Existence Of The World

by Reinhardt Grossmann

This introduction to ontology views the history of Western philosophy as a constant battle between the Giants and the Gods of Plato's "Sophist". The author discusses in detail the important metaphysical debates that lie at the heart of the battle between the naturalists and ontologists. Beginning with the history of the nominalist vs realist debate about universals, the author develops an enquiry into nature and the existence of categories such as relations, structures, numbers and facts. In the final part, he argues that existence and negation are not categories but features of the world.

Genres: Philosophy, Metaphysics

148 pages, Paperback

First published September 26, 1991

Reviews

[Aljoša Toplak · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a neat introduction to the study of ontology and some of the debates in that field, particularly the so-called "problem of universals". Grossman gives a nice historical overview of some issues, albeit they are presented in a way to fit the narrative and view the book is trying to forward.

Since I'm not that well-versed in ontology and I mainly think in naturalistic terms, it was difficult to truly think the things the author tried to convey. A common naturalist will grant existence only to "individual things", while abstractions will usually be accounted for as being mental concepts. Grossman, on the other hand, is a realist about the existence of individual things, aswell as their properties, relations to other individuals, the structures they make up, the sets they are part of, the quantifiers that we use to form propositions, and facts. Although he presents many arguments against his opposing views, I simply failed to be convinced by his position. Although he presents some interesting points against nominalism, I feel like his critique of conceptualism missed the mark.

[Christian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eine kompakte Einführung in die Hintergründe der Nominalisten und Ontologen. Ohne Grundwissen in Logik möglicherweise schwerer nachvollziehbar.
An manchen Stellen wurde es schwierig zu folgen, da die Gedankengänge sehr dicht verschriftlicht wurden und man vermutlich mehr Hintergrundwissen mitbringen müsste.
Dennoch grandios, da sehr viel Wissen auf wenig Platz präsentiert wird.