This is an archived course. A more recent version may be available at ocw.mit.edu.

Readings

SES # READINGS
Ontology
1 No readings assigned.
2 Quine, Willard V. "On What There Is." The Review of Metaphysics 2, no. 1 (1948): 21–38.
3 Carnap, Rudolf. "Empiricism, Semantics, and Ontology." Revue Internationale de Philosophie 4 (1950): 20–40.
4 Unger, Peter. "The Problem of the Many." Midwest Studies In Philosophy 5, no. 1 (1980): 411–68.
5 Lewis, David. "Many, But Almost One." In Papers in Metaphysics and Epistemology. Cambridge University Press, 1999. ISBN: 9780521587877. [Preview with Google Books]
Time
6 McTaggart, J. McT. E. Time: An Excerpt from "The Nature of Existence."
7 Parsons, Josh. "A–Theory for B–Theorists." The Philosophical Quarterly 52, no. 206 (2002): 1–20.
8 Lewis, David. This resource may not render correctly in a screen reader."The Paradoxes of Time Travel." (PDF) American Philosophical Quarterly 13, no. 2 (1976): 145–52.
Identity
9 Parfit, Derek. Chapters 10 and 11 in Reasons and Persons. Oxford University Press. 1984. ISBN: 9780198246152. [Preview with Google books]
10 ———. Chapter 12 in Reasons and Persons. Oxford University Press. 1984. ISBN: 9780198246152. [Preview with Google books]
11 Lewis, David. "Survival and Identity." Philosophical Papers, 1983.
12 Gendler, Tamar Szabo. "Personal Identity and Thought–Experiments." The Philosophical Quarterly 52, no. 206 (2002): 34–54.
Modality
13 Plantinga, Alvin. Chapters 1–2 in The Nature of Necessity. Clarendon Press, 1979. ISBN: 9780198244141.
14 Chisholm, Roderick M. "Identity through Possible Worlds: Some Questions." Noûs 1, no. 1 (1967): 1–8.
15 Lewis, David. "Counterparts or Double Lives?"
16 ———. "Counterparts or Double Lives?" (cont.)
Free Will
17 Van Inwagen, Peter. "The Incompatibility of Free Will and Determinism." Philosophical Studies: An International Journal for Philosophy in the Analytic Tradition 27, no. 3 (1975): 185–99.
18 Lewis, David. "Are We Free to Break the Laws?" Theoria 47, no. 3 (1981): 113–21.
19 Beebee, Helen. "Local Miracle Compatibilism." Noûs 37, no. 2 (2003): 258–77.
Causation
20 Davidson, Donald. This resource may not render correctly in a screen reader."Causal Relations." (PDF) The Journal of Philosophy 64, no. 21 (1967): 691–703. (Sixty–Fourth Annual Meeting of the American Philosophical Association Eastern Division)
21 Lewis, David. This resource may not render correctly in a screen reader."Causation." (PDF - 1.3MB) The Journal of Philosophy 70, no. 17 (1973): 556–67. (Seventieth Annual Meeting of the American Philosophical Association Eastern Division)
22 McGrath, Sarah. "Causation by Omission: A Dilemma." Philosophical Studies 123, no. 1–2 (2005): 125–48.
Ontology, Reconsidered
23 Hirsch, Eli. "Ontology and Alternative Languages." Metametaphysics: New Essays on the Foundations of Ontology (2009): 231–58.
24 Bennett, Karen. "Composition, Colocation, and Metaontology." Metametaphysics: New Essays on the Foundations of Ontology, 2009.
25 Schaffer, Jonathan. "On What Grounds What." Metametaphysics: New Essays on the Foundations of Ontology (2009): 347—83.