Metaphysics

Accepting the traditional definition of metaphysics as the study of ultimate reality, this book is built around three questions: what are the most general features of the world?; why does the world exist?; and what is the nature and place of rational beings in the world? The author surveys the classical answers to these questions while instructing readers through example how to think about them more clearly and deeply on their own. By the end of the book, he has introduced most of the perennial topics of metaphysics, including appearance and reality, identity and individuation, objectivity, necessary existence, mind and body, teleology, and freedom of the will.