Substance has been a leading idea in the history of Western philosophy. Joshua Hoffman and Gary S. Rosenkrantz explain the nature and existence of individual substances, including both living things and inanimate objects. Specifically written for students new to this important and often complex subject, Substance provides both the historical and contemporary overview of the debate.
Great Philosophers of the past, such as Aristotle, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibnitz, Locke, and Berkeley were profoundly interested in the concept of substance. And, the authors argue, a...

This book revives a neglected but important topic in philosophy: the nature of substance. The belief that there are individual substances (for example, material objects and persons) is at the core of our common-sense view of the world, yet many metaphysicians deny the very coherence of the concept of substance. The authors develop a novel account of what an individual substance is in terms of independence from other beings.

The Divine Attributesis an engaging analysis of the God of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam from the perspective of rational theology.

The Divine Attributesis an engaging analysis of the God of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam from the perspective of rational theology.

Many contemporary philosophers are interested in the scotistic notion of haecceity or thisness' because it is relevant to important problems concerning identity and individuation, reference, modality, and propositional attitudes. Haecceity is the only book-length work devoted to this topic. The author develops a novel defense of Platonism, arguing, first, that abstracta - nonqualitative haecceities - are needed to explain concreta's being diverse at a time; and second, that unexemplified haecceities are then required to accommodate the full range of cases in which...

Historical Dictionary of Metaphysics focuses on metaphysics in Western philosophy, the metaphysical tradition that developed under the influence of Greek philosophy, and especially Plato and Aristotle. It offers a comprehensive, current guide to the many facets of metaphysics through a chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography and over 300 cross-referenced dictionary entries on concepts, people, works, and technical terms. This volume is an invaluable resource for student and scholar alike.