Possibility and Actuality

Nicolai Hartmann

Published by De Gruyter 2013

Possibility and Actuality

Nicolai Hartmann
With contributions by: Roberto Poli
Translated by: Stephanie Adair and Alex Scott

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110246681

Overview
Contents

About this book

Nicolai Hartmann's Possibility and Actuality is the second volume of a four-part investigation of ontology. It deals with such questions as: How do we know that something is really possible? Is the possible only the actual? Is the actual only the possible? What is the difference between ideal and real possibility?

This groundbreaking work of modal analysis describes the logical relations between possibility, actuality, and necessity, and it provides insight into the relations between modes of knowledge and modes of being.

Hartmann reviews the history of philosophical concepts of possibility and necessity, from ancient Megarian philosophy to Aristotle, to Medieval Scholasticism, to Leibniz, Kant, and Hegel. He explains the importance of modal analysis as a basic investigative tool, and he proposes an approach to understanding the nature of human existence that unifies the fields of ontology, modal logic, metaphysics, and epistemology.

This brilliant and fascinating work is relevant to many topics of debate in contemporary philosophy, including the ontology of possible worlds, the metaphysics of modality, the logic of counterfactual conditionals, and modal epistemology. It illuminates the nature of real, ideal, logical, and epistemic possibility.

First German-to-English-translation
Groundbreaking work of early 20^th century philosophy

Author / Editor information

Alex Scott, Baltimore, MD, USA; Stephanie Adair, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.

Supplementary Materials

Contents

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Translators’ Preface Alex Scott and Stephanie Adair Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	v
Introduction Roberto Poli Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xiii
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	xxiii
Foreword Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	7
Part One: The Problem of the Levels of Modality
I Aporias and Equivocations of Modal Concepts Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	39
II The Basic Modal Law Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	67
III General Arrangement of the Modes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	91
Part Two: The Modality of Real Being
I The Real Modes and Their Intermodal Laws Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	111
II Formal Proof of the Intermodal Laws of the Real Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	135
III Material Proof of the Intermodal Laws of the Real Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	161
IV The Ontological Law of Determination Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	201
V The Modal Construction of Becoming Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	231
VI Fields of Incomplete Reality Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	265
Part Three: The Modality of the Unreal
I The Modal Construction of the Logical Sphere Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	285
II The Modality of Ideal Being Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	317
III The Modal Problem of Knowledge Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	365
IV The Modes of Knowledge and their Laws Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	391
Part Four: Second-Order Intermodal Relations
I The Modal Relation of the Two Spheres of Being Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	429
II The Real Sphere and Knowledge Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	447
III The Position of Ideal Being and of the Logical Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	471

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter
Audience: Academics, Institutes, Libraries
Pages
- Front matter: 36
- Main content: 488
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 20
Keywords: Necessity; Possibility; Metaphysics; Modal Logic; Ontology

eBook

Published: March 22, 2013
ISBN: 9783110246681

Hardcover

Published: March 15, 2013
ISBN: 9783110246674