Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to show how, by combining a neo-Aristotelian account of essence with a neo-Aristotelian four-category ontology (of individual substances, modes, substantial universals, and property universals), a thoroughgoing metaphysical foundation for modal truths can be provided — one which avoids any appeal to “possible worlds” and which renders modal truths objective, mind-independent, and yet also humanly knowable. If successful, this combination of a system of fundamental ontology with a theory of essence and metaphysical modality promises to vindicate the Aristotelian vision of metaphysics as “first philosophy”, a discipline that is conceptually and epistemologically prior to any of the empirical sciences and an intellectual prerequisite of their pursuit of truth concerning the natural world and the human mind.
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References
Fine, Kit 1994. “Essence and Modality,” in James E. Tomberlin (ed.) Philosophical Perspectives, 8: Logic and Language (Atascadero, CA: Ridgeview), pp. 1–16.
Lowe, E. J. 2006. The Four-Category Ontology: A Metaphysical Foundation for Natural Science (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
— 2008. “Two Notions of Being: Entity and Essence,” in Robin Le Poidevin (ed.) Being: Developments in Contemporary Metaphysics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 23–48.
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© 2013 E. J. Lowe
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Lowe, E.J. (2013). Neo-Aristotelian Metaphysics: A Brief Exposition and Defense. In: Feser, E. (eds) Aristotle on Method and Metaphysics. Philosophers in Depth. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137367907_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137367907_10
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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