The Evolution of Modern Metaphysics: Making Sense of Things (The Evolution of Modern Philosophy)
Cambridge University Press, 3/1/2012
EAN 9780521851114, ISBN10: 0521851114
Hardcover, 692 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 5.1 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
This book is concerned with the history of metaphysics since Descartes. Taking as its definition of metaphysics 'the most general attempt to make sense of things', it charts the evolution of this enterprise through various competing conceptions of its possibility, scope, and limits. The book is divided into three parts, dealing respectively with the early modern period, the late modern period in the analytic tradition, and the late modern period in non-analytic traditions. In its unusually wide range, A. W. Moore's study refutes the tired old cliché that there is some unbridgeable gulf between analytic philosophy and philosophy of other kinds. It also advances its own distinctive and compelling conception of what metaphysics is and why it matters. Moore explores how metaphysics can help us to cope with continually changing demands on our humanity by making sense of things in ways that are radically new.
Preface
Introduction
Part I. The Early Modern Period
1. Descartes
metaphysics in the service of science
2. Spinoza
metaphysics in the service of ethics
3. Leibniz
metaphysics in the service of theodicy
4. Hume
metaphysics committed to the flames?
5. Kant
the possibility, scope, and limits of metaphysics
6. Fichte
transcendentalism versus naturalism
7. Hegel
transcendentalism-cum-naturalism
or, absolute idealism
Part II. The Late Modern Period I
The Analytic Tradition
8. Frege
sense under scrutiny
9. The early Wittgenstein
the possibility, scope, and limits of sense
or, sense, senselessness, and nonsense
10. The later Wittgenstein
bringing words back from their metaphysical to their everyday use
11. Carnap
the elimination of metaphysics?
12. Quine
the ne plus ultra of naturalism
13. Lewis
metaphysics in the service of philosophy
14. Dummett
the logical basis of metaphysics
Part III. The Late Modern Period II
Non-Analytic Traditions
15. Nietzsche
sense under scrutiny again
16. Bergson
metaphysics as pure creativity
17. Husserl
making sense of making sense
18. Heidegger
letting being be
19. Collingwood
metaphysics as history
20. Derrida
metaphysics deconstructed?
21. Deleuze
something completely different
Conclusion.