Necessary Beings: An Essay on Ontology, Modality, and the Relations Between Them - Softcover

Hale, Bob

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0198748035 ISBN 13: 9780198748038

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2015

Synopsis

Necessary Beings is concerned with two central areas of metaphysics: modality-the theory of necessity, possibility, and other related notions; and ontology-the general study of what kinds of entities there are. Bob Hale's overarching purpose is to develop and defend two quite general theses about what is required for the existence of entities of various kinds: that questions about what kinds of things there are cannot be properly understood or adequately answered without recourse to considerations about possibility and necessity, and that, conversely, questions about the nature and basis of necessity and possibility cannot be satisfactorily tackled without drawing on what might be called the methodology of ontology. Taken together, these two theses claim that ontology and modality are mutually dependent upon one another, neither more fundamental than the other. Hale defends a broadly Fregean approach to metaphysics, according to which ontological distinctions among different kinds of things (objects, properties, and relations) are to be drawn on the basis of prior distinctions between different logical types of expression. The claim that facts about what kinds of things exist depend upon facts about what is possible makes little sense unless one accepts that at least some modal facts are fundamental, and not reducible to facts of some other, non-modal, sort. He argues that facts about what is absolutely necessary or possible have this character, and that they have their source or basis, not in meanings or concepts nor in facts about alternative 'worlds', but in the natures or essences of things.

About this title

Review

..".I would be utterly remiss not to express how much I admire his book, how much I enjoyed studying it, and how very much I learned from it; wrestling with its sophisticated and erudite arguments was a deeply rewarding experience for me...it is a scintillating read; arguments are laid out with remarkable clarity, style, and rigor; proposals are developed and defended in assiduous and sparkling detail; and nearly every page is marked by Hale's seemingly limitless philosophical energy and ingenuity. I cannot recommend the book highly enough; indeed I consider it required reading for anyone whose work extends at all into ontology, the philosophy of language, or the philosophy of logic and mathematics." - Philosophia Mathematica

About the Author

Bob Hale, Sheffield University

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0198748035
• ISBN 13: 9780198748038
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 308