Maitzen's New Book, Determinism, Death, and Meaning...

...is now out, and looks to be very good indeed. Here's the blurb and advanced praise:

This book offers new arguments for determinism. It draws novel and surprising consequences from determinism for our attitudes toward such things as death, regret, grief, and the meaning of life.

The book argues that rationalism is the right attitude to take toward reality. It then shows that rationalism implies determinism and that determinism has surprising and far-reaching consequences. The author contends that the existence of all of humanity almost certainly depends on the precise time and manner of your death and mine; that purely retrospective regret, relief, gratitude, and grief are irrational for all but those who hold extreme values; and that everyone’s life has an unending impact on the future and thereby achieves the strongest kind of meaning that it makes sense to desire.

Written in a direct and accessible style, Determinism, Death, and Meaning will be of interest to researchers and advanced students working in metaphysics, philosophy of religion, and value theory, as well as general readers with a serious interest in these topics.

"This is a beautiful book. It is clearly and elegantly written, it addresses questions that are both large and important, and it defends bold and well thought-out answers to them. For those who are persuaded by its argument, the book is potentially life-changing." -- Professor Wes Morriston, University of Colorado, USA

"This is a breathtakingly original book. Whether or not you accept Maitzen’s rationalism and commitment to determinism, this is an extremely rich and insightful study of their implications. It has deeply influenced how I think about counterfactuals, regret, and death – the most exciting discussion of these topics that I have read in ages, clearly and engagingly written. Whether or not you are (and always were) determined to read it, you should." -- Professor Alan Hájek, Australian National University

Happy reading!


Karofsky's New Book Defending Necessitarianism...

 ...is now out. Here's the blurb:

This book is the first detailed and focused defense of necessitarianism. The author’s original account of necessitarianism encourages a reexamination of commonly held metaphysical positions as well as important issues in other, related areas of philosophy.

Necessitarianism is the view that absolutely nothing about the world could have been otherwise in any way, whatsoever. Most philosophers believe that necessitarianism is just plain false and presume that some things could have been otherwise than what they are. In this book, the author argues that necessitarianism is true and the view that some things in the world are contingent—what the author terms contingentarianism—is false. The author assesses various theories of contingency, including the possible worlds theory, combinatorialism, and dispositionalism, and argues that no theory can successfully explain why an entity is such as it is rather than not. She then lays out a case for necessitarianism and provides responses to various objections. The book concludes with an explanation of the ways in which necessitarianism is relevant to issues in ethics, philosophy of mind, and social philosophy.

A Case for Necessitarianism will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in metaphysics, logic, and philosophy of science.

For obvious reasons, the book should be of interest to philosophers of religion.

Robert M. Adams (1937-2024)

 Robert M. Adams, a seminal figure in philosophy of religion, has passed. Details here . Adams was a good man. I recall fondly when he and h...