Language, Epistemology, Metaphysics, and Mind Research Interest Group Talk (Aaron Segal, Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

The Language, Epistemology, Metaphysics, and Mind Research Group welcomes Aaron Segal, a faculty member in the Department of Philosophy at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Dr. Segal works in the areas of metaphysics and philosophy of religion.

Join the meeting:

Talk Title

An Analytic Vindication of Idealism

Talk Abstract

One of the hallmarks of nineteenth-century idealism, which distinguished it sharply from analytic philosophy through much of the twentieth century, was the insistence that metaphysics is intrinsically systematic, and that as a methodological consequence, we cannot properly do metaphysics in a piecemeal fashion.

After making the notion of intrinsic systematicity much more precise, I argue that at least in this regard the idealists have at long last been vindicated.  The trajectory of analytic metaphysics over the past half century, together with very plausible meta-metaphysical reflections on that trajectory, strongly suggest that the idealists were right after all.

The practical upshot for contemporary analytic metaphysicians is this: if metaphysics can be properly done at all, it can’t be properly done in the way most everyone has been doing it.

About the Language, Epistemology, Metaphysics and Mind Research Group

One of six departmental research interest groups, the Language, Epistemology, Metaphysics and Mind Group undertakes research in philosophy of mind, philosophy of cognitive science, traditional and formal epistemology, metaphysics, and philosophy of language.