Lowe argues in this fascinating new study that metaphysics should be restored to centrality in philosophy, as the most fundamental form of inquiry, whose findings underpin those of all other disciplines. He portrays metaphysics as charting the possibilities of existence, by identifying the categories of being and the relations between them. He then sets out his own metaphysical system, with which he seeks to answer many of the most vexed questions in philosophy.

A systematic overview of modern metaphysics, A Survey of Metaphysics covers all of the most important topics in the field. It adopts the fairly traditional conception of metaphysics as a subject that deals with the deepest questions that can be raised concerning the fundamental structure of reality as a whole. The book is divided into six main sections that address the following themes: identity and change, necessity and essence, causation, agency and events, space and time, and universals and particulars. It focuses on contemporary views and issues throughout, rather than on the...

E. J. Lowe, a prominent figure in contemporary metaphysics, sets out and defends his theory of what there is. His four-category ontology is a metaphysical system which recognizes four fundamental categories of beings: substantial and non-substantial particulars and substantial and non-substantial universals. Lowe argues that this system has an explanatory power which is unrivaled by more parsimonious theories and that this counts decisively in its favor. He shows that it provides a powerful explanatory framework for a unified account of causation, dispositions, natural laws, natural necessity...

In this introduction to Locke's thought, EJ Lowe covers all the major aspects of his philosophy. He concentrates on introducing and assessing Locke in a contemporary philosophical setting, explaining why he is so important today.

In this innovative study E.J. Lowe demonstrates the inadequacy of physicalism, even in its mildest, nonreductionist guises, as a basis for a scientifically and philosophically acceptable account of human beings as subjects of experience, thought and action. He shows how an attribution of independent causal powers to the mental states of human subjects is perfectly consistent with a thoroughly natural world view, and examines the role that conscious mental states play in the human subject's exercise of its most central capacities for perception, action, thought and self-knowledge.

In this innovative study E.J. Lowe demonstrates the inadequacy of physicalism, even in its mildest, nonreductionist guises, as a basis for a scientifically and philosophically acceptable account of human beings as subjects of experience, thought and action. He shows how an attribution of independent causal powers to the mental states of human subjects is perfectly consistent with a thoroughly natural world view, and examines the role that conscious mental states play in the human subject's exercise of its most central capacities for perception, action, thought and self-knowledge.

E. J. Lowe offers a lucid and wide-ranging introduction to the philosophy of mind. Using a problem-centered approach designed to stimulate as well as instruct, he begins with a general examination of the mind-body problem and moves on to more specific issues including perception, rationality, action and self-knowledge. His discussion is distinctive in giving equal attention to deep metaphysical questions concerning the mind and to the discoveries and theories of modern scientific psychology. It will be of interest to any reader with a basic grounding in modern philosophy.

E. J. Lowe offers a lucid and wide-ranging introduction to the philosophy of mind. Using a problem-centered approach designed to stimulate as well as instruct, he begins with a general examination of the mind-body problem and moves on to more specific issues including perception, rationality, action and self-knowledge. His discussion is distinctive in giving equal attention to deep metaphysical questions concerning the mind and to the discoveries and theories of modern scientific psychology. It will be of interest to any reader with a basic grounding in modern philosophy.

E. J. Lowe sets out and defends his theory of what there is. His four-category ontology is a metaphysical system that recognizes two fundamental categorial distinctions which cut across each other to generate four fundamental ontological categories. The distinctions are between the particular and the universal and between the substantial and the non-substantial. The four categories thus generated are substantial particulars, non-substantial particulars, substantial universals and non-substantial universals. Non-substantial universals include properties and relations, conceived as universals....

Personal Agency consists of two parts. In Part II, a radically libertarian theory of action is defended which combines aspects of agent causalism and volitionism. This theory accords to volitions the status of basic mental actions, maintaining that these are spontaneous exercises of the will--a 'two-way' power which rational agents can freely exercise in the light of reason. Lowe contends that substances, not events, are the causal source of all change in the world--with rational, free agents like ourselves having a special place in the causal order as unmoved movers, or initiators of new...