Current Controversies in Metaphysics (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780415855655)

This book showcases a range of views on topics at the forefront of current controversies in the field of metaphysics. It will give readers a varied and alive introduction to the field, and cover such key issues as: modality, fundamentality, composition, the object/property distinction, and indeterminacy. The contributors include some of the most important philosophers currently writing on these issues. The questions and philosophers are:

• Are there any individuals at the fundamental level? / (1) Shamik Dasgupta (2) Jason Turner
• Is there an objective difference between essential and accidental properties? / (1) Meghan Sullivan (2) Kris McDaniel and Steve Steward
• Are there any worldly states of affairs? / (1) Daniel Nolan (2) Joseph Melia
• Are there any intermediate states of affairs? / (1) Jessica Wilson (2) Elizabeth Barnes and Ross Cameron
• Do ordinary objects exist? / (1) Trenton Merricks (2) Helen Beebee

Editor Elizabeth Barnes guides readers through these controversies (all published here for the first time), with a synthetic introduction and succinct abstracts of each debate.