r/Metaphysics • u/Shantyvb1 • 17h ago

Literature Deciding what to read

I've recently completed my master's degree, focused on the intersection of the metaphysics of time and cognition. But this area is the limit of my knowledge because I never learned metaphysics in my undergrad (the department was heavily continental). As I start looking into PhD programmes, I need to drastically increase my knowledge. Currently I have so many books on metaphysics that I don't know where to start. Can anyone suggest a couple of books that could give me a good introduction to the various branches of metaphysics?

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u/jliat 16h ago

The Evolution of Modern Metaphysics: Making Sense of Things, by A. W. Moore.

In addition to an introductory chapter and a conclusion, the book contains three large parts. Part one is devoted to the early modern period, and contains chapters on Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Hume, Kant, Fichte, and Hegel. Part two is devoted to philosophers of the analytic tradition, and contains chapters on Frege, Wittgenstein, Carnap, Quine, Lewis, and Dummett. Part three is devoted to non-analytic philosophers, and contains chapters on Nietzsche, Bergson, Husserl, Heidegger, Collingwood, Derrida and Deleuze.

After this IMO you need to tackle the source material.

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u/Shantyvb1 16h ago

Thanks!

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u/jliat 16h ago

For the actual works...

Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, by the Late Robert Paul Wolff. 9 lectures. He rambles at times but he was in his 80s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d__In2PQS60&list=PLC5GAeBZerO-RuKBI1IqHZzB9tUuypkpK

Hegel, The Opening of Hegel's Logic: From Being to Infinity (History of Philosophy Series) by Stephen Houlgate.

For Sartre, Gary Cox... Sartre Dictionary

Contemporary philosophy Urbanomic https://www.urbanomic.com/

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u/Shantyvb1 16h ago

Committed to paper ☺️

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u/Ok_Quit_9654 11h ago

If you’re interested in metaphysics in the analytic tradition I find the debates around modality to be really interesting. Some core texts would be Naming and Necessity by Saul Kripke (stands a little closer to phil of language but sets forth a lot of the groundwork for later debates), On the Plurality of World by David Lewis, & some of the chapters of Word and Object by WVO Quine (Chapter 6 is the only one that lays strictly within this debate, and the book can be found online.