The Principle of Sufficient Reason: A Reassessment

by
Format: Hardcover
Pub. Date: 2006-03-20
Publisher(s): Cambridge University Press
  • Free Shipping Icon

    This Item Qualifies for Free Shipping!*

    *Excludes marketplace orders.

List Price: $133.35

Buy New

Arriving Soon. Will ship when available.
$127.00

Rent Textbook

Select for Price
There was a problem. Please try again later.

Used Textbook

We're Sorry
Sold Out

eTextbook

We're Sorry
Not Available

How Marketplace Works:

  • This item is offered by an independent seller and not shipped from our warehouse
  • Item details like edition and cover design may differ from our description; see seller's comments before ordering.
  • Sellers much confirm and ship within two business days; otherwise, the order will be cancelled and refunded.
  • Marketplace purchases cannot be returned to eCampus.com. Contact the seller directly for inquiries; if no response within two days, contact customer service.
  • Additional shipping costs apply to Marketplace purchases. Review shipping costs at checkout.

Summary

The Principle of Sufficient Reason (PSR) says that all contingent facts must have explanation. In this volume, the first on the topic in the English language in nearly half a century, Alexander Pruss examines the substantive philosophical issues raised by the Principle Reason. Discussing various forms of the PSR and selected historical episodes, from Parmenides, Leibnez, and Hume, Pruss defends the claim that every true contingent proposition must have an explanation against major objections, including Hume's imaginability argument and Peter van Inwagen's argument that the PSR entails modal fatalism. Pruss also provides a number of positive arguments for the PSR, based on considerations as different as the metaphysics of existence, counterfactuals and modality, negative explanations, and the everyday applicability of the PSR. Moreover, Pruss shows how the PSR would advance the discussion in a number of disparate fields, including meta-ethics and the philosophy of mathematics.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xiii
Part I The Principle of Sufficient Reason and the Causal Principle
1 Introduction
3(17)
1.1. The Significance of the PSR
3(7)
1.2. A Restriction to Contingent Truths
10(3)
1.3. Why Accept the PSR?
13(3)
1.4. What Are We Talking About?
16(4)
2 Reflections on Some Historical Episodes
20(21)
2.1. Parmenides
20(6)
2.2. Thomas Aquinas
26(2)
2.3. Leibniz
28(3)
2.4. Hume
31(6)
2.5. Kant
37(4)
3 The Causal Principle and the PSR
41(34)
3.1. Chains of Causes
41(17)
3.2. The ex Nihilo Nihil Principle, the PSR, and the CP
58(4)
3.3. Resisting the Extension to Necessary Truths
62(2)
3.4. Resisting the Restriction to Positive States of Affairs
64(2)
3.5. A Survey of Some Principles
66(9)
Part II Objections to the PSR
4 A Modern Version of the Hume Objection
75(7)
4.1. Toy Models
75(1)
4.2. A Possibility Principle
76(1)
4.3. A Stronger Possibility Principle
77(1)
4.4. The Empty World
78(1)
4.5. Physicists Are Not Merely Logicians
79(3)
5 The Anti-theological Argument That There Are No Necessary Beings
82(15)
5.1. Cosmological Arguments
82(2)
5.2. Necessary Beings and Absurdity
84(1)
5.3. Rescher's Alternatives to Invoking the Existence of a Necessary Being
85(5)
5.4. Is the Notion of a Necessary Being Absurd?
90(3)
5.5. Philosophy of Mind Objections
93(2)
5.6. Lawmakers and Laws
95(2)
6 Modal Fatalism
97(29)
6.1. Van Inwagen's Argument
97(2)
6.2. The Existence of the Big Conjunctive Contingent Fact
99(4)
6.3. The Nature of Explanation
103(23)
7 Free Will
126(34)
7.1. How to Explain Free Actions?
126(6)
7.2. Reasoned Choices
132(6)
7.3. Objections to Libertarianism
138(4)
7.4. Sufficient Reasons
142(5)
7.5. An Incredulous Stare
147(1)
7.6. Contrastive Explanations?
148(7)
7.7. The Modesty of This Account and Some Alternatives
155(3)
7.8. Conclusions
158(2)
8 Quantum Mechanics
160(11)
8.1. The Problem of Indeterminism
160(1)
8.2. Rejecting Indeterminism
161(7)
8.3. Indeterminism and PSR
168(1)
8.4. Particles Coming into Existence ex Nihilo
169(2)
9 Turning Leibniz against the PSR
171(13)
9.1. In Favor of (86)
171(4)
9.2. A Defense of the TPII
175(2)
9.3. Against (86)
177(1)
9.4. Against (87)
178(6)
10 What Survives the Criticisms of the PSR?
184(5)
Part III Justifications of the PSR
11 Self-Evidence
189(20)
11.1. A Definition of Self-Evidence
190(1)
11.2. The Objection from Smart People Who Disagree
190(1)
11.3. But Isn't the PSR Easy to Understand?
191(2)
11.4. Two Ways Not to Understand
193(3)
11.5. More Detail
196(2)
11.6. Smart People Who Accept the PSR but Not as Self-Evident
198(1)
11.7. The Impasse
199(1)
11.8. Mathematical Analogies
200(5)
11.9. What Self-Evidence Could Be
205(2)
11.10. Paradoxes
207(2)
12 Three Thomistic Arguments
209(22)
12.1. First Thomistic Argument: The Regress of Existence
209(8)
12.2. Second Thomistic Argument: The Interdependence of Existence and Essence
217(12)
12.3. Third Thomistic Argument: Substance-Accident Ontology
229(2)
13 Modal Arguments
231(18)
13.1. The Strategy
231(1)
13.2. Sullivan's Argument for the CP
232(2)
13.3. The Weak PSR
234(5)
13.4. Causality and Counterfactuals
239(9)
13.5. Conclusions
248(1)
14 Is the Universe Reasonable?
249(3)
15 Explanation of Negative States of Affairs
252(2)
15.1. The Argument
252(1)
15.2. The Defectiveness Objection
252(1)
15.3. The Nomic Necessity Objection
253(1)
16 The Puzzle of the Everyday Applicability of the PSR
254(26)
16.1. The Argument
254(1)
16.2. An Abundance of Objections
255(7)
16.3. Laws of Nature
262(5)
16.4. Laws of Nature and the CP
267(13)
17 Inference to the Best or Only Explanation
280(15)
17.1. Can Inference to Best or Only Explanation Be Rational without the PSR?
280(1)
17.2. Preference for Explanatory Theories
281(2)
17.3. The Sherlock Holmes Principle
283(2)
17.4. Alternatives to the PSR That "Do the Job"
285(10)
18 Inductive Skepticism
295(4)
19 The Nature of Possibility
299(22)
19.1. Alethic Modality
299(2)
19.2. A Formalist Account
301(1)
19.3. Lewis's Theory
302(10)
19.4. Platonism: The Main Extant Realist Alternative to Lewis
312(4)
19.5. An Aristotelian Alternative
316(5)
20 Conclusions
321(2)
Bibliography 323(8)
Index 331

An electronic version of this book is available through VitalSource.

This book is viewable on PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and most smartphones.

By purchasing, you will be able to view this book online, as well as download it, for the chosen number of days.

Digital License

You are licensing a digital product for a set duration. Durations are set forth in the product description, with "Lifetime" typically meaning five (5) years of online access and permanent download to a supported device. All licenses are non-transferable.

More details can be found here.

A downloadable version of this book is available through the eCampus Reader or compatible Adobe readers.

Applications are available on iOS, Android, PC, Mac, and Windows Mobile platforms.

Please view the compatibility matrix prior to purchase.