Matters of Metaphysics (Hardcover, New)

This selection of Professor Mellor's work gathers together 16 major papers on related topics written over the last 15 years. Together they form a complete modern metaphysics. The book starts with the mind - the subjectivity of the self, consciousness, how like computers we are, and how psychology relates to physics. It then tackles dispositions, natural kinds, physical necessity, objective chances, laws of nature and the relation of properties to predicates. From this it moves on to causation - what it relates, how it works, how it accommodates chance and defines the direction of time. Finally, the author shows how chance should affect our expectations and decisions, and how it solves the notorious problem of induction. Two of the papers were written for this volume, another has been revised for it, and many have hitherto been relatively inaccessible. An introduction demonstrates the connections between the papers, and discusses subsequent developments in the subject and in the author's own views.