E.J. Lowe Lecture 2022: Professor Peter Simons

This event is in person at Elvet Riverside (ER142) and online via Zoom

‘Metaphysical System: Putting the Parts Together’

“[M]etaphysics”, according to Jonathan Lowe, “is concerned with the fundamental structure of reality as a whole.” If it is not to remain a mere patchwork of assorted topics and theories, such metaphysics must aspire to system. Its various parts should be organically linked in a single scheme in such a way that, as Whitehead says, “everything […] shall have the character of a particular instance of the general scheme.” Achieving this without sacrificing analytic consistency, applicability (having instances), adequacy (universal coverage), answerability (conformity to established knowledge), plausibility (lack of magic), and, hardest of all to achieve, coherence (that all the basic ideas require one another) is a daunting challenge, rarely if ever attained. Still, the attempt must be made. This talk outlines my own efforts in this direction.

About Peter Simons

Peter Simons is former Professor of Philosophy at Trinity College Dublin where he held the Chair of Moral Philosophy, established in 1837. He has researched in philosophy since 1972 in the UK, Austria, and Ireland. Now retired, he lives in West Sussex, but he continues to teach intermittently at Salzburg, and is a Visiting Professor at the MAP - the Research Master in Metaphysics and Mind in Lugano: www.map.usi.ch