This textbook is an accessible, readable, and comprehensive introduction to contemporary analytic metaphysics. It covers all the main topics, including those that are at the forefront of the most recent research. It begins by explaining what metaphysics is and introduces the most important conceptual devices needed to understand and appreciate the ongoing debates. The text follows with core metaphysical questions, such as properties, time, identity, mereology, and modality. It concludes with more specific domains of application, in which the previously introduced concepts are put to work. The contents are organized in self-contained chapters, each of which starts with a stimulating short story, which is further articulated and closes with a summary of the main points, questions for further reflection, and reading suggestions. This textbook is perfect for teaching a basic but comprehensive course in metaphysics for undergraduate students.

Provides a basic introduction to a fundamental and lively area of philosophical research Explains what metaphysics is and why it is worth studying Illustrates all the main problems of contemporary metaphysics in a clear and accessible manner

Autorentext

Massimiliano Carrara is professor of logic at FISPPA Department – Padua University, where he teaches Logic and Philosophy of Language. Moreover, he is Visiting Professor at the Institut of Philosophy - USI, Lugano (Swiss) and Teaching Fellow of Critical Thinking at the Commercial University Bocconi (Milan, Italy). He has been Visiting researcher and Visiting professor of some universities, Visiting scholar at Columbia University (NY, US), and Eramus Graduate Student at Oxford University (UK). He has written articles in metaphysics, philosophy of logic and logic, many of which are published in international peer-reviewed philosophy and logic journals. Ciro De Florio is professor of logic at the Faculty of Economics, at the Università Cattolica of Milan. His interests concern philosophy of logic, applied logic, and metaphysics. He is member of the scientific committee of the Humane Technology Lab of Università Cattolica. Among his recent publications, "Divine Omniscience and Human Free Will. A Logical and Metaphysical Analysis" (with A. Frigerio, Palgrave Macmillan 2020); "Reflections on Logics for Assertion and Denial" (Journal of Applied Logics, 2021); "Future, Truth, and Probability" (with A. Frigerio, Inquiry, 2022)). He likes to hike in the mountains, better if with his family. Giorgio Lando is professor of philosophy of language and metaphysics at the University of L'Aquila. He specializes in metaphysics and in the history of analytic philosophy. He has worked at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa and at the University of Geneva. In the matter of metaphysics, several of his works about metaontology, mereology, the relations between composition and identity, and the nature of words and other linguistic expressions appeared in journals such as Synthese, Dialectica, Erkenntnis, Theoria, and the Monist. He is the author of "Mereology", Bloomsbury, London 2017. Vittorio Morato is professor of philosophy of language and epistemology at FISPPA Department of Padua University. He is visiting professor at the Institute of Philosophy - USI, Lugano (Switzerland)) and Teaching Fellow of Critical Thinking at the Commercial University Bocconi (Milan, Italy). He has been visiting scholar at the University of California (UCLA) and at the University of Oxford. His interests concern the metaphysics of modal logic, the interplay between modal language and ontology and the epistemology of modality. His works appeared in journals such as Erkenntnis, Analytic Philosophy, Topoi, Logique & Analyse.

Inhalt

For Starters.- 1 Tools.- 2 Metametaphysics.- 3 Identity.- 4 Existence.- 5 Mereology.- 6 Structures and Structured Entities.- 7 Properties and Relations.- 8 Modality
9 Essences and Dispositions.- 10 Grounding.- 11 Time.- 12 Persistence.- 13 Abstract Objects.- 14 God.- 15 Artefacts.- (a kind of) Conclusion.