Metametaphysics

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Slides for the last lecture are here.

Our final meeting is on Tuesday, December 13 at U40, room 12. We will have a general discussion about the contents of the course as well as the essays.

At least those of you who know Finnish might be interested in this workshop on Metametaphysics at the University of Tampere, December 14. I will give a talk on Quantification and Ontological Realism, and there will also be talks by Jani Hakkarainen, Markku Keinänen, Heikki J. Koskinen, and Arto Repo. I’m afraid that it is in Finnish, but it’s certainly relevant for the course, so I thought I’d advertise the workshop here.

In the meanwhile, the final lecture is on Monday December 12 at U38, room 205, followed by a discussion on December 13 at U40, room 12.

With the course coming to its end, it’s time to start thinking about the essays. I promised to list some potential essay topics, which you can find below. However, you’re free to choose any topic that’s related to the course material. As to the literature, I refer you to the course syllabus, although you can use other literature as well. If you mainly wish to use sources which have not been discussed in the lectures or listed in the syllabus, please get in touch with me (at tuomas -dot- tahko -dot- helsinki -dot- fi) to confirm that they are suitable (but you can of course complement the listed material with anything relevant that you might find).

The provisional deadline for the essays was the end of the year, but I will not enforce that deadline strictly. If you anticipate that you will not be able to submit your essay by mid-January, you should let me know.

The word limit for the essays is 3,000 words if you wish to get three credits, and 5,000 words if you’d like five credits. Let me know under which course code (Fte340.1.f / Fte340.2.f / Fte345.f) you want the credits as well!

You should submit your essay directly to me at the previous e-mail address, preferably in PDF format, but I accept Word and OpenOffice formats as well. I hope to be able to return them to you electronically with some comments.

Please note that I will not be in Finland in spring 2012, so if you’d like to discuss anything with me in person, that should be done before the end of this term. There will be an opportunity to discuss the essays and any other practical matters at our very last meeting, on Tuesday 13 December (U40, room 12).

In the meanwhile, we have a seminar discussion on Metaphysics and Natural Science on Monday 5 December, and the final lecture on Monday 12 December, both at the usual room A205, U38. There will not be a lecture on Tuesday 6 December. I recommend that you take a look at the readings for the last lecture already before 12 December, as we will discuss the material at the last meeting on 13 December.

If you have any other questions, do not hesitate to contact me.

Suggested Essay Topics:
-The Prospects of Distinguishing between Realism and Anti-Realism
-What Is the Role of Quantificational Questions in Metaphysics?
-Is the Quinean Understanding of Ontological Commitment Viable?
-Primitivism: Can We Do Metaphysics Without It?
-A Comparison of Fine’s and Schaffer’s Understanding of Grounding
-Our Epistemic Access to Fundamental Facts (According to Sider/Fine/Schaffer)
-Easy vs. Hard Ontology
-Is there Room for a Middle Ground Between Immodest and Unambitious Metaphysics? (cf. Hofweber)
-The Importance of Modal Epistemology for Metaphysics
-An Assessment of Williamson’s Counterfactual Account of Metaphysical Modality
-Does Conceivability Entail Possibility?
-Physical Modality and the Laws of Physics
-Evaluation of the Principle of Naturalistic Closure (cf. Ladyman & Ross)
-The Relationship between Metaphysics and Natural Science
-Can We Demarcate between Science and Metaphysics?
-Metaphysical Knowledge: A Priori or A Posteriori?
-Does Possibility Precede Actuality? (cf. Lowe)
-Metaphysics as the Science of Essence

The slides of this lecture are here.

A living course syllabus is available here.

Essential reading for the seminar discussion on Monday, December 5:

• Ladyman and Ross (2007), Every Thing Must Go. Chapter 1 (or at least sections 1.1 – 1.4) http://bit.ly/rzcxkJ

Suggested readings include:

• C. Callender (Unpublished), ’Philosophy of Science and Metaphysics’. http://bit.ly/nTsxft
• M. Devitt (2008), ’Scientific Realism’. In Jackson and Smith (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Philosophy. http://scr.bi/9BsAf0
• C. Dorr (2010), ’Review of Every Thing Must Go’. http://bit.ly/pJomw7
• K. Hawley (2003), ’Science As A Guide To Metaphysics’. http://bit.ly/rucJaX
• E. J. Lowe (2011), ‘The Rationality of Metaphysics’. Synthese 178. http://bit.ly/v3fYEb

The slides of this lecture are here.

A living course syllabus is available here.

Essential reading for the seminar discussion on Monday, November 28:

• T. Williamson (2007), ’Philosophical Knowledge and Knowledge of Counterfactuals’. Grazer Philosophische Studien. Or Chapter 5 of his The Philosophy of Philosophy (2007, Blackwell). http://bit.ly/pzBNHg (A cursory reading should be sufficient if you feel that it’s too long.)

