Читать книгу What is Metaphysics? - John Heil - Страница 15

Competent introductions to metaphysics that go into more detail on particular topics than I have are widely available. When I have taught metaphysics to the relatively uninitiated, my preferred text has been Keith Campbell’s Metaphysics: An Introduction (New York: Dickenson, 1976), which, sadly, is long out of print. More adventurous readers might find E. J. Lowe’s A Survey of Metaphysics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002) penetrating, but at times difficult.

Another out-of-print book by Campbell, Abstract Particulars (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1990) is eminently thought-provoking and, unlike many more recent monographs, largely non-technical and reader-friendly. Do not be misled by the title. Abstract particulars are not strange rarified entities, but simply properties conceived of in a particular way (see §4.2). Two books of my own, The Universe as We Find It (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2012) and, more recently, Appearance in Reality (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2021) cover many of the topics addressed in the upcoming chapters, but with more attention to detail.

Although I give short shrift here (and elsewhere) to metametaphysics, the collection Metametaphysics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009) edited by David Chalmers, David Manley, and Ryan Wasserman would more than compensate interested readers. For a broader metaphilosophical perspective, see Timothy Williamson’s The Philosophy of Philosophy (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2008).

Finally, the online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (https://plato.stanford.edu) includes entries on virtually every topic discussed here, most of which are commendably accessible, and have extensive bibliographies.