Higher-Order Metaphysics
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This volume explores the use of higher-order logics in metaphysics. Higher-order logics are natural extensions of the common systems of predicate logic, with a history going back to the very beginnings of formal logic. Such logics are well suited to formalize metaphysical views and arguments. Over the last decade, there has been a resurgence of interest in higher-order metaphysics.
Seventeen original essays are grouped under five headings. Three introductory chapters present higher-order languages and motivate their use in metaphysics. Three chapters on pure higher-order metaphysics discuss different options of higher-order languages and logics which may be used in metaphysics. Three chapters on applied higher-order metaphysics consider the application of higher-order logic to various central topics of metaphysics. Three historical chapters trace the development of higher-order logic as it relates to metaphysics over the last 150 years. The volume concludes with a discussion, containing two chapters criticizing the use of higher-order logic in metaphysics, as well as responses to these criticisms by two authors.
Peter Fritz is Professor of Philosophy at the Dianoia Institute of Philosophy at the Australian Catholic University, and at the Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas at the University of Oslo. He studied philosophy and logic at the Universities of Konstanz, Amsterdam, and Oxford, and works on logic, metaphysics, and the philosophy of language.
Nicholas K. Jones is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oxford, as well as Official Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy at St John's College, Oxford. He studied philosophy at the University of Leeds before receiving his PhD from Birkbeck, University of London. His research lies at the intersection of metaphysics with the philosophy of logic and the philosophy of language.