180031 VO-L Introduction to Analytic Metaphysics (2024W)

Aims: These "lectures with required reading" are intended to introduce students to metaphysics and familiarize them with its central questions from a historical and systematic perspective. In the course of the semester, students will become acquainted with some essential historical texts (from Anaxagoras, Plato and Aristotle to Avicenna/Ibn Sina and Al-Biruni, and from Locke, Newton, and Leibniz to Einstein), as well as current debates through a selection of contemporary analytic papers.

Content: In this lecture series we will explore the question of what the basic building blocks of the world are which underlie all other philosophical questions. For example, we will discuss what objects are and how they relate to their properties; what sort of properties there are; what it is for something to undergo a change; what identity is; what it means to be necessary, contingent, possible, or impossible. In this context, we will also address the distinction between realism and anti-realism.

Metaphysical explanations usually start from something taken as primary, i.e. as the itself not analyzed basis of all further metaphysical explanation. We will look at a selection of ontological entities metaphysicians today take as primary and will discuss the respective merits and difficulties of these options. In this context we will address issues concerning ontological commitment, reduction and grounding. The literature on these topics includes historical texts (see above) as well as work by contemporary philosophers including Allen, Armstrong, Ayers, Brewer, Besson as well as Haslanger, Lewis, Magidor, Meincke, and Thomson, Vetter, Xu, Yablo.

The first question we will have to tackle, however, is why analytic metaphysics even exists - after all, the Vienna Circle vehemently opposed metaphysics. This question leads us deep into meta-metaphysics. We will read the manifesto of the Vienna Circle and look at recent literature by Belleri, Bennett, Russell and Sider.

Method: There will be required reading which students are expected to have done ahead of each lecture; further reading will also be recommended for each topic. In the lecture, the respective issue(s) will be discussed. We will then look at the most important philosophical views on them and talk about the respective required reading.

This lecture course will be taught in the following manner:

The weekly lectures will be made available as videos (mp4 files) on Moodle, where you will also find the required reading for each lecture as well as a list of further recommended reading. The material will therefore be fully available electronically and can be accessed at any time of day. Please note that it is necessary to listen to / watch the lecture and read the required reading every week.

During the announced lecture times, we will meet in person in the lecture hall, if possible, otherwise electronically online. These meetings constitute an essential, integral part of this lecture course, where we will discuss the weekly topic and students can ask questions concerning the material and the required reading. They also offer an opportunity for sharing your thoughts with other (budding) philosophers, which is a very important aspect in doing philosophy.

This lecture series is accompanied by a tutorial.