Jonathan Lowe argues that metaphysics should be restored to a central position in philosophy, as the most fundamental form of rational inquiry, whose findings underpin those of all other disciplines. He portrays metaphysics as charting the possibilities of existence, by idetifying the categories of being and the relations of ontological dependency between entities of different categories. He proceeds to set out a unified and original metaphysical system: he defends a substance ontology, according to which the existence of the world s one world in time depends upon the existence of persisting things which retain their identity over time and through processes of qualitative change. And he contends that even necessary beings, such as the abstract objects of mathematics, depend ultimately for their existence upon there being a concrete world of enduring substances. Within his system of metaphysics Lowe seeks to answer many of the deepest and most challenging questions in philosophy.

About the Author
E. J. Lowe is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Durham.

Reviews
a very rich book ... deserves to be read carefully by anyone interested in any of the many subjects he discusses. * Katherine Hawley, British Journal of the Philosophy of Science 50 (1999) *



Book Information
ISBN 9780199244997
Author E. J. Lowe
Format Paperback
Page Count 286
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 427g
Dimensions(mm) 236mm * 156mm * 16mm