PROBLEMS
FROM ARMSTRONG
Acta Philosophica Fennica 84, Helsinki 2008. ISBN: 978-951-9264-66-0.
Edited by Tim De Mey and Markku Keinänen
For almost fifty years, David Armstrong has made major contributions in analytic philosophy. The aim of this volume is to collect papers that situate, discuss and critically assess Armstrong’s contributions. The book is organized in three parts. In Section I: Analytical Metaphysics and Its Methodology, certain basic principles of analytic metaphysics advocated by Armstrong (such as truthmaker maximalism and the Doctrine of Ontological Free Lunch) and their consequences are critically examined. The articles of Section II: Laws of Nature, Dispositions, and Modality, study the constraints Armstrong’s naturalism sets to his ontology of modality, laws and dispositions. Finally, the articles of Section III: Mind and Epistemology, study and critically evaluate Armstrong’s contributions in epistemology, the philosophy of perception and color. The collection is meant for all philosophers and scholars interested in these central topics of analytic philosophy.
LIST OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
SECTION I: ANALYTICAL METAPHYSICS AND ITS METHODOLOGY
Peter Simons: Why the Negations of False Atomic
Propositions are True
Anna-Sofia Maurin: The One over Many
Markku Keinänen: Armstrong’s conception of supervenience
Panu Raatikainen: “Mirage Realism” or “Positivism in
Naturalism’s Clothing”?
Sami Pihlström: Armstrong’s Metaphysical Realism
SECTION II: LAWS OF NATURE, DISPOSITIONS, AND MODALITY
Wim Christiaens: Some Remarks on the Metaphysical Status of
Laws of Nature
Rob Vanderbeeken: Dispositions pace Armstrong
Anssi Korhonen: Armstrong on the Metaphysics of Modality: Two
Dilemmas
SECTION III: MIND AND EPISTEMOLOGY
Tim De Mey: Disjunctive Realism about Colour
S. Albert Kivinen: Armstrong’s Philosophy of Perception
Markus Lammenranta: Armstrong’s Epistemology