Ontology books
Ontology books to start from. Open one to see books like it, or tell BookSense what you loved for four picks made for you.
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New to the genre? These 5 are the books to read first.
The Categories
AristotleThe founding text on how predicates divide into basic kinds, with substance as the primary category. The date is approximate; the work comes from the Aristotelian corpus.
On What There Is
Willard Van Orman QuineIntroduces the idea that ontological commitment is what a theory must quantify over, and sets the framework for much analytic ontology after it.
Being and Time.
Martin HeideggerArgues that the question of the meaning of being has been neglected and tries to answer it through an analysis of human existence (Dasein).
Empiricism, Semantics, and Ontology
Rudolf CarnapDistinguishes internal questions about whether entities exist within a framework from external questions about whether to adopt the framework, and argues that the external questions are pragmatic.
On the Plurality of Worlds
David K. LewisDefends modal realism, the view that other possible worlds exist as concrete regions of space-time, and treats it as a direct ontological thesis.
Chosen and described with AI from our notes on the genre.
More ontology books
- Universals and Scientific Realism
Universals and Scientific RealismD. M. Armstrong - Material Beings
Material BeingsPeter Van Inwagen - Sameness and Substance
Sameness and SubstanceDavid Wiggins - Critique of Pure Reason
Critique of Pure ReasonImmanuel Kant - The Metaphysics ...
The Metaphysics ...Aristotle - Metaphysics
MetaphysicsMichael J. Loux - Reasons and Persons
Reasons and PersonsDerek Parfit - Being and nothingness
Being and nothingnessJean-Paul Sartre1943 - The Dialogues of Plato
The Dialogues of PlatoΠλάτων1952 - Finite and infinite games
Finite and infinite gamesJames P. Carse1986 - Gift from the sea
Gift from the seaAnne Morrow Lindbergh1955 - The science of being and art of living
The science of being and art of livingMahesh Yogi Maharishi.1963