Reality : fundamental topics in metaphysics /

Despite the best efforts of Hume, Kant, Wittgenstein, the logical positivists, and postmodern thinkers to do it in, metaphysics continues to flourish. This book illustrates why it has proven to be so resilient: metaphysics as presented here is nothing more--and nothing less--than a sustained effort to think hard about fascinating and seemingly unavoidable questions about the nature of reality. Loptson (Univ. of Guelph) provides comprehensive coverage of metaphysical topics: substance, existence and essence, universals, space and time, causality, persons, mind, and the Kantian triad of God, freedom, and immortality. Loptson's philosophical orientation is analytic and his approach to metaphysical issues is commonsensical, naturalistic, and always informed by the history of the subject. The positions taken on the issues discussed are eclectic; he defends, for example, the reality of persons, an empiricist view of space, a rationalist theory of time, and a version of Platonism about abstract entities. This is a good book and would be profitably read by anyone interested in the central issues of metaphysics. Recommended for all libraries supporting programs in philosophy; suitable for general readers and advanced undergraduates through faculty. D. Haugen Western Illinois University