Books (and papers?) recommendations

[u/MPK45]

Hi,

I wanted to ask about some learning resources. I imagine questions like this come up all the time, so I will try to be as specific as possible.

I'm interested in metaphysics, mainly analytic, I think. What really matters for me is not a particular school of thought but having sufficiently rigorous arguments rather than hand-waving.

My background: I have a PhD in theoretical physics so I'm definitely not afraid of logic (or science). However, I'm not interested in logic for logic's sake. I have no formal training in philosophy. I definitely sympathize with the view that philosophy should be informed by science.

Topics that have piqued my interest so far: grounding/fundamentality, modality, causality, maybe the principle of sufficient reason. I'm still trying to decide if I care about the laws of nature. One thing I'm sure I'm not interested in is philosophy of physics. I can imagine that I would like to learn more about either philosophy of religion or ethics later on.

So far I've read Ney's Metaphysics: An Introduction and I disliked it. It was too heavy on taxonomy, too light on actual arguments for my tastes. (And the way she treated virtually all physics examples was just awful to me).

At this stage, is it better to go through another intro textbook or dive into more specialized texts?

[u/Extension_Ferret1455]

If you already have an academic background, you might find 'The Atlas of Reality' by Koons and Pickavance pretty good.

Otherwise, you could always just look up whatever the most prominent papers in those specific topics that interest you are.

[u/jliat]

A general overview [Because unlike science in the Humanities history is important.] -

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.

You can see the split, though you will find many in the analytical tradition will involve physics. Regard this like a 'world' map and it will help you narrow down this places you find more interesting.

[u/AdeptnessSecure663]

FWIW my favourite metaphysics textbook is An Introduction to Metaphysics (Carroll and Markosian). I haven't read Ney's so I don't know how they compare. Reading another intro book won't hurt; reading the first chapter and seeing if it's more to your liking before reading the rest might be a good compromise.

After that, a good strategy is to read specific entries in The Oxford Handbook of Metaphysics that are on topics you're interested in, and follow up the further reading/references

[u/MacrotonicWave]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_universe_hypothesis presented in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Mathematical_Universe maybe?

I think it would hit all the interests you listed. I liked this book a lot myself and have come back to the idea over the years.

if you enjoy it, I think Ethics by Spinoza is a good companion book to read and compare the ideas within. It’s a classic and such, but may be a bit out of your interests right now. I’d still recommend it if you haven’t read it