Truth and Ontology

Truth and Ontology
Author: Trenton Merricks
Publisher: Oxford University Press on Demand
Total Pages: 221
Release: 2007-04-19
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 019920523X

A central question in philosophy is whether and how truth depends on the world. In isolation this question is so abstract that it is hard to address in an illuminating way. Instead, Trenton Merricks looks at how answers to this question bear on a variety of other philosophical debates. The result is a well-grounded discussion of the nature of truth that in its turn casts new light on these philosophical debates themselves.

Truth and Genesis

Truth and Genesis
Author: Miguel de Beistegui
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 414
Release: 2004-06-16
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780253111005

"... an attempt to revive ontology (or metaphysics) -- indeed philosophy itself -- by means of a two-sided conception of being.... This is a remarkable idea which has produced a powerful book." -- Leonard Lawlor "... a major philosophical study: rich, brilliant... a tour de force, a seminal study that will be a starting-point for future research in this area." -- Robert Bernasconi In Truth and Genesis, Miguel de Beistegui considers the role and meaning of philosophy today. Calling for a new departure for philosophy, one that brings together philosophy's scattered identities, de Beistegui proposes a robust and unified philosophy that would find itself equally at home in artistic and scientific disciplines. To build this renewed philosophy, de Beistegui turns to Aristotle and the earliest foundations of thought. He traces philosophy's development through the medieval and modern periods before comparing and investigating the work of two of the 20th century's most influential thinkers, Martin Heidegger and Gilles Deleuze. In particular, de Beistegui focuses on Deleuze's Difference and Repetition and Heidegger's Contributions to Philosophy for their handling of the concept of difference. De Beistegui concludes that Deleuze and Heidegger are irreconcilable, but it is in their disagreements that he sees a way to liberate philosophy from its current crisis.

Thisness Presentism

Thisness Presentism
Author: David Ingram
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2018-09-18
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0429839200

Thisness Presentism outlines and defends a novel version of presentism, the view that only present entities exist and what is present really changes, a view of time that captures a real and objective difference between what is past, present, and future, and which offers a model of reality that is dynamic and mutable, rather than static and immutable. The book advances a new defence of presentism by developing a novel ontology of thisness, combining insights about the nature of essence, the metaphysics of propositions, and the relationship between true propositions and the elements of reality that make them true, alongside insights about time itself. It shows how, by accepting an ontology of thisness, presentists can respond to a number of pressing challenges to presentism, including claims that presentism cannot account for true propositions about the past, and that it is inconsistent with the reality of temporal passage and the openness of the future. This is one of the only book-length defences of presentism. It will be of interest to students and scholars working on the debate about presentism in the philosophy of time, as well as those interested in the metaphysics of propositions and truth-making, more generally.

A Theory of Truthmaking

A Theory of Truthmaking
Author: Jamin Asay
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 311
Release: 2020-04-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1108499880

Demonstrates how truthmaking can be used to make progress all across philosophy, but without its usual theoretical baggage.

Truth and Truthmakers

Truth and Truthmakers
Author: D. M. Armstrong
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 174
Release: 2004-05-27
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780521547239

This book, first published in 2004, makes a compelling case for truthmaking and its importance in philosophy.

Nietzsche’s Ontology

Nietzsche’s Ontology
Author: Laird Addis
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 151
Release: 2013-05-02
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 3110321769

Although there is a huge literature on Nietzsche’s philosophy, this is the first study in English that focuses on his ontology. Before proceeding to that ontology, Addis argues that, contrary to many commentators, Nietzsche defends both the possibility and the desirability of objectivity in the search for knowledge, including knowledge of the basic features of reality, that is, of ontology. In separate chapters, Addis then sets out, analyzes, and evaluates the five essential components of Nietzsche’s ontology: constant change, substances and things, minds, causation, and will to power. In each case, Addis contributes an original understanding of the feature under discussion, with more detail than exists in other treatments, and defended with quotes from relevant texts of Nietzsche.

Ontology Made Easy

Ontology Made Easy
Author: Amie Lynn Thomasson
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 361
Release: 2015
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0199385114

Existence questions have been topics for heated debates in metaphysics, but this book argues that they can often be answered easily, by trivial inferences from uncontroversial premises. This 'easy' approach to ontology leads to realism about disputed entities, and to the view that metaphysical disputes about existence questions are misguided.

Truth and the World

Truth and the World
Author: Jonathan Tallant
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2017-10-16
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1351388509

How do we explain the truth of true propositions? Truthmaker theory is the branch of metaphysics that explores the relationships between what is true and what exists. It plays an important role in contemporary debates about the nature of metaphysics and metaphysical enquiry. In this book Jonathan Tallant argues, controversially, that we should reject truthmaker theory. In its place he argues for an 'explanationist' approach. Drawing on a deflationary theory of truth he shows that it allows us to explain the truth of true propositions and respond to recent arguments that purport to show otherwise. He augments this with a distinction between internally and externally quantified claims: externally quantified claims are claims that quantify over elements of our ontology that play an indispensable explanatory role; internally quantified claims do not. He deploys this union of deflationism and a distinction between kinds of quantification to pursue metaphysical inquiry, sketching the implications for a number of first-order debates, including those in the philosophy of time, modality and mathematics, and also shows how this explanationist model can be used to solve the key problems that afflicted truthmaker theory. Truth and the World is an important contribution to debates about truth and truthmaker theory as well as metametaphysics, the metaphysics of time and the metaphysics of mathematics, and is essential reading for students and scholars engaged in the study of these topics.

Ontology and Metaontology

Ontology and Metaontology
Author: Francesco Berto
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2015-01-29
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1472573307

Ontology and Metaontology: A Contemporary Guide is a clear and accessible survey of ontology, focusing on the most recent trends in the discipline. Divided into parts, the first half characterizes metaontology: the discourse on the methodology of ontological inquiry, covering the main concepts, tools, and methods of the discipline, exploring the notions of being and existence, ontological commitment, paraphrase strategies, fictionalist strategies, and other metaontological questions. The second half considers a series of case studies, introducing and familiarizing the reader with concrete examples of the latest research in the field. The basic sub-fields of ontology are covered here via an accessible and captivating exposition: events, properties, universals, abstract objects, possible worlds, material beings, mereology, fictional objects. The guide's modular structure allows for a flexible approach to the subject, making it suitable for both undergraduates and postgraduates looking to better understand and apply the exciting developments and debates taking place in ontology today.