 Trade In this Item for up to £8.05
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in A Survey of Metaphysics for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £8.05, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
'E. J. Lowe, one of the UK's leading metaphysicians, has written a superb introduction to metaphysics. ... Lowe's book is the best introduction to metaphysics available.' THES
Review
'E. J. Lowe, one of the UK's leading metaphysicians, has written a superb introduction to metaphysics. ... Lowe's book is the best introduction to metaphysics available.' THES
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
There are several 'introductory' texts on metaphysics available for students of the subject and the general reader. Since analytic metaphysics remains at the heart of philosophy learning and teaching in the UK it is good that a range of surveys taking different perspectives are available. However, very few have the comprehensive sweep Lowe offers here.
Topics covered include: the nature of metaphysics, identity, change, composition over time, temporal parts and substantial change, necessity, essentialism, possible worlds and their interpretation, counterfactuals and conditionals, causes, causal agency, actions and events, events and space-time, absolutism and relationalism, incongruent counterparts, paradoxes of motion, tense and the reality of time, the direction of time, universals and particulars, tropes, abstract and concrete objects. Along the way he also includes discussion on such topics as mathematical objects and knowledge, event ontologies and categories of being.
Lowe generally seeks 'common sense' solutions to tricky metaphysical problems, that is, he works hard to defend much of our common sense intuitions about the fundamental nature of reality. This makes the book all the more useful as a textbook, since it guides the reader through more radical alternatives without abandoning her at the end of a discussion with an unpalatable outcome likely to deter further exploration - at that level the text engages the reader beautifully.
More advanced readers will also want to look at Lowe's 'The Possibility of Metaphysics: Substance, Identity and Time' (Oxford, 1998) for a more detailed and scholarly treatment of some of the more difficult topics covered (a masterly piece of contemporary philosophical analysis in this reviewer's opinion).
The only criticisms that might be made of this book are that the defence of traditional metaphysics given in the introduction is a little too brief and too strident, especially with regard to neo-Kantian approaches, and at times Lowe's style is a little too subtle, such that important parts of his arguments are too easily glossed - a problem in any textbook of this nature.
Overall, this is a great textbook and survey that should be a standard on any course of metaphysics for many years.
Topics covered include: the nature of metaphysics, identity, change, composition over time, temporal parts and substantial change, necessity, essentialism, possible worlds and their interpretation, counterfactuals and conditionals, causes, causal agency, actions and events, events and space-time, absolutism and relationalism, incongruent counterparts, paradoxes of motion, tense and the reality of time, the direction of time, universals and particulars, tropes, abstract and concrete objects. Along the way he also includes discussion on such topics as mathematical objects and knowledge, event ontologies and categories of being.
Lowe generally seeks 'common sense' solutions to tricky metaphysical problems, that is, he works hard to defend much of our common sense intuitions about the fundamental nature of reality. This makes the book all the more useful as a textbook, since it guides the reader through more radical alternatives without abandoning her at the end of a discussion with an unpalatable outcome likely to deter further exploration - at that level the text engages the reader beautifully.
More advanced readers will also want to look at Lowe's 'The Possibility of Metaphysics: Substance, Identity and Time' (Oxford, 1998) for a more detailed and scholarly treatment of some of the more difficult topics covered (a masterly piece of contemporary philosophical analysis in this reviewer's opinion).
The only criticisms that might be made of this book are that the defence of traditional metaphysics given in the introduction is a little too brief and too strident, especially with regard to neo-Kantian approaches, and at times Lowe's style is a little too subtle, such that important parts of his arguments are too easily glossed - a problem in any textbook of this nature.
Overall, this is a great textbook and survey that should be a standard on any course of metaphysics for many years.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3 reviews
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Excellent Introduction
29 July 2007
Format:Paperback
"A Survey of Metaphysics" is an introduction to contemporary analytic metaphysics. It covers the nature of metaphysics, particulars, universals, modality, causation, and tense, among other topics. The book is thus devoted to general metaphysics, though Lowe briefly considers the bearing of some of the theories on topics in special metaphysics, in particular free will and the mind-body problem.
While the coverage is comprehensive, Lowe does not sacrifice detail. He explains theories and introduces technical terminology clearly, and evaluates arguments for and against the theories carefully. While Lowe presents his own considered conclusions, he explains how one may disagree, and the book is not didactic. The book is also well-organised. The chapters are relatively self-contained, but Lowe explains how our conclusions on one subject may bear upon the discussion of another.
The book is intended primarily for undergraduate philosophy students who are already familiar with the techniques of analysis and argument, and I think that it would serve as an excellent text for undergraduate philosophy courses.
Lowe is one of the finest and most original of contemporary metaphysicians, and his introduction is recommended highly. Readers may also be interested in Loux's more advanced introduction, "Metaphysics: A Contemporary Introduction", which has slightly different coverage and emphasis.
While the coverage is comprehensive, Lowe does not sacrifice detail. He explains theories and introduces technical terminology clearly, and evaluates arguments for and against the theories carefully. While Lowe presents his own considered conclusions, he explains how one may disagree, and the book is not didactic. The book is also well-organised. The chapters are relatively self-contained, but Lowe explains how our conclusions on one subject may bear upon the discussion of another.
The book is intended primarily for undergraduate philosophy students who are already familiar with the techniques of analysis and argument, and I think that it would serve as an excellent text for undergraduate philosophy courses.
Lowe is one of the finest and most original of contemporary metaphysicians, and his introduction is recommended highly. Readers may also be interested in Loux's more advanced introduction, "Metaphysics: A Contemporary Introduction", which has slightly different coverage and emphasis.
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
This guy is totally awesome!
9 April 2009
Format:Paperback
Having read several books on metaphysics, including Loux's "A contemporary Introduction," I can only say that I wish I would have read this one FIRST. ALL of the other books I've read on this topic left me scratching my head in certain parts and wondering if I just wasn't smart enough to get what was being explained. Now I'm just left wondering if the other guys are simply not as skilled in getting to the point of what it is that they are trying to explain?
I think, maybe, you have to really understand a topic in order to be able to explain it well; Lowe obviously understands this topic to the extreme. I am looking forward to reading all of his books.
THIS IS A MAJOR BREATH OF FRESH AIR.
THANK YOU E.J. LOWE!!! YOU ARE SIMPLY AWESOME!
I think, maybe, you have to really understand a topic in order to be able to explain it well; Lowe obviously understands this topic to the extreme. I am looking forward to reading all of his books.
THIS IS A MAJOR BREATH OF FRESH AIR.
THANK YOU E.J. LOWE!!! YOU ARE SIMPLY AWESOME!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
E. J. Lowe is the one to read.
26 Mar 2012
Format:Paperback
The presentation is exemplary. E. J. Lowe is a philosopher of the first order and here he shows that he can also distill the essence of his discipline for mass consumption. He does it without sacrificing anything that is substantial. If you read just one book in metaphysics this one may be your best bet.
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
