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Product Identifiers
PublisherOxford University Press, Incorporated
ISBN-100199669570
ISBN-139780199669578
eBay Product ID (ePID)166492578
Product Key Features
Number of Pages310 Pages
Publication NameNecessary Beings : an Essay on Ontology, Modality, and the Relations between Them
LanguageEnglish
Publication Year2013
SubjectFree Will & Determinism, General, Metaphysics, Logic
TypeTextbook
AuthorBob Hale
Subject AreaMathematics, Philosophy, Language Arts & Disciplines
FormatHardcover
Dimensions
Item Height1 in
Item Weight22.8 Oz
Item Length9.4 in
Item Width6.4 in
Additional Product Features
Intended AudienceScholarly & Professional
Dewey Edition23
ReviewsBob Hale's distinguished record of research places him among the most important and influential contemporary analytic metaphysicians. In his deep, wide-ranging, yet highly readable book Necessary Beings, Hale draws upon, but substantially integrates and extends, a good deal of his past research to produce a sustained and richly textured essay on 'e" as promised in the subtitle 'e" ontology, modality, and the relations between them., "...I would be utterly remiss not to express how much I admire his book, how much I enjoyed studying it, and how very much I learned from it; wrestling with its sophisticated and erudite arguments was a deeply rewarding experience for me...it is a scintillating read; arguments are laid out with remarkable clarity, style, and rigor; proposals are developed and defended in assiduous and sparkling detail; and nearly every page is marked by Hale's seemingly limitless philosophical energy and ingenuity. I cannot recommend the book highly enough; indeed I consider it required reading for anyone whose work extends at all into ontology, the philosophy of language, or the philosophy of logic and mathematics." - Philosophia Mathematica
Dewey Decimal121.2
Table Of ContentPreface and acknowledgementsIntroduction1: Ontological preliminaries2: The necessity of necessity3: Irreducible modality4: Absolute Modality5: The Source of Logical Necessities6: Metaphysical Necessities7: Necessary beings: properties and numbers8: Higher-order logics9: Contingent beings10: Possibilities11: Essential knowledgeBibliographyIndex
SynopsisNecessary Beings is concerned with two central areas of metaphysics: modality--the theory of necessity, possibility, and other related notions; and ontology--the general study of what kinds of entities there are. Bob Hale's overarching purpose is to develop and defend two quite general theses about what is required for the existence of entities of various kinds: that questions about what kinds of things there are cannot be properly understood or adequately answered without recourse to considerations about possibility and necessity, and that, conversely, questions about the nature and basis of necessity and possibility cannot be satisfactorily tackled without drawing on what might be called the methodology of ontology. Taken together, these two theses claim that ontology and modality are mutually dependent upon one another, neither more fundamental than the other., Bob Hale presents a broadly Fregean approach to metaphysics, according to which ontology and modality are mutually dependent upon one another. He argues that facts about what kinds of things exist depend on facts about what is possible. Modal facts are fundamental, and have their basis in the essences of things--not in meanings or concepts., Necessary Beings is concerned with two central areas of metaphysics: modality--the theory of necessity, possibility, and other related notions; and ontology--the general study of what kinds of entities there are. Bob Hale's overarching purpose is to develop and defend two quite general theses about what is required for the existence of entities of various kinds: that questions about what kinds of things there are cannot be properly understood or adequately answered without recourse to considerations about possibility and necessity, and that, conversely, questions about the nature and basis of necessity and possibility cannot be satisfactorily tackled without drawing on what might be called the methodology of ontology. Taken together, these two theses claim that ontology and modality are mutually dependent upon one another, neither more fundamental than the other. Hale defends a broadly Fregean approach to metaphysics, according to which ontological distinctions among different kinds of things (objects, properties, and relations) are to be drawn on the basis of prior distinctions between different logical types of expression. The claim that facts about what kinds of things exist depend upon facts about what is possible makes little sense unless one accepts that at least some modal facts are fundamental, and not reducible to facts of some other, non-modal, sort. He argues that facts about what is absolutely necessary or possible have this character, and that they have their source or basis, not in meanings or concepts nor in facts about alternative 'worlds', but in the natures or essences of things., Bob Hale presents an original analysis of what is required for the existence of entities of various kinds, arguing that ontology and modality are mutually dependent upon one another: questions about what kinds of things there are cannot be properly understood without recourse to considerations about possibility and necessity, and questions about the nature and basis of necessity and possibility cannot be tackled without drawing on the methodology of ontology. Heargues that facts about what kinds of things exist depend on facts about what is possible, which means that at least some facts are fundamental--nonreducible to other, non-modal sorts of facts. Theyhave their basis in the natures or essences of things--not in meanings or concepts.
LC Classification NumberBD218.5
