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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Elements and Patterns of Being: Essays in Metaphysics

The Elements and Patterns of Being: Essays in Metaphysics

Williams, Donald C.
Fisher, A. R. J.

Hardcover

Philosophy

ISBN10: 0198810385
ISBN13: 9780198810384
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: May 15 2018
Pages: 254
Weight: 1.10
Height: 0.90 Width: 6.10 Depth: 9.30
Language: English
The Harvard philosopher Donald C. Williams (1899-1983) was a key figure in the history of analytic philosophy.

He played a crucial role in reviving metaphysics at a time when other philosophers ridiculed, criticized, and committed it to the flames. He constructed an explanatorily powerful and parsimonious ontology and cosmology founded on logic, science, and common sense. His most influential articles were on the metaphysics of properties ('The Elements of Being') and the meta-physics of time ('The Sea Fight Tomorrow', 'The Myth of Passage'). His ontology of abstract particulars or tropes and his four-dimensional manifold theory of time remain leading hypotheses in metaphysics. Because of his novel contributions and his defense of metaphysics he made a lasting impact on philosophers of the next generation who in turn believed in the substance of metaphysical inquiry.

A. R. J. Fisher brings together Williams's seminal articles in metaphysics along with previously unpublished essays that shed new light on his philosophical outlook and complete his metaphysical vision. This volume, with its comprehensive Introduction, is set to be the definitive source for Williams's work, both for historians of analytic philosophy and for contemporary metaphysicians.

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