The metaphysics of relations / edited by Anna Marmodoro and David Yates.

Minimal Level Cataloging Plus. DLC

Includes bibliographical references (pages 263-277) and index.

Cover; The Metaphysics of Relations; Copyright; Dedication; Preface; Table of Contents; Acknowledgments; About the Authors; 1: Introduction: The Metaphysics of Relations; 1.1 Background; 1.2 Ancient Perspectives; 1.3 Internal vs External Relations; 1.4 The Papers; 2: Relations as Plural Predications in Plato; 2.1 Introduction; 2.2 Plural Subjects and Plural-partaking in Platonic Forms; 2.3 The Metaphysics of the Socratic Position; 2.4 Related Individuals in Plato's Theory of Forms; 2.5 Symmetrically Related Individuals: The Form of Equality; 2.6 Asymmetrically Related Individuals. 2.7 Conclusion2.8 Appendix on Castaneda's Reading; 3: Aristotelian vs Contemporary Perspectives on Relations; 3.1 Introduction; 3.2 Relations and Polyadic Predicates; 3.3 Relations and Polyadic Properties; 3.4. Relations, Realism, and Anti-Reductionism; 3.5. The Familiar Story Revisited; 4: Why Do Medieval Philosophers Reject Polyadic Accidents?; 4.1 Introduction; 4.2 Following the Tradition; 4.3 Reductionism; 4.4 An Argument From De Rerum Principioand Leibniz; 4.5 An Epistemological Argument from Albert the Great; 4.6 An Argument From Godfrey of Fontaines. 4.7 Auriol, Suárez, and the Location Problem5: Positionalism Revisited; 5.1 Introduction; 5.2 Differential Application and the Standard Account; 5.3 Naïve Positionalism; 5.4 Relative Positionalism; 5.5 Relative Property Instantiation; 5.6 Conclusion; 6: There Are (Probably) No Relations; 7: External Relations, Causal Coincidence, and Contingency; 7.1 Background Assumptions; 7.2 Relational Predications: Internal, Weakly External, Strongly External; 7.3 Relations as Something Objective in the World; 7.4 Contingent Relational Facts; 7.5 The Theoretical Unsettledness of Space and Time. 7.6 Space, Time, and Causation7.7 Things and Processes: How Related; 7.8 Causal Coincidence: Examples and Significance; 7.9 Contingency and Spatiotemporality; 7.10 Incidental Advantages: Regress and Directionality; 8: Causal Relations; 8.1 Causation: The Received View; 8.2 Internal and External Relations; 8.3 A Universe of Powers; 8.4 Necessity and Contingency; 8.5 Historical Interlude; 8.6 Laws, Powers, Causation; 8.7 Conclusion; 9: Is Powerful Causation an Internal Relation?; 9.1 Introduction; 9.2 Powerful Causation as an Internal Relation; 9.3 Are Powers Intrinsic? 9.4 Self-Contained Powers9.5 Relational Individuation, Immanence, and Intrinsicality; 9.6 Conclusion: The Irreducibility of Causality to Powers; 10: What a Structuralist Theory of Properties Could Not Be; 10.1 Introduction; 10.2 Metaphysical Accounts of Properties; 10.2.1 Against Quiddities; 10.2.2 Causal vs Nomological; 10.3 Problematic Properties; 10.3.1 Quantum Incompatibility; 10.3.2 Global Properties of Spacetime; 10.3.3 Symmetry Principles and Conservation Properties; 10.4 Further Motivations; 10.5 Is Causation Fundamental?; 10.6 Where to Go From Here

This volume presents thirteen original essays which explore both traditional and contemporary aspects of the metaphysics of relations. It is uncontroversial that there are true relational predications-'Abelard loves Eloise', 'Simmias is taller than Socrates', 'smoking causes cancer', and so forth. More controversial is whether any true relational predications have irreducibly relational truthmakers. Do any of the statements above involve their subjects jointly instantiating polyadic properties, or can we explain their truths solely in terms of monadic, non-relational properties of the relata? According to a tradition dating back to Plato and Aristotle, and continued by medieval philosophers, polyadic properties are metaphysically dubious. In non-symmetric relations such as the amatory relation, a property would have to inhere in two things at once-lover and beloved-but characterise each differently, and this puzzled the ancients. More recent work on non-symmetric relations highlights difficulties with their directionality. Such problems offer clear motivation for attempting to reduce relations to monadic properties.0.