The Evolution of Modern Metaphysics
Making Sense of Things

This book charts the evolution of metaphysics since Descartes and provides a compelling case for why metaphysics matters.

A. W. Moore (Author)

9780521616553, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 17 July 2013

692 pages, 1 table
22.9 x 15.2 x 3.9 cm, 1 kg

'… a bold and engaging book, opening up much fertile ground for future work. I highly recommend a close reading of it.' Analysis and Metaphysics

This book is concerned with the history of metaphysics since Descartes. Taking as its definition of metaphysics 'the most general attempt to make sense of things', it charts the evolution of this enterprise through various competing conceptions of its possibility, scope, and limits. The book is divided into three parts, dealing respectively with the early modern period, the late modern period in the analytic tradition, and the late modern period in non-analytic traditions. In its unusually wide range, A. W. Moore's study refutes the tired old cliché that there is some unbridgeable gulf between analytic philosophy and philosophy of other kinds. It also advances its own distinctive and compelling conception of what metaphysics is and why it matters. Moore explores how metaphysics can help us to cope with continually changing demands on our humanity by making sense of things in ways that are radically new.

Preface
Introduction
Part I. The Early Modern Period: 1. Descartes: metaphysics in the service of science
2. Spinoza: metaphysics in the service of ethics
3. Leibniz: metaphysics in the service of theodicy
4. Hume: metaphysics committed to the flames?
5. Kant: the possibility, scope, and limits of metaphysics
6. Fichte: transcendentalism versus naturalism
7. Hegel: transcendentalism-cum-naturalism
or, absolute idealism
Part II. The Late Modern Period I: The Analytic Tradition: 8. Frege: sense under scrutiny
9. The early Wittgenstein: the possibility, scope, and limits of sense
or, sense, senselessness, and nonsense
10. The later Wittgenstein: bringing words back from their metaphysical to their everyday use
11. Carnap: the elimination of metaphysics?
12. Quine: the ne plus ultra of naturalism
13. Lewis: metaphysics in the service of philosophy
14. Dummett: the logical basis of metaphysics
Part III. The Late Modern Period II: Non-Analytic Traditions: 15. Nietzsche: sense under scrutiny again
16. Bergson: metaphysics as pure creativity
17. Husserl: making sense of making sense
18. Heidegger: letting being be
19. Collingwood: metaphysics as history
20. Derrida: metaphysics deconstructed?
21. Deleuze: something completely different
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Philosophy of religion [HRAB], Philosophy: metaphysics & ontology [HPJ], History of Western philosophy [HPC], Philosophy [HP]