Riddles of Existence: A Guided Tour of Metaphysics / Edition 2

by Earl Conee, Theodore Sider

Overview

Now in its second edition, Riddles of Existence is the first book to make metaphysics genuinely accessible and fun. Its lively, informal style brings metaphysical questions to life and shows how stimulating it can be to think about them.

Earl Conee and Theodore Sider offer a lucid discussion of the major topics in metaphysics. What makes me the same person I was as a child? Is everything fated to be exactly as it is? Does time flow? How fast does it flow, and can one travel back in time, against the current? Does God exist? Why is there anything at all rather than nothing? If our actions are caused by things science can predict and control, how can we have free will? The authors approach these topics in an open-minded and non-dogmatic manner, giving students a full sense of the issues involved.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198724049
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	02/04/2015
Edition description:	New
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	510,844
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Earl Conee is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Rochester.
Theodore Sider is Professor of Philosophy at New York University.

Table of Contents

Introduction1. Personal Identity2. Fatalism3. Time4. God5. Why Not Nothing? 6. Free Will and Determinism7. Constitution8. Universals9. Possibility and Necessity10. The Metaphysics of Ethics11. What is Metaphysics? 12. MetametaphysicsAcknowledgementsIndex

Editorial Reviews

"A series of hors d'oeuvres for intellectual diners.... The entertainment value lies in picking one's way through ingenious arguments, encountering along the way basic ideas like the law of the excluded middle and the principle of sufficient reason.... Mr. Conee and Mr. Sider like to start with a common-sense, real-life question—Why is the person in my baby picture the same as the person I see in the mirror today?—and then pick apart the comfortable assumptions that carry most of us through life.... The questions are big. Do things occur by accident or necessity? Do humans have free will? Why does anything exist? Nothing is resolved, but a lot is discussed, and some famous arguments, like St. Anselm's devilishly clever proof of the existence of God, are presented clearly and understandably."—William Grimes, The New York Times

From the Publisher