On Metaphysics was first published in 1989. On Metaphysics brings together eighteen essays by a self-described analytic philosopher who is concerned with redirecting the linguistic emphasis in contemporary philosophy toward the traditional questions of metaphysics. The essays explore the most fundamental categories of reality: substance and attribute; parts and wholes; human freedom and the self; coming into being and passing away; and the nature of objective reference. Chisholm combines an "internal" approach to theory of knowledge with an "intentional" approach to metaphysics. The book thus presupposes that the self is better known to the self that is any other individual thing, and that our knowledge of ourselves provides us with the key to understanding the problems of ontology. Chisholm has made both minor and major revisions in many of the essays since their initial publication. "The Categories," written expressly for this book, represents a summation of the ontology set forth in On Metaphysics.
Author(s): Roderick M. Chisholm
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
Year: 1989
Language: English
Pages: 184
Introduction......Page 8
Part I. Freedom and Determinism......Page 10
1. Responsibility and Avoidability......Page 12
2. Human Freedom and the Self......Page 14
Part II. Coming into Being, Persisting, and Passing Away......Page 26
3. Identity through Possible Worlds......Page 28
4. Identity through Time......Page 34
5. Possibility without Haecceity......Page 51
6. Coming into Being and Passing Away: Can the Metaphysician Help?......Page 58
Part III. Parts and Wholes......Page 72
7. Parts as Essential to their Wholes......Page 74
8. Boundaries......Page 92
9. Scattered Objects......Page 99
Part IV. The Mental......Page 106
10. The Nature of the Psychological......Page 108
11. Presence in Absence......Page 116
12. Questions about Minds......Page 123
13. Is There a Mind-Body Problem?......Page 128
14. The Primacy of the Intentional......Page 138
Part V. An Intentional Approach to Ontology......Page 148
15. Properties and States of Affairs Intentionally Considered......Page 150
16. States and Events......Page 159
17. The Self in Austrian Philosophy......Page 165
18. The Categories......Page 171
E......Page 180
P......Page 181
Z......Page 182
