F. Metaphysics: Topics

To facilitate study, each Unit is divided into two parts, (a) and (b).

Unit 1

(a) metaphysics and the problem of beginnings

(b) defining reality

Unit 2

(a) the reality principle

(b) truth and existence

Unit 3

(a) ontology and 'thing-hood'

(b) the this and the given

Unit 4

(a) subjectivism

(b) refining the subjectivist theory

Unit 5

(a) the refutation of subjectivism

(b) searching for an alternative theory

Unit 6

(a) the impossibility of a private language

(b) the concept of truth

Unit 7

(a) realism versus anti-realism

(b) anti-realism and the reality principle

Unit 8

(a) anti-realism and the philosophy of language

(b) the idea of an anti-realist theory of meaning

Unit 9

(a) can the past be erased?

(b) an attempted refutation of realism

Unit 10

(a) the reality of possible worlds

(b) the existence of God

Unit 11

(a) the attack on the idea of matter

(b) the dialectic of immaterialism

Unit 12

(a) defining 'matter'

(b) Berkeley's immaterialist theory

Unit 13

(a) Leibniz's theory of monads

(b) objective idealism

Unit 14

(a) combining immaterialism and anti-realism

(b) realist 'facts' and Kantian 'noumena'

Unit 15

(a) agency and physical objects

(b) judging as a physical action