Table Of Content

Metaphysics Fundamentals of Philosophy Series Editor: A. P. Martinich, University of Texas at Austin Each volume in the Fundamentals of Philosophy series covers a key area of study in philosophy. Written with verve and clarity by leading philosophers, these authoritative volumes look to reveal the fundamental issues and core problems that drive interest in the field. 1. Julia Driver, Ethics: The Fundamentals 2. Mark C. Murphy, Philosophy of Law: The Fundamentals 3. Linda Trinkaus Zagzebski, Philosophy of Religion: An Historical Introduction 4. Robert C. Koons and Timothy H. Pickavance, Metaphysics: The Fundamentals Forthcoming Thom Brooks, Political Philosophy: The Fundamentals Randall Curren, Philosophy of Education: The Fundamentals Thomas Kelly and James Pryor, What Should We Believe? The Fundamentals of Epistemology Ned Hall, Philosophy of Science: The Fundamentals Metaphysics The FundamenTals Robert c. Koons and timothy h. pickavance This edition first published 2015 © 2015 Robert C. Koons and Timothy H. Pickavance Registered Office John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK Editorial Offices 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services, and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley.com/wiley-blackwell. The right of Robert C. Koons and Timothy H. Pickavance to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and authors have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services and neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Koons, Robert C. Metaphysics: the fundamentals / Robert C. Koons and Timothy H. Pickavance. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4051-9574-4 (hardback) – ISBN 978-1-4051-9573-7 (paper) 1. Metaphysics. I. Pickavance, Timothy H. II. Title. BD111.K665 2015 110–dc23 2014030070 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Cover image: © atribut/Shutterstock Set in 10/12pt Sabon by SPi Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India 1 2015 To Bruce and Margaret Koons and To Ann Lawson and Tom and Sue Pickavance Contents Acknowledgments ix 1 What Is Metaphysics? 1 1.1 The Subject of Metaphysics 1 1.2 The Methods of Metaphysics 2 1.3 The Waxing and Waning of Metaphysics 3 1.4 Modern Challenges to Metaphysics 4 1.5 The Renaissance of Metaphysics in the Later “Analytic” Era 6 1.6 Metaphysics as First Philosophy 8 1.7 Overview of the Book 9 2 Truthmakers 15 2.1 Propositions 17 2.2 Classical Truthmaker Theory 20 2.3 Deflationism 34 2.4 Truth Supervenes on Being 36 2.5 Conclusion 38 3 Causation and Powers 40 3.1 Do Causes Exist? 41 3.2 Causal Dispositions and Conditionals 45 3.3 Four Metaphysical Theories 47 3.4 Neo-Humeism 53 3.5 Powerism 63 3.6 Conclusion 74 4 Properties 76 4.1 The Theoretical Role of Properties 77 4.2 Realism 79 4.3 Reductive Nominalism 88 4.4 Trope Theory 96 viii Contents 5 Particulars 102 5.1 Facts 102 5.2 Substances 104 5.3 Conclusion 124 6 Composition 126 6.1 The Special Composition Question 127 6.2 Ontological Free Lunch? 131 6.3 Atomism and Monism 138 6.4 Emergence and Compositional Pluralism 144 6.5 Possible Evidence for Compositional Emergence 145 6.6 Conclusion 152 7 Modality 154 7.1 Possible Worlds: Concretism versus Abstractionism 157 7.2 Modality De Re: Transworld Identity versus Counterpart Theory 175 8 The Passage of Time 182 8.1 The A Theory and the B Theory 182 8.2 Varieties of A Theories 185 8.3 Arguments for the B Theory 188 8.4 Arguments for the A Theory 192 8.5 Conclusion 198 9 Continuity and Persistence 199 9.1 Discrete and Continuous Causation 200 9.2 Instants versus Intervals: Which Are Fundamental? 202 9.3 Possible and Impossible Super-Tasks 206 9.4 Persistence: Fundamental or Non-Fundamental, Supervenient or Anti-Supervenient? 211 9.5 The Persistence of Simple Things: The Problem of Intrinsic Motion 215 9.6 The Persistence of Composite Things: Paradoxes of Intransitivity 217 9.7 Extreme Perdurantism: Who Needs Persistence? 224 9.8 Conclusion: Two Metaphysical Packages 227 10 Concluding Unmetaphysical Postscript 230 10.1 Metaphysical Truth: Anti-Realism 231 10.2 Metaphysical Language: Nonsense and Verbal Disagreement 234 10.3 Metaphysical Skepticism 238 10.4 Metaphysical Fictions 240 10.5 Conclusion: The Inevitability of Metaphysics 241 References 242 Index 250 Acknowledgments We would like to thank our series editor, Al Martinich, for his invitation to undertake this project and for his encouragement and patience in seeing it through. We would also like to thank our editors at Wiley Blackwell, Nick Bellorini, Jeff Dean, Liam Cooper, and Deirdre Ilkson, and editorial assis- tants Tiffany Mok, Nicole Benevenia, and Allison Kostka. Thanks also to Al Plantinga, Laurie Paul, Graham Priest, Peter Forrest, Dan Korman, Trenton Merricks, and Josh Parsons for the helpful feedback on earlier drafts of the book. Thanks to Robert Garcia, from whom we’ve learned most of what we know about tropes, and to Alex Pruss for his many insights into material composition. We both have taught this material in metaphysics seminars at our respective institutions, and a number of our students supplied helpful feedback, with respect to both content and presentation. Especially notable contributions came from Daniel Eaton, Patrick Grafton-Cardwell, Nicole Garcia, Tim Houk, Sarah Nicholson, and Jarod Sickler. Thanks to Richard Lawton Davis for insight into composition as identity, and to Bryan Pickel and Nick Mantegani for their contributions to our understanding of ostrich nomin alism and Quinean ontology. We want to acknowledge the living titans of contemporary metaphysics on whose shoulders we are sitting, including Saul Kripke, Alvin Plantinga, Peter van Inwagen, and Robert M. Adams, as well as those who have died, especially David K. Lewis and David M. Armstrong. In addition to those we’ve already mentioned, our debt to the work of John Hawthorne, Dean Zimmerman, Ted Sider, Jonathan Schaffer, José Benardete, Kit Fine, Michael Loux, Sydney Shoemaker, Michael Tooley, and David Chalmers is obvious and substantial. Finally, our gratitude to our patient and longsuffering wives, Debbie and Jamie, without whom we could have done nothing. x Acknowledgments THP adds: Thanks to Biola University for a Faculty Research and Development Grant in 2010, as well as to Dennis Dirks, Mike Wilkins, and Scott Rae, each current or former administrators at Biola, for a semester-long research leave in fall 2011. These provided helpful breaks from teaching that greatly spurred this project along. Another round of thanks to my dear friend, Robert Garcia, who has been a source not only of philosophical stimulation, but of faithful encouragement and support. Finally, I’ve somehow stumbled into the privilege of writing philosophy with my first metaphysics teacher, J. P. Moreland, as well as with my last metaphysics teacher, my dissertation supervisor, Rob Koons. Both are incredible philosophers who are even more incredible human beings. I owe not only my knowledge of metaphysics, but also my philosophical career to the pair of them. My deepest gratitude to them both.