Abstract

New Essays in Metaphysics might more aptly be titled Essays in New Metaphysics, since an overall theme of the fifteen essays contained in the volume is that the old metaphysics has been tried and found wanting. It is not easy to provide a general characterization of all fifteen essays since they are very diverse. Rather than attempt to give a thumbnail summary of them all, I shall instead focus attention on the essays by David Hall and Nicholas Capaldi, both of which address the question of the general character of metaphysics. This selectivity is not to be construed as constituting an adverse comment on the essays omitted, indeed, it is the very richness and originality of these essays which renders any attempt at offhand reporting both ineffectual and undesirable.