Michael J Raven
Biographic Data
| ID | 460025 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Michael J Raven |
| GIVEN NAMES | Michael J |
| FAMILY NAME | Raven |
| SIGNATURE | RAVEN M J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Victoria |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0177-1782 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 45 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 12 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
The Routledge Handbook of Essence in Philosophy
"Essences have been assigned important but controversial explanatory roles in philosophical, scientific, and social theorizing. Is it possible for the same organism to be first a caterpillar and then a butterfly? Is it impossible for a human being to transform into an insect like Gregor Samsa does in Kafka's The Metamorphosis? Is it impossible for Lot's wife to survive being turned into a pillar of salt? Traditionally, essences (or natures) have …
The bases of truths
A Puzzle for Social Essences
The social world contains institutions (nations, clubs), groups (races, genders), objects (talismans, borders), and more. This essay explores a puzzle about the essences of social items. There is widespread consensus against social essences because of problematic presuppositions often made about them. But it is argued that essence can be freed from these presuppositions and their problems. Even so, a puzzle still arises. In a Platonic spirit, ess…
Explaining essences
The Routledge Handbook of Metaphysical Grounding
Is Logic Out of This World
Is logic out of this world? This elusive question reveals a tension in our thinking about the basis of logic: both worldly and unworldly answers get something right and yet they conflict. My aim is to clarify the question and explore a conciliatory answer. I focus on a characterization of unworldliness in terms of ground. This allows for a distinction between proximal and distal unworldliness. That in turn reconfigures our approach to the questio…
Routledge Handbook of Metaphysical Grounding
Routledge Handbook of Metaphysical Grounding
Metaphysical Grounding
Metaphysical ground is supposed to be a distinctive metaphysical kind of determination. It is or underwrites constitutive explanations. These explanations answer questions asking in virtue of what something is so. For example, suppose that an act is pious just in case it is loved by the gods. Following Socrates, one might still ask whether an act is pious because the gods love it or whether it is loved by the gods because it is pious. This may be…
The Double Lives of Objects: An Essay in the Metaphysics of the Ordinary World
Thomas Sattig's The Double Lives of Objects introduces a new theory of ordinary objects and applies it to some old and new puzzles. The theory, perspectival hylomorphism, has two parts. The metaphysical part is quasi-hylomorphism. It says that ordinary objects are compounds of matter and formlike facts. The semantic part is perspectivalism. It says that we shift our modes of predication in line with different conceptual perspectives on ordinary o…
Fundamentality without Foundations
A commonly held view is that a central aim of metaphysics is to give a fundamental account of reality which refers only to the fundamental entities. But a puzzle arises. It is at least a working hypothesis for those pursuing the aim that, first, there must be fundamental entities. But, second, it also seems possible that the world has no foundation, with each entity depending on others. These two claims are inconsistent with the widely held third…
Ground
This essay focuses on a recently prominent notion of (metaphysical) ground which is distinctive for how it links metaphysics to explanation. Ground is supposed to serve both as the common factor in diverse in virtue of questions as well as the structuring relation in the project of explaining how some phenomena are "built" from more fundamental phenomena. My aim is to provide an opinionated synopsis of this notion of ground without engaging with …
Is Lewis's Mixed Theory Mixed Up
My aim is to rekindle interest in David Lewis's (1983 ) infamous but neglected Mixed Theory of mental states. The Mixed Theory is a mix of physicalism and functionalism designed to capture the intuitions that both Martians and abnormal human Madmen can be in pain. The Mixed Theory is widely derided. But I offer a new development of the Mixed Theory immune to its most prominent objections. In doing so, I uncover a new motivation for the Mixed Theo…
Ground
This essay focuses on a recently prominent notion of (metaphysical) ground which is distinctive for how it links metaphysics to explanation. Ground is supposed to serve both as the common factor in diverse in virtue of questions as well as the structuring relation in the project of explaining how some phenomena are "built" from more fundamental phenomena. My aim is to provide an opinionated synopsis of this notion of ground without engaging with …
