Matias Kimi Slavov

Metafysiikan Perusteet [The Basics of Metaphysics] is the first Finnish-language textbook on contemporary metaphysics. It contains introductions to the following issues: (i) what is metaphysics?, (ii) objects, properties and kinds, (iii) events and processes, (iv) metaphysical grounding, (v) modalities and essences, (vi) powers and causation, (vii) laws of nature, (viii) time, (ix) mathematics, (x) mind, (xi) free will, (xii) social ontology, (xiii) metaphysics of gender, (xiv) metaphysics in continental philosophy

Artikkeli (there's an OA English translation of the article in PhilPapers) tarjoaa systemaattisen johdannon metafysiikan luonteeseen, tutkimuskohteeseen, menetelmiin ja tiedollisiin päämääriin. Metafysiikkaa luonnehditaan tieteenalaksi, joka pyrkii ymmärtämään todellisuuden perustavan rakenteen kokonaisuutena, tarkastelemalla muun muassa ontologisia kategorioita, olemisen tapoja, riippuvuussuhteita ja fundamentaalisuutta. Teksti esittelee keskeisiä metafyysisiä kysymyksiä, kuten mitä on olemassa, millaisia olioita on, millä tavoin ne ovat olemassa ja mikä perustaa niiden olemassaolon, sekä tarkastelee eri lähestymistapoja näihin kysymyksiin, kuten uusquinelaista ontologiaa, perustamisteorioita ja formaaliontologista analyysiä. Artikkelissa argumentoidaan, että metafysiikan episteminen päämäärä voidaan ymmärtää ensisijaisesti holistisena ymmärryksenä, joka koskee olemisen rakennetta ja sen osien välisiä suhteita. Lisäksi käsitellään metafysiikan edistymisen mahdollisuutta, sen suhdetta muihin tieteisiin sekä sitä, missä mielessä metafysiikka on väistämätön osa inhimillistä ajattelua.

This article, originally published in Finnish, provides a systematic introduction to the nature, subject matter, methods, and epistemic aims of metaphysics. It characterizes metaphysics as a discipline concerned with understanding the fundamental structure of reality as a whole, including questions about what exists, what kinds of entities there are, how they exist, and how they depend on one another. The discussion surveys central metaphysical topics such as ontological categories, essence, modality, causation, laws of nature, and fundamentality, and presents major contemporary approaches, including neo-Quinean ontology, grounding-based metaphysics, and formal ontology. Finally, the paper defends the view that metaphysical inquiry is unavoidable, as any attempt to understand reality presupposes metaphysical commitments, even in its critiques.

Our dear friend and mentor Jani Hakkarainen reaches his half-century on December 23rd, 2025. Jani has been a constant presence for almost all of our academic lives. This includes, but is not limited to, his teaching, organizing the talk series at the Tampere University philosophy unit, arranging conferences on contemporary and historical philosophy, walking the corridors in his Tappara-slippers, stopping for an insightful chat at the coffee table, and often giving detailed, but always fair, criticism on our philosophical ideas and writings. In order to celebrate Janis’s birthday, we have invited a group of his colleagues and students to write articles on topics he has himself contributed to, or at least would find interesting and stimulating. This anthology is our birthday gift for him. The anthology is divided into five sections based on a larger theme of the papers, with these themes being related to one of the several fields of study Jani has partaken in during his philosophical career. It should be noted that, due to Jani’s love of 70’s progressive music, each section is titled after a song or a piece of lyric from a progressive rock band’s catalogue (including Genesis, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Rush, Pink Floyd, and King Crimson).

Eternalism is the view that all times are equally real. The relativity of simultaneity in special relativity backs this up. There is no cosmically extended, self-existing ‘now.’ This leads to a tricky problem. What makes statements about the present true? I shall approach the problem along the lines of perspectival realism and argue that the choice of the perspective does. To corroborate this point, the Lorentz transformations of special relativity are compared to the structurally similar equations of the Doppler effect. The ‘now’ is perspectivally real in the same way as a particular electromagnetic spectrum frequency. I also argue that the ontology of time licensed by perspectival realism is more credible in this context than its current alternative, the fragmentalist interpretation of special relativity.

For the last forty years, Hume's Newtonianism has been a debated topic in Hume scholarship. The crux of the matter can be formulated by the following question: Is Hume a Newtonian philosopher? Debates concerning this question have produced two lines of interpretation. I shall call them ‘traditional’ and ‘critical’ interpretations. The traditional interpretation asserts that there are many Newtonian elements in Hume, whereas the critical interpretation seriously questions this. In this article, I consider the main points made by both lines of interpretations and offer further arguments that contribute to this debate. I shall first argue, in favor of the traditional interpretation, that Hume is sympathetic to many prominently Newtonian themes in natural philosophy such as experimentalism, criticality of hypotheses, inductive proof, and criticality of Leibnizian principles of sufficient reason and intelligibility. Second, I shall argue, in accordance with the critical interpretation, that in many cases Hume...