Metaphysics and Explanation

This volume offers an unusual variety of topics presented during the fifth annual Oberlin Colloquium in Philosophy. Essays topics include: a dispute of the standard deductivist account of scientific testability; two definitions of "e;nonsense"e; that are closely related and correlate to science's concern with truth and philosophy's concern with concepts; contesting the causes of voluntary actions purported in Hart and Honore's Causation and the Law;distinguishing two kinds of metaphysical tasks-taxonomic and evaluative; and discussions of "e;what a thing is"e; in terms of its qualities and particulars and the distinction between numerical and conceptual differences, universals and individuation.