Metaphysics (NCHPH515)

This course investigates the fundamental nature of reality, beginning with ontology (the science of being), before turning to consider time, modality, causality, personal identity, and free will. What is existence? Could two objects be exactly similar in every respect?

Are entities of two fundamental kinds, particulars and universals? In virtue of what is it true that Aristotle could have been a poet? Does time flow? Is the future real? Are we simply our bodies? Under what conditions does a person continue to exist from one time to another? If the thesis of determinism is true, in what sense (if any) can we be free?