PHIL 311: Issues in Metaphysics
PHIL 311: Issues in Metaphysics
The Generic Catalogue Description
Typical issues include transcendence, being, existence in its individual and communal dimensions, causality, relations, analogy, purpose, the possibility of metaphysics, and the relations of metaphysics to other disciplines.
PHIL 311: Issues in Metaphysics
David Yandell
This is a variable content course, so the following description is intended only to describe the Spring 2008 instance of this course, “Metaphysics & the Realist Tradition.”
While many philosophers in recent years have been highly pessimistic about the prospects for developing a positive, rationally justified set of beliefs concerning the fundamental nature of reality, there are still philosophers who regard such a project not only as possible, but also as a central element of any serious philosophical system. For present purposes, let us call philosophers who believe that philosophical inquiry can generate justified positive belief in the area of ontology or metaphysics “realists.” Some realists argue that our choice isn’t whether to adopt metaphysical positions, but whether to adopt them reflectively on a basis of rigorous reflection or to hold them unreflectively as a matter of dogmatism or intellectual fashion. In addition to the intrinsic interest of metaphysical issues, some argue, metaphysical understanding is a prerequisite for reasoned appraisal of competing moral theories: one cannot engage in productive reflection on how people ought to be treated without an understanding of what people are. Similar points can be made about the relation of metaphysical reasoning to theology, to the sciences, and to the social sciences.
In this course, we will study and evaluate some important positions within the realist metaphysical tradition. For example, we will reflect on theories of substance, essence, natural kinds, universals and particulars, properties, and relations as elements of a theory of the nature of reality. We will consider objections to traditional metaphysics based on empiricism, scientism, nominalism, skepticism, and other positions. In addition, we will discuss how fundamental metaphysical issues bear on selected particular questions, such as the existence and nature of God, the relation of mind and body, and freedom of the will.