The Metaphysics of Hyperspace - Hardcover

Hudson, Hud

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0199282579 ISBN 13: 9780199282579

Publisher: OUP Oxford, 2005

Synopsis

Hud Hudson offers a fascinating examination of philosophical reasons to believe in hyperspace. He begins with some stage-setting discussions, offering his analysis of the term 'material object', noting his adherence to substantivalism, confessing his sympathies regarding principles of composition and decomposition, identifying his views on material simples, material gunk, and the persistence of material objects, and preparing the reader for later discussions with introductory remarks on eternalism, modality and recombination, vagueness, bruteness, and the epistemic role of intuitions. The subsequent chapters are loosely organized around the theme of hyperspace. Hudson explores nontheistic reasons to believe in hyperspace in chapter 1 (e.g. reasons arising from reflection on incongruent counterparts and fine-tuning arguments), theistic reasons in chapter 7 (e.g. reasons arising from reflection on theistic puzzles known as the problem of the best and the problem of evil), and some distinctively Christian reasons in chapter 8 (e.g. reasons arising from reflection on traditional Christian themes such as heaven and hell, the Garden of Eden, angels and demons, and new testament miracles). In the intervening chapters, Hudson inquires into a variety of puzzles in the metaphysics of material objects that are either generated by the hypothesis of hyperspace, focusing on the topics of mirror determinism and mirror incompatibilism, or else informed by the hypothesis of hyperspace, with discussions of receptacles, boundaries, contact, occupation, and superluminal motion.
Anyone engaged with contemporary metaphysics will find much to stimulate them here.

About this title

Review:

As a contribution to the developing corpus of mereological studies, Hudson's book is stimulating and provocative...If physicists can stretch, nay, bend, our minds, I don't see why the ontologists can't be allowed play that game too. Hudson certainly knows how to play. (James G. Murphy Milltown Studies)

Hudson is a master at making sophisticated work in metaphysics accessible and engaging without sacrificing rigor (Cody Gilmore, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews)

About the Author:

Hud Hudson is Professor of Philosophy at Western Washington University

About this edition

• Publisher: OUP Oxford
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0199282579
• ISBN 13: 9780199282579
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 236