Metaphysics Comprehensive Exam Reading List

(An asterisk* indicates that the work is available, in whole or suitable abridgment, in Metaphysics, An anthology, eds. Kim and Sosa (Blackwell 2002.) Two asterisks** indicate that the work is available, in whole or suitable abridgment, in Metaphysics, A Guide and Anthology, eds. Crane and Farkas (Oxford 2004.))

Works that are available through JSTOR are linked directly to their JSTOR record (requires JSTOR access).

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Ontological Commitment and Methodology

B. Russell, "Existence and Description"*
W.v.O Quine, "On What There Is"*
R. Carnap, "Empiricism, Semantics, and Ontology"*
W.v.O Quine, "Ontological Relativity"*
D. Davidson, "The Method of Truth in Metaphysics" in his Inquiries into Truth and Interpretation

Universals and Particulars

D.C. Williams, "The Elements of Being"**
D. Lewis, "New Work for a Theory of Universals"*
D. Armstrong, "Universals as Attributes"*
W.v.O Quine, "Natural Kinds"*
H. Putnam, "On Properties"*
S. Shoemaker, "Causality and Properties"*

Modality and Possible Worlds

S. Kripke, "Identity and Necessity"*
D. Lewis, "Counterparts or Double Lives?"*
A. Plantinga, "Actualism and Possible Worlds"**
D. Armstrong, "The Nature of Possibility"*

Things, Selves and their Persistence

R.M. Chisholm, "Identity through Time"*
W.v.O. Quine "Identity, Ostension, and Hypostasis"*
R. M. Chisholm, "The Persistence of Persons"*
S. Shoemaker, "Persons and their Pasts"*
B. Williams, "The Self and the Future"*
D. Parfit, "Personal Identity"*

Causality and Free Will

R.M. Chisholm, "Human Freedom and the Self"**
H. Frankfurt, "Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person"**
P. van Inwagen, "The Incompatibility of Free Will and Determinism"**
J. L. Mackie, "Causes and Conditions"*
D. Davidson, "Causal Relations"*
D. Lewis, "Causation"*

Realism and Anti-Realism

M. Dummett, "Realism"*
D. Davidson, "On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme" in his Inquiries into Truth and Interpretation
H. Putnam, "Pragmatic Realism"*
E. Sosa, "Putnam's Pragmatic Realism"*
W.P. Alston, "Yes, Virginia, There is a Real World"*