{"title":"Amie Thomasson","description":"Amie L. Thomasson is the Daniel P. Stone Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy at Dartmouth College. She is the author of four prior books: Ontology Made Easy (2014, winner of the Sanders Book Prize), Norms and Necessity (2020), Ordinary Objects (2007), and Fiction and Metaphysics (1998); and co-editor of Phenomenology and Philosophy of Mind (2005). She has also published more than 80 papers on topics in metaphysics, philosophical methodology and metametaphysics, philosophy of art, social ontology, philosophy of mind and phenomenology. She has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and has twice held Fellowships with the National Endowment for the Humanities.","products":[{"product_id":"rethinking-metaphysics-hardcover","title":"Rethinking Metaphysics - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eRethinking Metaphysics\u003c\/em\u003e, Amie Thomasson aims to change how we think about metaphysics: what it can do, and why it matters. Traditional metaphysics has aimed to discover deep truths about the world. But this has led to rivalries with science, epistemological mysteries, and a despairing scepticism about how we could gain knowledge in metaphysics. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThomasson argues that the problems with prior approaches to metaphysics arise from a problematic assumption that all discourse functions in the same way. Drawing on work in linguistics, she shows how to develop a richer view of linguistic functions that enables us to see why this assumption leads us astray. By better understanding the plurality of linguistic functions, she argues, we can also disentangle ourselves from many old metaphysical problems--including problems about properties, numbers, morality and modality. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn place of the traditional model, we should think of metaphysics as work in conceptual engineering--including both a reverse engineering project aimed at understanding how various parts of our language and conceptual scheme work and what functions they serve, and a constructive engineering project that investigates what concepts and language we \u003cem\u003eshould\u003c\/em\u003e use and how we should use them. Rethinking metaphysics as conceptual engineering in this way enables us to avoid the problems of traditional metaphysics, while also demonstrating the perennial importance of metaphysics to human life.","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51377600364767,"sku":"9780197787809","price":59.85,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/JqC2VumKCE9780197787809.webp?v=1789236160"},{"product_id":"norms-and-necessity-paperback","title":"Norms and Necessity - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eClaims about what is metaphysically necessary or possible have long played a central role in metaphysics and other areas of philosophy. Such claims are traditionally thought of as aiming to describe a special kind of modal fact or property, or perhaps facts about other possible worlds. But that assumption leads to difficult ontological, epistemological, and methodological puzzles. Should we accept that there are modal facts or properties, or other possible worlds? If so, what could these things be? How could we come to know what the modal facts or properties are? How can we resolve philosophical debates about what is metaphysically necessary or possible? \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cem\u003eNorms and Necessity\u003c\/em\u003e develops a new approach to understanding our claims about metaphysical possibility and necessity: Modal Normativism. The Normativist rejects the assumption that modal claims aim to describe modal features or possible worlds, arguing instead that they serve as useful ways of conveying, reasoning with, and renegotiating semantic rules and their consequences. By dropping the descriptivist assumption, the Normativist is able to unravel the notorious ontological problems of modality, and provide a clear and plausible story about how we can come to know what is metaphysically necessary or possible. Most importantly, this approach helps demystify philosophical methodology. It reveals that resolving metaphysical modal questions does not require a special form of philosophical insight or intuition. Instead, it requires nothing more mysterious than empirical knowledge, conceptual mastery, and an ability to explicitly convey and renegotiate semantic rules.","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51399514915039,"sku":"9780197747162","price":56.41,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/NNPREhxtu09780197747162.webp?v=1789485981"}],"url":"https:\/\/blackandbarhe.com\/collections\/amie-thomasson.oembed","provider":"Black \u0026 Barhe Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}