Philosophy 290-2

An investigation of the extent to which support can be found for the negative metaphysical doctrines that causation (or law-like dependence), absolute (or ‘logical’) necessity, and values are not part of a reality fully independent of us and our responses to the world. The focus in each case will be on whether anyone who thinks and acts in the world in the ways we do could consistently understand our causal, modal, and evaluative attitudes as those metaphysical doctrines imply they are to be understood. A further question will be the more general metaphysical significance of any such outcome.