Essential Difference: Toward a Metaphysics of Emergence - Softcover

Blachowicz, James

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1438443323 ISBN 13: 9781438443324

Publisher: State University of New York Press, 2013

Synopsis

Proposes a new way of understanding the nature of metaphysics, focusing on nonreductionist emergence theory, both in ancient and modern philosophy, as well as in contemporary philosophy of science.

Is metaphysics possible? This book argues that the greatest threat to its viability derives from a self-destructive formalism. If what is essential to the nature of physical entities are the properties they have in common (as formalism holds), the inevitable result will be a reductionist collapse―leaving only “being” or physical “matter” or some other underlying ground. In Essential Difference, James Blachowicz first constructs a one-to-one historical parallel between the modern crisis surrounding formalism (Hume/Kant/Hegel) and the ancient version (Parmenides/Plato/Aristotle), focusing on the principles of differentiation and individuation that underlie Aristotle’s and Hegel’s antireductionist programs. He then proposes a contemporary metaphysical theory of emergence in the context of recent philosophy of science. This theory, founded on the principle of the nonderivability of actual states from possible states, holds that the differences among physical, biological, and mental phenomena are essential to any metaphysics. Essential Difference is the only focused treatment of this problem and is itself essential for any understanding of the nature of metaphysics.

About this title

About the Author

James Blachowicz is Professor of Philosophy at Loyola University Chicago. He is the author of Of Two Minds: The Nature of Inquiry, also published by SUNY Press.

Edition details

• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1438443323
• ISBN 13: 9781438443324
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 328