Essential Difference: Toward a Metaphysics of Emergence

Description

Proposes a new way of understanding the nature of metaphysics, focusing on nonreductionist emergence theory, both in ancient and modern philosophy, as well as in contemporary philosophy of science. Essential Difference: Toward a Metaphysics of Emergence Contents Introduction The End of Metaphysics? Old and New Metaphysics Plan of the Book Metaphysical vs. Epistemological “Emergence” Chapter 1: What Is Metaphysics? Transcendental Knowledge Kinds of Knowledge Characterizing Metaphysical Knowledge The Possible and the Actual Part I: The Ancient Crisis Chapter 2: Parmenides' Challenge: Truth or Seeming The One and the Many Physicalist and Idealist Reductionism Genus and Difference Parmenides’ Two Ways Seeming and the Sophists Chapter 3: Plato's Response: The Form of Difference Plato’s Program Plato’s Parmenides Plato’s Sophist A Note on Dialectic Conclusion Chapter 4: Aristotle's Response: Differentiated Individuals Physicalist and Idealist Reductionism Focal Meaning (πρὸς ἔν Equivocation) Substance: Neither Substratum nor Genus Are Aggregates Substances? Individuation and Differentiation Archaic vs. Contemporary Aristotle Conclusion Part II: The Modern Crisis Chapter 5: Hume's Challenge: Matters of Fact or Relations of Ideas Analytic and Synthetic Propositions Formal Necessity or Material Contingency Chapter 6: Kant's Response: Straining against Formalism Idealist (Logical) and Physicalist (Sensory) Formalism Beyond Pure Formalism? Analysis as “Improvement” of Form Synthetic A Priori Principles of Empirical Inquiry Teleological Judgment beyond the Limits of Formalism The Non-Derivability of the Actual from the Possible Formalism and Surrogate Content Essential Difference: Necessity without Universality Chapter 7: Hegel's Response: A Material Logic Platonic Definition Categories as Definitions of the Absolute Dialectical Inference Successive Definitions: Dialectic and the Logic of Correction The Problem of Differentiation in Hegel’s Logic Epistemic vs. Ontological Amplification Hegel’s Metaphysics of Physical Entities Conclusion Anti-Reductionism after Hegel Part III: Toward a Metaphysics of Emergence Chapter 8: Physical Emergence: The Constraint Interpretation Actualizing Constraints Individuating Constraints Differentiating Constraints The Ontology of Emergence Are Artifacts and Aggregates Physical Entities? Are Atoms and Molecules Physical Entities? Conclusion Chapter 9: Life and Mind: The Autonomy of Form The Distinctive Challenges of a Non-Formalist Metaphysics Beyond Purely Physical Emergence The Emergence of Life The Emergence of Mind Autonomy and Dualism Notes Bibliography Index