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Metaphysics cover

Philosophy

Philosophy

Metaphysics

Peter van Inwagen

An introduction to metaphysics that presupposes no previous philosophy and works through a series of large questions about the world as a whole, the reason for its existence and the beings that inhabit it. Peter van Inwagen argues for definite positions throughout, showing students how metaphysical arguments are built, tested and defended.

Prerequisites: None formally, though readers who have met basic logic and the evaluation of arguments will move faster.

Difficulty Level
Intermediate
Academic Level
Undergraduate
metaphysicsontologyfree willtimeTextbook

01 / Reading Guide

Reading Guide

Citation

van Inwagen, P. (2024). Metaphysics (5th ed.). Routledge.

Chapter Summary

The fifth edition is a book of roughly 320–330 pages (Routledge gives 332; Google Books 322) with thirteen chapters in three parts, each part with its own introduction, followed by a coda. The publisher says that it presupposes no previous acquaintance with philosophy and that each chapter ends with notes and suggestions for further reading. The summaries below follow the chapter titles, the part titles and the publisher's description, which lists the questions the book addresses; the contents list gives no sections within chapters.

Chapter 1: Introduction

The publisher's list of questions begins with "What is metaphysics?", which an opening chapter with this title is placed to address before the three parts that follow.

Part I: The Way the World Is (Chapters 2–5)

Chapter 2: Individuality. The title and the publisher's opening questions suggest that this chapter asks whether the world contains a plurality of things or only one. The contents list does not describe the chapter further.

Chapter 3: Externality. The publisher asks whether there is an external world, one of things that exist independently of human thought and sensation, which matches this title.

Chapter 4: Temporality. This is the chapter on time. The publisher says it was long and difficult in the fourth edition and has been extensively rewritten in the fifth to be more accessible and engaging, so it is the main change in this edition.

Chapter 5: Objectivity. The publisher's question "Is there such a thing as objective truth?" corresponds to this title.

Part II: Why the World Is (Chapters 6–7)

Chapters 6–7: Necessary Being: The Ontological Argument; Necessary Being: The Cosmological Argument. Two chapters take the question "Why is there something rather than nothing?" through arguments for a necessary being. The first treats the ontological argument and the second the cosmological argument, so the part is concentrated on two classical arguments.

Part III: The Inhabitants of the World (Chapters 8–13)

Chapter 8: What Rational Beings Are There? The part begins by asking which rational beings exist.

Chapter 9: The Place of Rational Beings in the World: Design and Purpose. The chapter considers where rational beings fit in the world; the subtitle names design and purpose, which fits the publisher's question whether our existence has a meaning.

Chapters 10–11: The Nature of Rational Beings: Dualism and Physicalism; The Nature of Rational Beings: Dualism and Personal Identity. Two chapters ask what rational beings are: whether they are physical or non-physical, and how dualism relates to personal identity.

Chapter 12: The Powers of Rational Beings: Freedom of the Will. The question of free will is treated as one of the powers of rational beings. The author's earlier book An Essay on Free Will (1983) is listed in the publisher's author biography.

Chapter 13: Concluding Meditation. A closing chapter that ends the main text.

Coda: Being

A final coda titled "Being" follows the concluding meditation. The publisher's list of questions also asks whether there are things that do not exist and whether universals exist; the contents list does not show where these are discussed.

Key Concepts

Part I

  • Individuality, externality, temporality and objectivity: the four features of the world that Chapters 2–5 are named for.
  • The external world: the idea of things that exist independently of human thought and sensation.
  • Objective truth: whether truth is independent of what anyone believes.

Part II

  • Necessary being: a being that could not fail to exist, the target of two classical arguments.
  • The ontological argument and the cosmological argument: the two arguments for a necessary being that Chapters 6 and 7 take up.

Part III

  • Rational beings: the persons or minds whose existence and nature Chapters 8–12 examine.
  • Dualism and physicalism: rival views of whether rational beings are non-physical or physical.
  • Personal identity: what it takes for a person to remain the same, discussed in connection with dualism.
  • Freedom of the will: the power of rational beings that is the subject of Chapter 12.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

  • No prerequisites. The publisher states that the book presupposes no previous acquaintance with philosophy, and describes it as suitable for undergraduates and interested general readers.
  • Organised around large questions. The publisher's list of questions and the three parts (how the world is, why it is, who inhabits it) give the book a clear sequence, and each part has its own introduction.
  • Fifth-edition revisions. The chapter on time has been rewritten for accessibility, the prose has been tightened for clarity, and the notes, reading suggestions and general bibliography have been updated.
  • An author with a specialist record on its topics. The publisher's biography lists van Inwagen's An Essay on Free Will (1983), Material Beings (1990) and Being: A Study in Ontology (2022), which bear on the topics of Chapter 12 (free will), the material world and the Coda (being) respectively.

Limitations

  • A narrower menu of topics than a survey. The contents list shows no chapters on causation, modality, properties or parts and wholes as such. Readers wanting a map of the standard problems of analytic metaphysics will need a survey as well.
  • Part II is narrow. The contents list shows the question of why there is a world handled in two chapters, on the ontological and cosmological arguments. Readers who want other approaches to that question will need further reading.
  • A single author's selection. The thirteen chapters follow one author's choice of questions, and the publisher's list leaves out several standard topics, so the book works best alongside a second treatment.

Where It Fits in the Course

Van Inwagen's Metaphysics is the introduction in this course that is organised around a short list of large questions. Stephen Mumford's Metaphysics: A Very Short Introduction and Earl Conee and Theodore Sider's Riddles of Existence are lighter first books, built around everyday questions and puzzles; Conee and Sider's range (personal identity, fatalism, time, God, free will, material objects, universals and necessity) overlaps considerably with van Inwagen's. Loux and Crisp's Metaphysics: A Contemporary Introduction is a survey of the central problems of analytic metaphysics, aimed at students who have already completed an introductory course, with chapters on modality, causation, parts and wholes and metaphysical indeterminacy that van Inwagen's contents list does not show.

Saul Kripke's Naming and Necessity and David Lewis's On the Plurality of Worlds are specialist works for later reading. Van Inwagen's contents list shows no chapter on modality, so a reader heading towards them from this book would do well to pass through Loux and Crisp's chapter on the necessary and the possible first.

How to Use This Book

The book is intended for undergraduates and general readers with no background. Some practice in following and evaluating arguments will help, but the publisher states no formal requirement.

The book is best read in order, because the three parts build on one another and each has its own introduction, which should be read first. A suggested plan for one semester is to give Part I (Chapters 2–5, the structure of the world) roughly a third of the term, Part II (Chapters 6–7, the two arguments about necessary being) a shorter stretch, and Part III (Chapters 8–13, persons and free will) the remainder. Readers short of time can take Chapters 1, 4 and 12 as a sample of the book's range, bearing in mind that Chapter 4 was the one rewritten for this edition.

Use the notes and suggestions for further reading at the end of each chapter to find primary sources, and compare each chapter's position with a second treatment from another course book. Readers using the fourth edition can use the fifth chiefly for its revised chapter on time and the updated reading lists.