Description:
This volume displays fifteen of the many lively options in the field of metaphysics. The authors, having finished their formal education in the 1960s or later, belong to the generation of philosophers whose rebellion was against those who thought they saw metaphysics in the grand sense to be passe or impossible. The authors also share a commitment to the importance of metaphysics for the social and cultural life of our time. Despite the diversity of argued opinions on the fundamental array of metaphysical topics, these essays display the zest of a reborn enterprise, at once appropriating a rich and honorable past and moving into new areas only recently thought illegitimate for philosophy.
Brief description: Robert Cummings Neville is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Religion, and Theology at Boston University. His many books include Metaphysics of Goodness: Harmony and Form, Beauty and Art, Obligation and Personhood, Flourishing and Civilization, also published by SUNY Press.
Review Quotes:
"...a straightforward and unpretentious sampler of what metaphysical positions one might hold now that the anti-metaphysical stances of a generation ago have been surpassed."--Donald Phillip Verene, Emory University
"Metaphysics has been unduly neglected in our 'age of analysis.' The appearance of this new generation of philosophers in a single volume ought to convince all readers that speculative metaphysics is alive and well in America." --Andrew J. Reck, Tulane University
" 'Metaphysics' is the name of a very important branch, really the central branch, of philosophy--important in itself and important for science and theology, in different ways. This book is useful as a sampling of recent philosophizing of a daring sort. It forces one to face the lack of consensus that seems inevitable, given freedom of discussion in primary philosophy."--Charles Hartshorne, University of Texas at Austin