Fundamentality without Foundations
A commonly held view is that a central aim of metaphysics is to give a fundamental account of reality which refers only to the fundamental entities. But a puzzle arises. It is at least a working hypothesis for those pursuing the aim that, first, there must be fundamental entities. But, second, it also seems possible that the world has no foundation, with each entity depending on others. These two claims are inconsistent with the widely held third…
Is Lewis's Mixed Theory Mixed Up
My aim is to rekindle interest in David Lewis's (1983 ) infamous but neglected Mixed Theory of mental states. The Mixed Theory is a mix of physicalism and functionalism designed to capture the intuitions that both Martians and abnormal human Madmen can be in pain. The Mixed Theory is widely derided. But I offer a new development of the Mixed Theory immune to its most prominent objections. In doing so, I uncover a new motivation for the Mixed Theo…
Fundamentality without Foundations
A commonly held view is that a central aim of metaphysics is to give a fundamental account of reality which refers only to the fundamental entities. But a puzzle arises. It is at least a working hypothesis for those pursuing the aim that, first, there must be fundamental entities. But, second, it also seems possible that the world has no foundation, with each entity depending on others. These two claims are inconsistent with the widely held third…
Ground
This essay focuses on a recently prominent notion of (metaphysical) ground which is distinctive for how it links metaphysics to explanation. Ground is supposed to serve both as the common factor in diverse in virtue of questions as well as the structuring relation in the project of explaining how some phenomena are "built" from more fundamental phenomena. My aim is to provide an opinionated synopsis of this notion of ground without engaging with …
The Double Lives of Objects: An Essay in the Metaphysics of the Ordinary World
Thomas Sattig's The Double Lives of Objects introduces a new theory of ordinary objects and applies it to some old and new puzzles. The theory, perspectival hylomorphism, has two parts. The metaphysical part is quasi-hylomorphism. It says that ordinary objects are compounds of matter and formlike facts. The semantic part is perspectivalism. It says that we shift our modes of predication in line with different conceptual perspectives on ordinary o…
Metaphysical Grounding
Metaphysical ground is supposed to be a distinctive metaphysical kind of determination. It is or underwrites constitutive explanations. These explanations answer questions asking in virtue of what something is so. For example, suppose that an act is pious just in case it is loved by the gods. Following Socrates, one might still ask whether an act is pious because the gods love it or whether it is loved by the gods because it is pious. This may be…
The Routledge Handbook of Metaphysical Grounding
Is Logic Out of This World
Is logic out of this world? This elusive question reveals a tension in our thinking about the basis of logic: both worldly and unworldly answers get something right and yet they conflict. My aim is to clarify the question and explore a conciliatory answer. I focus on a characterization of unworldliness in terms of ground. This allows for a distinction between proximal and distal unworldliness. That in turn reconfigures our approach to the questio…
Routledge Handbook of Metaphysical Grounding
Routledge Handbook of Metaphysical Grounding
Explaining essences
A Puzzle for Social Essences
The social world contains institutions (nations, clubs), groups (races, genders), objects (talismans, borders), and more. This essay explores a puzzle about the essences of social items. There is widespread consensus against social essences because of problematic presuppositions often made about them. But it is argued that essence can be freed from these presuppositions and their problems. Even so, a puzzle still arises. In a Platonic spirit, ess…
The bases of truths
The Routledge Handbook of Essence in Philosophy
"Essences have been assigned important but controversial explanatory roles in philosophical, scientific, and social theorizing. Is it possible for the same organism to be first a caterpillar and then a butterfly? Is it impossible for a human being to transform into an insect like Gregor Samsa does in Kafka's The Metamorphosis? Is it impossible for Lot's wife to survive being turned into a pillar of salt? Traditionally, essences (or natures) have …
Epistemology (11 works) · Philosophy (11 works) · Metaphysics (8 works) · Philosophy and Theoretical Science (8 works) · Classical Philosophy and Thought (5 works) · Psychology (5 works) · Computer Science (3 works) · Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics (3 works) · Law (3 works) · A priori (2 works)