Treatise on Basic Philosophy

In this Introduction' we shall sketch the business of ontology, or metaphysics, and shall locate it on the map of learning. This has to be done because there are many ways of construing the word 'ontology' and because of the bad reputation metaphysics has suffered until recently - a well deserved one in most cases. 1. ONTOLOGICAL PROBLEMS Ontological (or metaphysical) views are answers to ontological ques tions. And ontological (or metaphysical) questions are questions with an extremely wide scope, such as 'Is the world material or ideal - or perhaps neutral?" 'Is there radical novelty, and if so how does it come about?', 'Is there objective chance or just an appearance of such due to human ignorance?', 'How is the mental related to the physical?', 'Is a community anything but the set of its members?', and 'Are there laws of history?'. Just as religion was born from helplessness, ideology from conflict, and technology from the need to master the environment, so metaphysics - just liketheoretical science - was probably begotten by the awe and bewilderment at the boundless variety and apparent chaos of the phenomenal world, i. e. the sum total of human experience. Like the scientist, the metaphysician looked and looks for unity in diversity, for pattern in disorder, for structure in the amorphous heap of phenomena - and in some cases even for some sense, direction or finality in reality as a whole.

of Ontology I. - 1. Ontological Problems. - 2. The Business of Ontology. - 3. Is Ontology Possible? . - 4. The Method of Scientific Ontology. - 5. The Goals of Scientific Ontology. - 6. Ontology and Formal Science. - 7. The Ontology of Science. - 8. Ontological Inputs and Outputs of Science and Technology. - 9. Uses of Ontology. - 10. Concluding Remarks. - 1. Substance. - 1. Association. - 2. Assembly. - 3. Entities and Sets. - 4. Concluding Remarks. - 2. Form. - 1. Property and Attribute. - 2. Analysis. - 3. Theory. - 4. Properties of Properties. - 5. Status of Properties. - 6. Concluding Remarks. - 3. Thing. - 1. Thing and Model Thing. - 2. State. - 3. From Class to Natural Kind. - 4. The World. - 5. Concluding Remarks. - 4. Possibility. - 1. Conceptual Possibility. - 2. Real Possibility. - 3. Disposition. - 4. Probability. - 5. Chance Propensity. - 6. Marginalia. - 7. Concluding Remarks. - 5. Change. - 1. Changeability. - 2. Event. - 3. Process. - 4. Action and Reaction. - 5. Panta Rhei. - 6. Concluding Remarks. - 6. Spacetime. - 1. Conflicting Views. - 2. Space. - 3. Duration. - 4. Spacetime. - 5. Spatiotemporal Properties. - 6. Matters of Existence. - 7. Concluding Remarks. - Index of Names. - Index of Subjects.