Objects and Properties

This edited volume features a range of essays from world-leading philosophers discussing the key philosophical concepts of 'object' and 'property'. Arguably, these are two of the most fundamental concepts in metaphysics. Nor is it hard to see why. If one of the central goals of metaphysics is to uncover what reality is like, in and of itself, then a natural starting point is the idea that reality involves two basic kinds of item: objects and properties. Notably, it seems hard to define one without the other: objects are things that have or instantiate properties; properties are the things that objects have, or that are instantiated by objects. Both concepts seem to be equally central to the volume's conceptual scheme--so much so that it is difficult to express truths about how things stand in the world without implicitly assuming the existence of these two ontological categories.

Objects and Properties: New Perspectives collects original chapters from analytic metaphysicians working on objects and properties to showcase state-of-the-art research and to highlight the diversity of current work in this area. The volume offers in-depth discussions of debates ranging from grounding and metaphysical explanation to reduction, truthmaking, pluralism versus monism about material objects, intrinsic versus extrinsic properties, the philosophy of colour, the mind-body problem, processual views of material objects, change, modality, persistence, and composition.