Mr P. F. Strawson's book Individuals is subtitled An Essay in Descriptive Metaphysics . ‘Descriptive metaphysics’, he writes , ‘is content to describe the actual structure of our thought about the world’, whereas ‘revisionary metaphysics is concerned to produce a better structure’; it is distinguished from logical or conceptual analysis in scope and generality, rather than in fundamental intention. The book is divided into two parts; in Strawson's words , ‘the first part aims at establishing the central position which material (...) bodies and persons occupy among particulars in general. … In the second part of the book the aim is to establish and explain the connexion between the idea of a particular in general and that of an object of reference or logical subject.’. (shrink)

Book reviewed in this article:F.H. Bradley, Collected Works Volumes 1–5.