Metaphysics: The Big Questions

by Peter van Inwagen (Editor), Dean W. Zimmerman (Editor)

This volume provides a vital student resource: a collection of the essential classic and contemporary readings in metaphysics.

Genres: Philosophy, Metaphysics, Nonfiction, Textbooks, Reference

512 pages, Paperback

First published January 16, 1991

About the author

Peter van Inwagen is an American analytic philosopher and the John Cardinal O'Hara Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. earned his PhD from the University of Rochester under the direction of Richard Taylor and Keith Lehrer.

Today, Van Inwagen is one of the leading figures in contemporary metaphysics, philosophy of religion, and philosophy of action. He has taught previously at Syracuse University and was the president of the Society of Christian Philosophers from 2010 to 2013. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2005 and was President of the Central Division of the American Philosophical Association in 2008-2009. Van Inwagen has also received an honorary doctorate from the University of Saint Andrews in Scotland.

Reviews

[Cade · Rating 4 out of 5]

While Peter van Inwagen is one of my least favorite people, this collection of essays was still very good.

[laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

what i'm actually giving four stars to is the course in metaphysics i just completed with jody azzouni. we read probably half of this anthology, we skipped around, and i didn't really read the introductions much, so i don't know how it stacks up against other anthologies or anything like that, but this, my introduction to analytic metaphysics, was surprisingly enjoyable. i expected to class this thing 'dry' and 'tortuous', but 'clever' (black!), 'warm' (russell!), and 'beautiful' (russell, again, and also quine) were just excellent surprises. if i had a bookshelf for 'clean' (which i should), i would put this there, too.

[sologdin · Rating 2 out of 5]

useful probably for an undergraduate course. attempts to lay down some of the standard ontological concepts with some rigor--though it is a fairly short text, and, as I recall it, is trying to present summations of the major debates in orderly fashion.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't read *every single article* in this text, but, I have read an article from each section. On the whole, it is an excellent resource.