PHIL 420: Metaphysics

Spring 2008

Instructor: Dr. JeeLoo Liu

Department of Philosophy

California State University at Fullerton

jeelooliu@fullerton.edu

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The following handouts are for student use only. No quotation is permitted. (Feedback welcomed)

Michael Devitt: What Is Realism?

John Searle: Does the Real World Exist?

Hilary Putnam: Why There Isn’t a Ready-made World

Ernest Sosa: Putnam’s Pragmatic Realism

Michael Devitt, A Naturalistic Defense of Realism

Hilary Putnam: The Many Faces of Realism [Lectures I & II]

Hilary Putnam: The Many Faces of Realism [Lectures III & IV]

Nelson Goodman: Ways of Worldmaking [I. Chapter 1]

Nelson Goodman: Ways of Worldmaking [II. Chapters 6-7]

J. L. Mackie: Causes and Conditions

David Lewis: Causation

G. E. M. Anscombe: Causality and Determination

Wesley Salmon: Probabilistic Causation

D. H. Mellor: On Raising the Chances of Effects

J. M. E. McTaggart: (The Unreality of) Time

A. N. Prior: The Notion of the Present

Dean Zimmerman: The Privileged Present: Defending An “A-Theory” of Time

J. J. C. Smart: The Tenseless Theory of Time

David Lewis: The Paradoxes of Time Travel

John Hawthorne, Three-Dimensionalism vs. Four-Dimensionalism

Michael J. Loux, Endurantism and Perdurantism

Mark Heller: Temporal Parts of Four-Dimensional Objects

Michael Rea: Four-Dimensionalism

Sources:

1. Michael Devitt: What Is Realism?  In Devitt, Realism and Truth.  Princeton University Press, 1997.  Pp. 13-25.
2. John Searle: Does the Real World Exist? In Realism/Antirealism and Epistemology, ed. Christopher B Kulp, [Oxford, England: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.], 1997, 15-52.
3. Hilary Putnam: Why There Isn’t a Ready-made World.  In Metaphysics: Contemporary Readings. (ed. ) Stephen Hales.  Wadsworth.  1999.  Pp. 63-76.
4. Ernest Sosa: Putnam’s Pragmatic Realism. In Metaphysics: Contemporary Readings. (ed. ) Stephen Hales.  Wadsworth.  1999.  Pp. 77-89.
5. Michael Devitt, A Naturalistic Defense of Realism. In Metaphysics: Contemporary Readings. (ed. ) Stephen Hales.  Wadsworth.  1999.  Pp. 90-105.
6. Hilary Putnam: The Many Faces of Realism. Open Court. 
7. Nelson Goodman: Ways of Worldmaking.  Hackett Publishing. 
8. Michael Dummett: Realism & Anti-Realism. In Metaphysics: Contemporary Readings. (ed. ) Stephen Hales.  Wadsworth.  1999.  Pp. 52-62.
9. J. L. Mackie: Causes and Conditions.  In Causation. (eds.) Erenst Sosa and Michael Tooley, Oxford University Press, 1993.  Pp. 33-55.
10. (i) David Lewis: Causation. Journal of Philosophy 70: 556-67, 1973.  Reprinted in Causation. (eds.) Erenst Sosa and Michael Tooley, Oxford University Press, 1993.  Pp. 193-204.  (ii) Jaegwon Kim: Causes and Counterfactuals. Journal of Philosophy 70: 570-72, 1973. .  Reprinted in Causation. (eds.) Erenst Sosa and Michael Tooley, Oxford University Press, 1993.  Pp. 205-207.
11. G. E. M. Anscombe: Causality and Determination. In Causation. (eds.) Erenst Sosa and Michael Tooley, Oxford University Press, 1993.  Pp. 88-104.
12. Wesley Salmon: Probabilistic Causation. In Causation. (eds.) Erenst Sosa and Michael Tooley, Oxford University Press, 1993.  Pp. 137-153.
13. D. H. Mellor: On Raising the Chances of Effects.  In D. H. Mellor, Matters of Metaphysics.  Cambridge University Press, 1991.  Pp. 225-234.
14. J. M. E. McTaggart: (The Unreality of) Time. In Metaphysics: Contemporary Readings. (ed.) Michael J. Loux.  Routledge, 2001.  Pp. 260-271.
15. C. D. Broad: McTaggart’s Arguments against the Reality of Time.  In Metaphysics: Contemporary Readings. (ed.) Michael J. Loux.  Routledge, 2001.  Pp. 272-278.
16. A. N. Prior: The Notion of the Present. In Metaphysics: Contemporary Readings. (ed.) Michael J. Loux.  Routledge, 2001.  Pp. 289-293.
17. Dean Zimmerman: The Privileged Present: Defending An “A-Theory” of Time. In Contemporary Debates in Metaphysics. (eds.) Theodore Sider, John Hawthorne, and Dean Zimmerman.  Blackwell Publishing, 2008.  Pp. 211-224.
18. J. J. C. Smart: The Tenseless Theory of Time.  In Contemporary Debates in Metaphysics. (eds.) Theodore Sider, John Hawthorne, and Dean Zimmerman.  Blackwell Publishing, 2008.  Pp. 226-238.
19. David Lewis: The Paradoxes of Time Travel. In Metaphysics: The Big Questions. (eds.) Peter van Inwagen and Dean Zimmerman.  Blackwell, 1998.  Pp. 159-169.
20. John Hawthorne, Three-Dimensionalism vs. Four-Dimensionalism.  In Contemporary Debates in Metaphysics. (eds.) Theodore Sider, John Hawthorne, and Dean Zimmerman.  Blackwell Publishing, 2008.  Pp. 263-282.
21. Michael J. Loux, Endurantism and Perdurantism. In Metaphysics: Contemporary Readings. (ed.) Michael J. Loux.  Routledge, 2001.  Pp. 321-327.
22. Mark Heller: Temporal Parts of Four-Dimensional Objects. In Metaphysics: Contemporary Readings. (ed.) Michael J. Loux.  Routledge, 2001.  Pp. 328-352.
23. Michael Rea: Four-Dimensionalism. In The Oxford Handbook of Metaphysics. (eds.) Michael J. Loux and Dean Zimmerman. Oxford University Press, 2003.  Pp. 246-276.