Metaphysics: An Introduction to Contemporary Debates and Their History

This volume introduces readers to a selected number of core issues in metaphysics that have been central in the history of philosophy and remain foundational to contemporary debates, that is: substances; properties; modality and essence; causality; determinism and free will. Anna Marmodoro and Erasmus Mayr take a neo-Aristotelian approach both in the selection and presentation of the topics. But Marmodoro and Mayr's discussion is not narrowly partisan-it consistently presents opposing sides of the debate and addresses issues from different philosophical traditions, and encourages readers to draw their own conclusions about them. Metaphysics combines a state-of-the-art presentation of the issues that takes into account the most recent developments in the field, with extensive references to the history of philosophy. The book thus makes topics in contemporary analytical metaphysics easily accessible to readers who have no specific background in contemporary philosophy, but rather in the history of philosophy. At the same time, it will engage readers who do not have any historical background with some key developments within the history of the subject.