conceptions. He defends a form of essentialism that he calls individuative essentialism, and then a form of realism that he calls conceptualist realism. In a final chapter he advocates a human being-based conception of the identity and individuation of persons, arguing that any satisfactory account of personal memory must make reference to the life of the rememberer himself. This important book will appeal to a wide range of readers in metaphysics, philosophical logic, and analytic philosophy.

Metaphysics, Meaning, and Modality

Metaphysics, Meaning, and Modality
Author: Mircea Dumitru
Publisher:
Total Pages: 545
Release: 2020
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0199652627

This is the first book on the provocative and innovative contributions to philosophy of language, metaphysics, the philosophy of mathematics, and logic made by Kit Fine, one of the world's foremost philosophers. Topics covered include meaning and representation, arbitrary objects, essence, ontological realism, and the metaphysics of modality.

Philosophical Analysis

Philosophical Analysis
Author: D.S. Austin
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 362
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9400929099

Analytic philosophy is alive and in good health, as this collection of twenty, previously unpublished essays most ably demonstrates. The reader will find here assembled some of the finest writings of modern analytic philosophers at the top of their form. Matthews discusses Plato's attempt to deal with the problem of false belief about identities. Parson evaluates Russell's early theory of denoting phrases. Chisholm exhibits the utility of thirteen epistemic categories. Plantinga criticizes Chisholm's account of justification. Conee argues that solving the Gettier Problem is important, and Ginet proposes a solution to it. Lehrer criticizes an argument based on the simplicity of our belief in material objects and other minds. R. Feldman defends an account of having evidence. F. Feldman defends a propositional account of pleasure. Van Fraassen criticizes Garber's solution to the problem of old evidence. Castañeda investigates the nature of negation. McKay argues that de se analyses of belief do not account for belief de re. Richard argues that no Fregean semantics for belief attribution will succeed. Ryckman suggests that the Millian theory of names has little to do with the theory of belief is no threat to God's omniscience. Dunn investigates constraints imposed on non-classical modal logics by extensionality. Fitch argues that singular propositions perform important functions in modal logic. Jubien evaluates arguments for and against possible worlds. Ratzsch argues that there must be a deeper source of nomicality than ordinary subjunctives, and Stalnaker argues that there is room for determinancy of identity and indeterminacy in reference.

The Possibility of Metaphysics

The Possibility of Metaphysics
Author: E. J. Lowe
Publisher: Clarendon Press
Total Pages: 298
Release: 1998-10-08
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0191519146

Jonathan Lowe argues that metaphysics should be restored to a central position in philosophy, as the most fundamental form of rational inquiry, whose findings underpin those of all other disciplines. He portrays metaphysics as charting the possibilities of existence, by idetifying the categories of being and the relations of ontological dependency between entities of different categories. He proceeds to set out a unified and original metaphysical system: he defends a substance ontology, according to which the existence of the world s one world in time depends upon the existence of persisting things which retain their identity over time and through processes of qualitative change. And he contends that even necessary beings, such as the abstract objects of mathematics, depend ultimately for their existence upon there being a concrete world of enduring substances. Within his system of metaphysics Lowe seeks to answer many of the deepest and most challenging questions in philosophy.

Personal Identity

Personal Identity
Author: Harold W. Noonan
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2004-06
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1134482132

A comprehensive introduction to the nature of the self and its relation to the body, this title places the problem of personal identity in the context of more general puzzles about identity, and discusses the major related theories.

Metaphysics, Mathematics, and Meaning

Metaphysics, Mathematics, and Meaning
Author: Nathan U. Salmon
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 458
Release: 2005
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780199281763

'Metaphysics, Mathematics and Meaning' brings together Nathan Salmon's influential papers on topics in the metaphysics of existence, non-existence and fiction. He includes a previously unpublished essay and helpful new introduction to orient the reader.

Idealism and Christian Philosophy

Idealism and Christian Philosophy
Author: Steven B. Cowan
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 223
Release: 2016-02-25
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1628924071

When it comes to contemporary philosophical problems, metaphysical idealism-or Berkeleyan immaterialism-is not taken seriously by most philosophers, not to mention the typical Christian layperson. This state of affairs deserves some attempt at rectification, since Idealism has considerable explanatory power as a metaphysical thesis and provides numerous practical and theoretical benefits. Such thinkers as George Berkeley and Jonathan Edwards believed that Idealism is especially amenable to a Christian perspective, both because it provides a plausible way of conceptualizing the world from a theistic standpoint and because it effectively addresses skeptical challenges to the Christian faith. The contributors to this volume explore a variety of ways in which the case can be made for this claim, including potential solutions to philosophical problems related to the nature of time, the ontology of physical objects, the mind-body problem, and the nature of science.

Knowledge, Language and Logic: Questions for Quine

Knowledge, Language and Logic: Questions for Quine
Author: A. Orenstein
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 476
Release: 2000-04-30
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780792359869

Quine is one of the twentieth century's most important and influential philosophers. The essays in this collection are by some of the leading figures in their fields and they touch on the most recent turnings in Quine's work. The book also features an essay by Quine himself, and his replies to each of the papers. Questions are raised concerning Quine's views on knowledge: observation, holism, truth, naturalized epistemology; about language: meaning, the indeterminacy of translation, conjecture; and about the philosophy of logic: ontology, singular terms, vagueness, identity, and intensional contexts. Given Quine's preeminent position, this book must be of interest to students of philosophy in general, Quine aficionados, and most particularly to those working in the areas of epistemology, ontology, philosophies of language, of logic, and of science.