The Evolution of Modern Metaphysics

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.

• Preface; Introduction; Part I. The Early Modern Period: 1. Descartes: metaphysics in the service of science; 2. Spinoza: metaphysics in the service of ethics; 3. Leibniz: metaphysics in the service of theodicy; 4. Hume: metaphysics committed to the flames?; 5. Kant: the possibility, scope, and limits of metaphysics; 6. Fichte: transcendentalism versus naturalism; 7. Hegel: transcendentalism-cum-naturalism; or, absolute idealism; Part II. The Late Modern Period I: The Analytic Tradition: 8. Frege: sense under scrutiny; 9. The early Wittgenstein: the possibility, scope, and limits of sense; or, sense, senselessness, and nonsense; 10. The later Wittgenstein: bringing words back from their metaphysical to their everyday use; 11. Carnap: the elimination of metaphysics?; 12. Quine: the ne plus ultra of naturalism; 13. Lewis: metaphysics in the service of philosophy; 14. Dummett: the logical basis of metaphysics; Part III. The Late Modern Period II: Non-Analytic Traditions: 15. Nietzsche: sense under scrutiny again; 16. Bergson: metaphysics as pure creativity; 17. Husserl: making sense of making sense; 18. Heidegger: letting being be; 19. Collingwood: metaphysics as history; 20. Derrida: metaphysics deconstructed?; 21. Deleuze: something completely different; Conclusion.

'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