Ontology and Metaontology: A Contemporary Guide

by Francesco Berto, Matteo Plebani

Ontology and A Contemporary Guide is a clear and accessible survey of ontology, focussing on the most recent trends in the discipline.

Divided into parts, the first half characterizes the discourse on the methodology of ontological inquiry, covering the main concepts, tools, and methods of the discipline, exploring the notions of being and existence, ontological commitment, paraphrase strategies, fictionalist strategies, and other metaontological questions. The second half considers a series of case studies, introducing and familiarizing the reader with concrete examples of the latest research in the field. The basic sub-fields of ontology are covered here via an accessible and captivating events, properties, universals, abstract objects, possible worlds, material beings, mereology, fictional objects.

The guide's modular structure allows for a flexible approach to the subject, making it suitable for both undergraduates and postgraduates looking to better understand and apply the exciting developments and debates taking place in ontology today.

Genres: Philosophy, Metaphysics, Nonfiction

264 pages, Paperback

First published January 29, 2015

About the author

Francesco Berto (Venezia, 1973) è un filosofo, logico e accademico italiano. E' structural chair all’Institute for Logic, Language and Computation dell’Università di Amsterdam. È stato senior lecturer al Northern Institute of Philosophy di Crispin Wright (University of Aberdeen, UK), research fellow all’Institute for Advanced Study (University of Notre Dame, USA), Chaire d’Excellence fellow alla Sorbona e ha insegnato ontologia all’Ecole Normale Supérieure di Parigi, logica alle università di Venezia, Padova e Milano-San Raffaele. Ha diretto progetti di ricerca per il Research Council of the United Kingdom (‘The Metaphysical Basis of Logic’) e per lo European Research Council (‘The Logic of Conceivability’). Ha pubblicato numerosi articoli e volumi di logica e ontologia, fra cui Impossible Worlds (Oxford University Press), Ontology and Metaontology (Bloomsbury), Existence as a Real Property (Synthese Library), There’s Something about Gödel (Blackwell). Cura tre voci della Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Reviews

[Jonathan Platter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very clear, helpful, and thorough introduction to analytic, post-Quinean ontology and meta-ontology. Berto and Plebani write in a lively and engaging manner, explaining Quine's ontological dogmas and his arguments on ontological commitment.

Though they seem very sympathetic to Quinean metaontology, they present strong cases for alternative perspectives, including Meinongianism (a view deriving from Meinong, who claims that there is not merely one existential quantifier because there are different senses of the predicate "exists"). Their discussion of Meinongianism was extremely helpful. They also gave helpful introductions to the debates of fictionalism, modality, abstract objects, etc.

It is written without assuming knowledge of these debates, though some prior exposure to analytic philosophy and philosophical logic would aid the reader greatly.

[KeyForLocked · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes, you can say: there are two bananas on my table.
But why can’t we say: There is an x and there is a y such that x and y are bananas on my table,and x is different from y, and any z which is a banana on my table is either x or y.
So there is no *two*, then there is no number.

When you chose one way to say, you paraphase some words, magic is.

[Mrekhy ET · Rating 4 out of 5]

الكاتب عمل مجهود كبير —وفي بعض الأجزاء عظيم— بالرغم من صِغَر حجم الكتاب، ولكني لازلت شايف إن الكتاب مش كافي ومش هيكون واضح كفاية لحد أول مرة يقرأ في موضوعيَّ الكتاب

أقراه، بس متتوقّفش عنده ومتتوقعش أنه كتاب مدخلي سهل

[Mills College Library]

111 B545 2015