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837David Lewis, Donald C. Williams, and the History of Metaphysics in the Twentieth CenturyJournal of the American Philosophical Association 1 (1): 3--22. 2015.The revival of analytic metaphysics in the latter half of the twentieth century is typically understood as a consequence of the critiques of logical positivism, Quine’s naturalization of ontology, Kripke’s Naming and Necessity, clarifications of modal notions in logic, and the theoretical exploitation of possible worlds. However, this explanation overlooks the work of metaphysicians at the height of positivism and linguisticism that affected metaphysics of the late twentieth century. Donald C. W…Read more
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571Donald C. Williams’s defence of real metaphysicsBritish Journal for the History of Philosophy 25 (2): 332-355. 2017.In the middle of last century metaphysics was widely criticized, ridiculed, and committed to the flames. During this period a handful of philosophers, against several anti-metaphysical trends, defended metaphysics and articulated novel metaphysical doctrines. Donald C. Williams was one of these philosophers. But while his contributions to metaphysics are well known his defence of metaphysics is not and yet it played a key part in the development and revival of metaphysics. In this paper I presen…Read more
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Areas of Specialization
Metaphysics |
20th Century Analytic Philosophy |