Think of a number, any number, or properties like fragility and humanity. These and other abstract entities are radically different from concrete entities like electrons and elbows. While concrete entities are located in space and time, have causes and effects, and are known through empirical means, abstract entities like meanings and possibilities are remarkably different. They seem to be immutable and imperceptible and to exist "outside" of space and time. This book provides a comprehensive critical assessment of the problems raised by abstract entities and the debates about existence, truth, and knowledge that surround them. It sets out the key issues that inform the metaphysical disagreement between platonists who accept abstract entities and nominalists who deny abstract entities exist. Beginning with the essentials of the platonist–nominalist debate, it explores the key arguments and issues informing the contemporary debate over abstract reality: arguments for platonism and their connections to semantics, science, and metaphysical explanation the abstract–concrete distinction and views about the nature of abstract reality epistemological puzzles surrounding our knowledge of mathematical entities and other abstract entities. arguments for nominalism premised upon concerns about paradox, parsimony, infinite regresses, underdetermination, and causal isolation nominalist options that seek to dispense with abstract entities. Including chapter summaries, annotated further reading, and a glossary, Abstract Entities is essential reading for anyone seeking a clear and authoritative introduction to the problems raised by abstract entities.
...MoreReview James Robert Brown (2018) Review of "Abstract Entities". Metascience: An International Review Journal for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science (pp. 477-480).
Similar Citations
Article
Denis J.-J. Robichaud;
(2020)
Ficino and the nodus divinus: Timaean and Iamblichean Mean Terms and the Soul in Platonic Theology 1-4
(/isis/citation/CBB199315605/)
Article
Martijn, Marije;
(2010)
Proclus on the Order of Philosophy of Nature
(/isis/citation/CBB001211453/)
Article
Jacquette, Dale;
(2014)
Newton's Metaphysics of Space as God's Emanative Effect
(/isis/citation/CBB001422206/)
Article
John Rist;
(2014)
Il Logos nella Tarda Antichità
(/isis/citation/CBB359280395/)
Book
Remes, Pauliina;
(2008)
Neoplatonism
(/isis/citation/CBB001035937/)
Book
Allan Bäck;
(2014)
Aristotle's Theory of Abstraction
(/isis/citation/CBB514059124/)
Article
Susanna Lindberg;
(2017)
Technics of Space, Place, and Displace
(/isis/citation/CBB313146803/)
Book
Oystein Linnebo;
(2018)
Thin Objects: An Abstractionist Account
(/isis/citation/CBB819236580/)
Article
Anna Longo;
Ben Woodward;
(2017)
Infinitely Generative Structure: Fichte, Schelling, and Modern Geometry
(/isis/citation/CBB205102574/)
Article
Kidd, Ian James;
(2011)
Objectivity, Abstraction, and the Individual: The Influence of Søren Kierkegaard on Paul Feyerabend
(/isis/citation/CBB001024147/)
Chapter
Nersessian, Nancy;
(2002)
Maxwell and “the Method of Physical Analogy”: Model-based Reasoning, Generic Abstraction, and Conceptual Change
(/isis/citation/CBB000301284/)
Book
Wisnovsky, Rob;
(2001)
Aspects of Avicenna
(/isis/citation/CBB000101599/)
Article
Maria Vittoria Comacchi;
(2020)
Yehudah Abarbanel’s Astromythology’: in the Footsteps of Marsilio Ficino’s prisca theologia
(/isis/citation/CBB088569345/)
Article
Brenno Boccadoro;
(2019)
La reinvenzione della musica antica nel Rinascimento
(/isis/citation/CBB460189943/)
Article
Giannis Stamatellos;
(2018)
Plotinus’ Concept of Matter in Giordano Bruno’s De La Causa, Principio Et Uno
(/isis/citation/CBB654220199/)
Article
Carolino, Luís Miguel;
(2004)
Scienza, politica ed escatologia nella formazione dello “scienziato” nell'Europa del XVII secolo: il caso di Manuel Bocarro Francês - Jacob Rosales
(/isis/citation/CBB000770302/)
Article
Popowski, H.;
(2007)
Medieval Studies of Witold Rubczynski
(/isis/citation/CBB000931663/)
Chapter
Hallacker, Anja;
(2008)
On Angelic Bodies: Some Philosophical Discussions in the 17th Century
(/isis/citation/CBB001020246/)
Book
Chiaradonna, Riccardo;
Trabattoni, Franco;
(2009)
Physics and Philosophy of Nature in Greek Neoplatonism
(/isis/citation/CBB001035942/)
Article
Simone Guidi;
(2018)
Lux sive qualitas: incorporeità ed estensione della luce nell'aristotelismo iberico e italiano di primo Seicento
(/isis/citation/CBB944562651/)
Be the first to comment!