The Philosophy of Nature: A Guide to the New Essentialism (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780773524743)

In this general summation of the theory Brian Ellis, at the forefront of developing the new essentialism, introduces students and generalists to an emerging metaphysical perspective that provides a comprehensive new philosophy of nature.

For many years essentialism was considered beyond the pale in philosophy, a relic of discredited Aristotelianism. This is no longer so. Kripke and Putnam have made belief in essential natures respectable once more. Harré and Madden have argued against Hume's theory of causation and developed an alternative theory based on the assumption that there are genuine causal powers in nature. Dretske, Tooley, Armstrong, Swoyer, and Carroll have all developed strong alternatives to Hume's theory of the laws of nature. And Shoemaker has developed a thoroughly non-Humean theory of properties. The "new essentialism" has evolved from these beginnings and can now reasonably claim to be a metaphysic for a modern scientific understanding of the world - one that challenges the conception of the world as comprising passive entities whose interactions are to be explained by appeal to contingent laws of nature externally imposed.

Author: Brian Ellis
ISBN-10: 0773524746
ISBN-13: 9780773524743
Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
Language: English
Published: 06/17/2002
Pages: 224
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.56lbs
Size: 8.62h x 5.42w x 0.60d

Review Citation(s):
Univ PR Books for Public Libry 01/01/2003 pg. 4 - Recommended/Special Interest