Suggested readings include:

• K. Fine (1994), ’Essence and Modality’. Philosophical Perspectives 8. http://bit.ly/pEJSZH
• Gendler and Hawthorne (2002), ’Introduction: Conceivability and Possibility’. In Gendler and Hawthorne (Eds.), Conceivability and Possibility. Up to section 4. http://bit.ly/rp9Duq
• S. Roca-Royes (Forthcoming), ’Modal Knowledge and Counterfactual Knowledge’. Logique et Analyse. http://bit.ly/u44PTQ
• T. E. Tahko (Forthcoming), ’Counterfactuals and Modal Epistemology’. Grazer Philosophische Studien. http://bit.ly/r6x094

A blog post on fundamentality: http://carvingnature.wordpress.com/2011/10/30/fundamentality-inflate-or-deflate/

The slides of this lecture are here.

A living course syllabus is available here.

Compulsory reading by Monday November 21, when we will discuss Hofweber’s article and deflationism about metaphysics:

• T. Hofweber (2009), ’Ambitious, Yet Modest, Metaphysics.’ In Chalmers, Manley and Wasserman (Eds.), Metametaphysics (OUP). http://bit.ly/nyCEEr

Suggested readings include:

• E. Hirsch (2009), ’Ontology and Alternative Languages.’ In Chalmers, Manley and Wasserman (Eds.), Metametaphysics (OUP). (Some other recent article by Hirsch works too.)
• T. Sider (Forthcoming), Writing the Book of the World. Chapter 5, possibly Chapter 9 (selectively). http://bit.ly/ogkWB5
• A. L. Thomasson (2009), ’The Easy Approach to Ontology.’ Axiomathes 19 (1). http://bit.ly/uOafxc (This is in .docx format, let me know if you have trouble opening it.)
• S. Yablo (1998), ’Does Ontology Rest on a Mistake?’ Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volume 72. http://bit.ly/uTc7mR

Just a reminder of the discussion on Monday November 14, 2-4pm at at U38, room A205.

If you haven’t noticed yet, I fixed the link to the slides of the previous lecture, they are here.

We will primarily discuss the first two chapters of Sider’s new book, but see the previous post for further readings.

UPDATE: My apologies, the link to the slides was incorrect, but it has been fixed now!

The slides of this lecture are here.

A living course syllabus is available here.

Compulsory reading by Monday November 14, when we will have a discussion about the readings:

• T. Sider (Forthcoming), Writing the Book of the World. Preface and Chapters 1-2 (Chapter 8 recommended). http://bit.ly/ogkWB5

Suggested readings include:

• K. Fine (2001), ’The Question of Realism.’ Philosophers Imprint. http://bit.ly/qtHkmN
• K. Fine (2010), ‘Some Puzzles of Ground.’ Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic, vol. 51, no. 1. http://bit.ly/rAzTgu
• K. Fine (2011), ’What Is Metaphysics?’. In Tahko (Ed.), Contemporary Aristotelian Metaphysics (CUP). http://bit.ly/vg1JRB
• K. Fine (Forthcoming), ‘The Pure Logic of Ground’. Review of Logic. http://bit.ly/rZvjqA
• K. Koslicki (Forthcoming), ’Varieties of Ontological Dependence.’ In Correia and Schnieder (Eds.), Grounding and Explanation (CUP). http://bit.ly/pNwoWN
• E. J. Lowe (2009), ‘Ontological Dependence’. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. http://bit.ly/Wyi2L
• J. Schaffer (2003), ‘Is There a Fundamental Level?’ Noûs. http://bit.ly/tneJ6s
• J. Schaffer (2009), ’On What Grounds What.’ In Chalmers, Manley, and Wasserman (Eds.), Metametaphysics (OUP). http://bit.ly/p6pVhM
• K. Trogdon (Forthcoming), ‘An Introduction to Grounding.’ In Hoeltje, Schnieder, and Steinberg (Eds.) Basic Philosophical Concepts (Philosophia Verlag, Munich). http://bit.ly/suFN9M

The slides of this lecture are here.

A living course syllabus is available here.

Compulsory reading by Monday November 7:

• K. Fine (2009), ’The Question of Ontology.’ In Chalmers, Manley and Wasserman (Eds.), Metametaphysics (OUP). http://bit.ly/nfpl5B
  Note that there are errors in the logical notation of the electronic version. See the slides for some correct examples.

Suggested readings include:

• T. Crane (2011), ’Existence and Quantification Reconsidered.’ In Tahko (Ed.), Contemporary Aristotelian Metaphysics (CUP). http://bit.ly/oF4D0E
• K. Fine (2006), ‘Relatively Unrestricted Quantification.’ In A. Rayo and G. Uzquiano (Eds.), Absolute Generality (OUP). http://bit.ly/tCDCNh
• W. V. O. Quine (1948), ’On What There Is.’ Review of Metaphysics. Reprinted in 1953 From a LogicalPoint of View (Harvard). http://bit.ly/EcQ24
• A. Rayo (2007), ’Ontological Commitment.’ Philosophy Compass. http://bit.ly/qNUyqd
• S. Soames (2009), ’Ontology, Analyticity, and Meaning: the Quine-Carnap Dispute.’ In Chalmers, Manley and Wasserman (Eds.), Metametaphysics (OUP). http://bit.ly/ovue7I