Recent Advances in Metaphysics: Ontological Categories and Categorial Schemes
Keywords:
Metaphysics, Ontology, Theory of ontological categories, Existence, Reality
Abstract
From a traditional ontological perspective, and with the declared intention to move away from contemporary relativism, this paper aims to establish some basic principles to maintain the position of Metaphysics as the systematic study of reality as a whole, and Ontology as the science of being, based on a theory of categories. These categories are differentiated by the distinctive features of existence and identity of their respective members, taking as «fundamental ontological categories» those where its members have conditions for these characteristics of existence and identity that are not exhaustively specifiable, in terms of ontological dependence, between those members and members of other ontological categories. This paper then makes a revision of the different theories of ontological categories, and their respective interpretations of how many and which categories should be recognized.
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Smith, B. (1999), «Truthmaker Realism». Australasian Journal of Philosophy 77, pp. 274-91.
Van Cleve, J. (1985), «Three Versions of the Bundle Theory». Philosophical Studies 47, pp. 95-107.
Wittgenstein, L. (1992), Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Trans. C. J. Ogden. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Armstrong, D. M. (1983a), Universals: An Opinionated Introduction. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Armstrong, D. M. (1983b), What is a Law of Nature? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Armstrong, D. M. (1997), A World of States of Affairs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Campbell, K. (1990), Abstract Particulars. Oxford: Blackwell, 1990.
Chisholm, R. M. (1992), «The Basic Ontological Categories». In: K. Mulligan (ed.), Language, Truth and Ontology. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Chisholm, R. M. (1996), A Realistic Theory of Categories: An Essay in Ontology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Davidson, D. (1984), «True to the Facts». In: Inquiries into Truth and Interpretation. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Hoffman, J. and Rosenkrantz, G. S. (1994), Substance Among Other Categories. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Jackson, F. (1998), From Metaphysics to Ethics: A Defence of Conceptual Analysis. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Levinson, J. (1978), «Properties and Related Entities». Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 39, pp. 1-22.
Lowe, E. J. (1989), Kinds of Being: A Study of Individuation, Identity and the Logic of Sortal Terms. Oxford: Blackwell.
Lowe, E. J. (1998), The Possibility of Metaphysics: Substance, Identity, and Time. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Lowe, E. J. (2000), «Locke, Martin and Substance». Philosophical Quarterly 50, pp. 499-514.
Lowe, E. J. (2001), «Dispositions and Laws». Metaphysica 2, pp. 5-23.
Lowe, E. J. (2002a), «A Defence of the Four-Category Ontology». In: C. U. Moulines & K. G. Niebergall (eds.), Argument und Analyse. Paderborn: Mentis, pp. 225-40.
Lowe, E. J. (2002b), «Kinds, Essence, and Natural Necessity». In: A. Bottani, M. Carrara & P. Giaretta (eds.), Individuals, Essence and Identity: Themes of Analytic Metaphysics. Dordrecht: Kluwer, pp. 189-206.
Lowe, E. J. (2002c), «Metaphysical Nihilism and the Subtraction Argument». Analysis 62, pp. 62-73.
Lowe, E. J. (2002d), «Properties, Modes, and Universals», The Modern Schoolman 74, 137-150.
Lowe, E. J. (2002e), A Survey of Metaphysics. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Lowe, E. J. (2003), «Individuation». In: M. J. Loux and D. W. Zimmerman (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Metaphysics. Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 75-95.
Lowe, E. J. (2006), The Four-Category Ontology. A Metaphysical Foundation for Natural Science. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lowe, E. J. (2009a), «Individuation». In: J. Kim, E. Sosa and G. Rosenkrantz (eds.), A Companion to Metaphysics. 2th. ed. Malden, MA & Oxford: WileyBlackwell, pp. 28-36.
Lowe, E. J. (2009b), More Kinds of Being: A Further Study of Individuation, Identity, and the Logic of Sortal Terms. Malden, MA & Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Lowe, E. J. (2011), «Ontological categories: why four are better than two». In: J. Cumpa and E. Tegtmeier (eds.), Ontological Categories. Frankfurt: Ontos Verlag, 2011, pp. 109-126.
Lowe, E. J. (2012a), «Two notions of being: entity and essence». In: R. Le Poidevin (ed.), Being: Developments in Contemporary Metaphysics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008, pp. 23-48.
Lowe, E. J. (2012b), «Essence and ontology». In: L. Novak, D. D. Novotny, P. Sousedik & D. Svoboda (eds.), Metaphysics: Aristotelian, Scholastic, Analytic. Frankfurt: Ontos Verlag, pp. 93-111.
Lowe, E. J. (2013), «Complex reality: unity, simplicity and complexity in a substance ontology». In: C. Svennerlind, J. Almäng and R. Ingthorsson (eds.), Johanssonian Investigations: Essays in Honour of Ingvar Johansson on his Seventieth Birthday. Frankfurt: Ontos Verlag, pp. 338-57.
Martin, C. B. (1980), «Substance Substantiated». Australasian Journal of Philosophy 58, pp. 3-10.
Martin, C. B. (1993), «The Need for Ontology: Some Choices». Philosophy 68, pp. 505-22.
Martin, C. B. (1994), «Dispositions and Conditionals», Philosophical Quarterly 44, pp. 1-8.
Martin, C. B. and Heil, J. (1999), «The Ontological Turn». Midwest Studies in Philosophy XXIII, pp. 34-60.
Mulligan, K., Simons, P. M. and Smith, B. (1984), «Truth-Makers». Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 44, pp. 287-321.
Neale, S. (1995), «The Philosophical Significance of Gödel´s Slingshot», Mind 104, pp. 761-825.
Simons, P. M. (1994), «Particulars in Particular Clothing: Three Trope Theories of Substance». Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 54, pp. 553-575.
Smith, B. (1997), «On Substances, Accidents and Universals: In Defence of a Constituent Ontology». Philosophical Papers 26, pp. 105-27.
Smith, B. (1999), «Truthmaker Realism». Australasian Journal of Philosophy 77, pp. 274-91.
Van Cleve, J. (1985), «Three Versions of the Bundle Theory». Philosophical Studies 47, pp. 95-107.
Wittgenstein, L. (1992), Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Trans. C. J. Ogden. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Published
2014-12-19
How to Cite
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Lowe, E.J. 2014. Recent Advances in Metaphysics: Ontological Categories and Categorial Schemes. Disputatio. 3, 4 (Dec. 2014), 89-111.
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