Rethinking Metaphysics
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Product details:
- Publisher OUP USA
- Date of Publication 9 July 2025
- ISBN 9780197787809
- Binding Hardback
- No. of pages280 pages
- Size 201x137x27 mm
- Weight 386 g
- Language English 668
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Short description:
In Rethinking Metaphysics, Amie Thomasson aims to change how we think about metaphysics: what it can do, and why it matters. Traditional metaphysics has aimed to discover deep truths about the world. But this has led to rivalries with science, epistemological mysteries, and a despairing scepticism about how we could gain knowledge in metaphysics. Thomasson argues that the problems with prior approaches to metaphysics arise from a problematic assumption that all discourse functions in the same way. By better understanding the plurality of linguistic functions, we can also disentangle ourselves from many old metaphysical problems--including problems about properties, numbers, morality and modality.
MoreLong description:
In Rethinking Metaphysics, Amie Thomasson aims to change how we think about metaphysics: what it can do, and why it matters. Traditional metaphysics has aimed to discover deep truths about the world. But this has led to rivalries with science, epistemological mysteries, and a despairing scepticism about how we could gain knowledge in metaphysics.
Thomasson argues that the problems with prior approaches to metaphysics arise from a problematic assumption that all discourse functions in the same way. Drawing on work in linguistics, she shows how to develop a richer view of linguistic functions that enables us to see why this assumption leads us astray. By better understanding the plurality of linguistic functions, she argues, we can also disentangle ourselves from many old metaphysical problems--including problems about properties, numbers, morality and modality.
In place of the traditional model, we should think of metaphysics as work in conceptual engineering--including both a reverse engineering project aimed at understanding how various parts of our language and conceptual scheme work and what functions they serve, and a constructive engineering project that investigates what concepts and language we should use and how we should use them. Rethinking metaphysics as conceptual engineering in this way enables us to avoid the problems of traditional metaphysics, while also demonstrating the perennial importance of metaphysics to human life.
Amie Thomasson is one of the most insightful and articulate voices at the pragmatic end of metaphysics. Rethinking Metaphysics completes the field-defining trilogy she began with Ontology Made Easy (2014) and Norms and Necessity (2020). It asks how we should conceive of metaphysics, in the wake of pragmatism. Thomasson's answer, like the question itself, reflects the stance of conceptual engineering, and the book is an important addition to the literature on that topic. Especially welcome is a fascinating discussion of connections to the program of Systemic Functional Linguistics, little-known to philosophy readers.
Table of Contents:
Part I. Why We Should Rethink Metaphysics
The Traditional Conception of Metaphysics
The Explanatory Conception of Metaphysics
The Structural Conception of Metaphysics
The Truthmaker Conception of Metaphysics
Fundamentality and Grounding Projects
Part II. How We Should Rethink Metaphysics
Metaphysics as Conceptual Engineering
Identifying Linguistic Functions
Reverse Engineering: Unraveling Metaphysical Problems
Pragmatic Conceptual Engineering
The Perennial Philosophical Project
