About What There Is An Introduction to Contemporary Metaphysics

Strangely, many metaphysics texts do not really introduce what contemporary
metaphysicians do. A result is that huge chunks of contemporary philosophy may seem
mysterious or bizarre, even to students with an undergraduate degree in philosophy. This
might happen for different reasons.
First, it is my conviction that a text for upper-level philosophy is properly justified
as a “window” into standard original works. A text should not replace original works, but
rather provide a “pathway” through them. An upper-level text should supply background
so that original works are accessible, provide context to integrate them, and enter into a
student’s conversation with the original works themselves. In this latter role, a textbook
might itself count as original. I think many texts for upper-level metaphysics do not
adequately serve these ends. Thus, e.g., many do not make direct contact with the
literature. One might think that, even so, a text could count as a legitimate introduction to
the subject matter. Unfortunately, many metaphysics texts do not do even this.
A metaphysics course that takes up questions about god, mind and body, freedom
and determinism, space and time, etc. takes up interesting and important metaphysical
questions. But such a course may overlap with standard introductions to philosophy, and
with more advanced courses in philosophy of religion, philosophy of mind, philosophy of
science, etc. Thus, contrary to fact, metaphysics may seem to have no subject matter of
its own. And such a course may never raise those questions about reality, truth, abstract
objects, events, and the like, which dominate so much of contemporary (specifically)
metaphysical discussion. Even worse, a course devoted to questions about god, mind and
body, freedom and determinism, etc. may leave the more specifically metaphysical
questions strange and unmotivated.
My aim is to remedy this situation. I think a narrow focus on metaphysical
method, and some specifically metaphysical questions, not only introduces metaphysics
proper, but also illuminates metaphysical discussion more generally, and even
philosophical discussion beyond the borders of metaphysics. I approach the task in four
sections. The short first section develops an overall picture of the metaphysical project.
The second section takes up metaphysical method and especially W. V. O. Quine’s
classic article, “On What There Is.”1
These first two sections raise many important and
interesting metaphysical questions. The latter two focus on a few metaphysical questions
more directly. The third section stands between the second and the fourth, insofar as it
takes up metaphysical issues which matter for understanding the metaphysical method.
The last section takes up some metaphysical problems more for their own sake. In this
iii

───────
1 Quine, “On What There Is,” The Review of Metaphysics 2 (1948): 21-28. Reprint in many places
including Quine, From a Logical Point of View 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1980).