The Evolution of Modern Metaphysics: Making Sense of Things

Description

This book is concerned with the history of metaphysics since Descartes. Taking as its definition of metaphysics 'the most general attempt to make sense of things', it charts the evolution of this enterprise through various competing conceptions of its possibility, scope, and limits. The book is divided into three parts, dealing respectively with the early modern period, the late modern period in the analytic tradition, and the late modern period in non-analytic traditions. In its unusually wide range, A. W. Moore's study refutes the tired old cliche that there is some unbridgeable gulf between analytic philosophy and philosophy of other kinds. It also advances its own distinctive and compelling conception of what metaphysics is and why it matters. Moore explores how metaphysics can help us to cope with continually changing demands on our humanity by making sense of things in ways that are radically new.

A. W. Moore is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oxford and Tutorial Fellow of St Hugh's College, Oxford. He is the author of three previous books: The Infinite (1990); Points of View (1997); and Noble in Reason, Infinite in Faculty: Themes and Variations in Kant's Moral and Religious Philosophy (2003). He is also the editor or co-editor of several anthologies, and his articles and reviews have appeared in numerous other scholarly publications.

'This huge book is an extraordinary piece of work, showing a quite exceptional range of learning and depth of thought. Moore attempts nothing less than a synoptic account of the ways in which leading philosophers since Descartes have viewed metaphysics. But the book is not a survey: a strong narrative thread, plus a novel and powerful conception of the task of metaphysics, links Moore's discussion of such diverse thinkers as Hume, Kant, Frege, Nietzsche, Lewis and Deleuze (to take only a few examples) into a coherent picture of the development of the subject. The book is written with Moore's customary clarity and panache, full of penetrating insights, lucid exposition of difficult ideas, and provocative challenges to the conventional wisdom. There will be something here to stimulate everyone interested in metaphysics, whatever their philosophical background. The Evolution of Modern Metaphysics is a quite unique work: original, bold, and fascinating.' Tim Crane, University of Cambridge 'Not since Russell's History of Western Philosophy has a major Anglophone thinker attempted to make accessible sense of the many kinds of obscurity that philosophers have contrived to produce in their efforts to write under the title of 'metaphysics'. Russell's book hails from a generation which was famously dismissive of everything it called 'continental' in philosophy. Among the many achievements of A. W. Moore's remarkable book is that it shows why we can leave that behind us. The Evolution of Modern Metaphysics should make a real contribution to the formation of a philosophical culture better informed of its history and no longer riven by absurd and absurdly simplistic divisions.' Simon Glendinning, London School of Economics and Political Science '... a truly monumental achievement, as extraordinary in the generosity of its scope and the breadth of its learning as it is in its sensitivity to the many possibly shifting nuances of its own self-expression. But if the term 'monumental' is suggestive of something carved out of heavily immovable stone, it would be utterly misleading. Moore, no mean meta-metaphysician himself, constantly challenges his readers to join him and his exceptionally varied cast of fellow seekers after meaningfulness in thinking always anew as to what sense there may be to the deeply human project of 'making sense of things' - and about why such sense as may be there to be found, may turn out not to be statable in terms of truth-seeking propositions. It is a story that makes for an inevitably long and at times undeniably strenuous read; but the effort is infinitely worthwhile.' Alan Montefiore, London School of Economics and Political Science '... [a] splendid achievement.' The Times Literary Supplement '... a bold and engaging book, opening up much fertile ground for future work. I highly recommend a close reading of it.' Analysis and Metaphysics