Metaontology

Pre-requisites: Master's degree

Course objectives: Students will learn about the subject-matter of metaontology,its relationship to various ontologies and about most important metaontological positions.

Course description: Quine's method of determining ontological commitments of scientific and philosophical theories; Carnap's ontological pluralism and the idea of a conceptual frameworks; Van Inwagen's argument against the plurality of meaning of the existence predicate; Fine's criticism of Quine's programme and the distinction between reality and existence; Hirsch's criterion of verbalness of ontological disputes; Eklund's maximalism; Sider's heavyweight realism and the distinguished meaning of the existential quantifier; Chalmers's furnishing functions and metaontological antirealism; Wright and Hale's abstractionism; Yablo's concept of non-catastrophic presupposition failure; Karen Bennett's metaontological pessimism

Learning Outcomes: After completing the course, students will be able to understand and conduct a research in contemporary metaphysics.