More Kinds of Being: A Further Study of Individuation, Identity, and the Logic of Sortal Terms

ISBN-13: 9781118963869 / Angielski / Miękka / 2015 / 240 str.

E J Lowe

Opis

Taking into account significant developments in the metaphysical thinking of E. J. Lowe over the past 20 years, More Kinds of Being: A Further Study of Individuation, Identity, and the Logic of Sortal Terms presents a thorough reworking and expansion of the 1989 edition of Kinds of Being.

• Brings many of the original ideas and arguments put forth in Kinds of Being thoroughly up to date in light of new developments
• Features a thorough reworking and expansion of the earlier work, rather than just a new edition
• Reflects the author's conversion to what he calls 'the four-category ontology, ' a metaphysical system that takes its inspiration from Aristotle
• Provides a unified discussion of individuation and identity that should prove to be essential reading for philosophers working in metaphysics.

Spis treści

Preface∗ vii

Acknowledgements xi

1 Introduction 1

The Varieties of ′Is′ 3

Individuals, Kinds, and Realism 4

Semantics, Metaphysics, and Necessity 6

New Developments∗ 8

2 Sortal Terms and Criteria of Identity 12

3 Individuals, Sorts, and Instantiation 29

4 Number, Unity, and Individuality∗ 42

5 The Absoluteness of Identity: A Defence 57

Appendix: Some Formal Principles and Arguments 72

6 Identity and Constitution 77

7 Parts and Wholes 92

8 Persons and Their Bodies 104

Matter and Organisms 104

Organisms and Persons 113

Is There a Criterion of Personal Identity? 125

9 Sortal Terms and Natural Laws 141

10 Plural Quantification and Sortal Reference∗ 164

11 Laws, Dispositions, and Sortal Logic 179

Appendix: An Axiomatic System of Sortal Logic 194

12 What Sorts of Things Are There?∗ 198

The Syntax and Semantics of Complex Sortal Terms 198

On the Identity of Sorts 212

Bibliography∗ 217

Index 223