Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

The Latest from Peter van Inwagen

This just over the transom:

Dear Sir, 

Recently I have been looking for some work by Peter van Inwagen and found his recent book Being A Study in Ontology. I believe the subject could be very interesting to you, because, as far as I know, you have written several times on his ontological views (even if there is deep disagreements between his and yours ontological views). 
 
I hope you are doing well in this messy and unpredictable world. 
 
Kind regards, 
Miloš Milojević 
 
Dear Mr. Milojević,
 
Thank you for bringing this book to my attention.  I will try to persuade the editor of a journal to send me a review copy. Failing that, I will happily shell out 75 USD for a copy. The undisputed 'king' of the 'thin theorists,' van Inwagen is wrong about Being, but brilliantly wrong and a formidable adversary. 
 
I have addressed his views many times in these pages and a few times in print.  Van Inwagen on Fiction, Existence, Properties, Particulars, and Method is one; "Existence: Two Dogmas of Analysis" ( in Daniel D. Novotny and Lukas Novak (eds.), Neo-Aristotelian Perspectives in Metaphysics, Routledge. pp. 45-75. 2014.) is another.
 
Other articles of mine on Being and existence can be found via my PhilPeople page.
 
As for this "messy and unpredictable world," let's hope it holds together for a few more years. I see no reason to be optimistic, but I derive consolation both from philosophy and from old age. In the meantime we must do our part-time best to beat back the forces of darkness.  Only part-time, however, because this world is a vanishing quantity that does not merit the full measure of our love and attention. All things worldly must pass. "Impermanence is swift." (Dogen) "Work out your salvation with diligence." (Buddha)
 
Finally, Miloš, I  thank you for your correspondence over the years,
 
Bill
 
Musical addendum
 
If Harrison was the Beatle with spiritual depth, Lennon was the radical leftist shallow-pate, McCartney the romantic, and Starr the regular guy and good-time Charley.

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Bill Vallicella

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5 responses to “The Latest from Peter van Inwagen”

  1. John Avatar
    John

    I read van Inwagen’s book last year, and while he is always worth reading, I don’t believe there is a great deal of new material in the book. It began its life as a monograph in the 1990s, which he then abandoned for various reasons. It has now been published more or less as it was when he abandoned it. (He lays all this out himself in the Preface.) So it’s not likely that you will find anything new to tangle with here, but philosophy being the kind of enterprise that it is, revisiting the work of someone like van Inwagen will certainly have value.

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  2. BV Avatar
    BV

    John,
    I suspected that PvI was going over old ground, so it may not be worth the 75 semolians Amazon is asking for it.
    Do you own a copy? If yes, do you want to sell it to me?
    Thanks for the helpful comment!
    At this stage of the game I have plenty of money for books; my problem is lack of space. I have already committed territorial aggression against my wife’s bookshelves, dare I invade her capacious closets? She tolerates living in a library, but I’d better not press my luck.
    Happy wife, happy life!

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  3. oz the ostrich Avatar
    oz the ostrich

    “territorial aggression against my wife’s bookshelves” Yup I tried that. Did not end well.

    Reply
  4. John Avatar
    John

    I do own a copy, but I’m afraid I’m not willing to sell it. I’ve got quite the PVI collection these days, and I anxiously await the publication of another collection of essays entitled The Abstract and The Concrete, due out with OUP later this year (if I recall correctly). My PVI books are all riddled with my marginalia, and all are volumes to which I have returned and expect to return to again in the future.
    I empathize with the limits of space to which you refer. I’m rapidly approaching the point when I will have to sell some of my collection.

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  5. BV Avatar
    BV

    John,
    I fully understand your position. Let me know which books you are willing to part with. I suspect your marginal annotations have a rare quality: they are worth reading. ‘Marginal annotations’ is interestingly ambiguous: I trust you know how to take it.
    I almost always regret selling or giving away books.
    I suspect that *The Abstract and the Concrete* will also be recycling old material.
    But as you say, anything by PvI is worth reading.

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