Natural and Artifactual Objects in Contemporary Metaphysics

Richard Davies is a Professor of Philosophy at University of Bergamo, Italy.

• Introduction: Carving Nature at the Joints, Richard Davies (University of Bergamo, Italy)Part I: Does Nature Carve Itself?1. Mental acts, externalism and fiat objects: an Ockhamist solution, Riccardo Fedriga (University of Bologna, Italy)2. Is the World really a World of Objects? A Note on Quinean Ontology, Antonio Rainone (“L’Orientale” University of Naples, Italy)3. Spatial Fictionalism. A Solution of the Grounding Problem, Nicola Piras (University of Sassari, Italy)4. Talking about Properties: A Couple of Doubts about Hofweber’s Internalist View, Elisa Paganini (State University of Milan, Italy)Part II: Where Do Limits Lie?5. The Eye of the Needle: Seeing Holes, Clotilde Calabi (State University of Milan, Italy)6. Bona Fideness of Material Entities and their Boundaries, Lars Vogt (University of Bonn, Germany)7. A Conceptualist View in the Metaphysics of Species, Ciro De Florio and Aldo Frigerio (both Catholic University of Milan, Italy)Part III: Where Do Tools Come From?8. Artifacts and fiat objects: two families apart?, Massimiliano Carrara and Marzia Soavi (both University of Padua, Italy)9. The Semantics of Artifactual Words, Marco Santambrogio (University of Parma, Italy)10. Are linguistic objects fiat or bona fide? An ancient proposal, Maddalena Bonelli (University of Bergamo, Italy)Part IV: What Does Mind-Dependency Depend On?11. Leibniz’s principle and psycho-neural identity, Andrea Bottani and Alfredo Paternoster (both University of Bergamo, Italy)12. Do we exist? Mereological nihilism, collective thinking and dualism, Alfredo Tomasetta (University School for Advanced Studies IUSS, Pavia)AbstractsIndex of NamesIndex of Principal Subjects

The 13 essays Davies (Univ. of Bergamo, Italy) has gathered discuss problems arising from the distinction between natural and nonnatural objects and between language—the supreme human artifact—and language-indifferent nature … Summing Up: Recommended. Researchers and faculty.