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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1. Ontological Commitment and Methodology
1. B. Russell, "Existence and Description"*
2. W.v.O Quine, "On What There Is"*
3. R. Carnap, "Empiricism, Semantics, and Ontology"*
4. W.v.O Quine, "Ontological Relativity"*
5. D. Davidson, "The Method of Truth in Metaphysics" in his Inquiries into Truth and Interpretation
2. Universals and Particulars
1. D.C. Williams, "The Elements of Being"**
2. D. Lewis, "New Work for a Theory of Universals"*
3. D. Armstrong, "Universals as Attributes"*
4. W.v.O Quine, "Natural Kinds"*
5. H. Putnam, "On Properties"*
6. S. Shoemaker, "Causality and Properties"*
3. Modality and Possible Worlds
1. S. Kripke, "Identity and Necessity"*
2. D. Lewis, "Counterparts or Double Lives?"*
3. A. Plantinga, "Actualism and Possible Worlds"**
4. D. Armstrong, "The Nature of Possibility"*
4. Things, Selves and their Persistence
1. R.M. Chisholm, "Identity through Time"*
2. W.v.O. Quine "Identity, Ostension, and Hypostasis"*
3. R. M. Chisholm, "The Persistence of Persons"*
4. S. Shoemaker, "Persons and their Pasts"*
5. B. Williams, "The Self and the Future"*
6. D. Parfit, "Personal Identity"*
5. Causality and Free Will
1. R.M. Chisholm, "Human Freedom and the Self"**
2. H. Frankfurt, "Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person"**
3. P. van Inwagen, "The Incompatibility of Free Will and Determinism"**
4. J. L. Mackie, "Causes and Conditions"*
5. D. Davidson, "Causal Relations"*
6. D. Lewis, "Causation"*
6. Realism and Anti-Realism
1. M. Dummett, "Realism"*
2. D. Davidson, "On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme" in his Inquiries into Truth and Interpretation
3. H. Putnam, "Pragmatic Realism"*
4. E. Sosa, "Putnam's Pragmatic Realism"*
5. W.P. Alston, "Yes, Virginia, There is a Real World"*

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