Is personal identity psychological or physical? Determinism and freedom-are they incompatible? Do abstract entities-concepts like universals, propositions, and numbers-actually exist? In a series of provocative original essays, Contemporary Debates in Metaphysics searches for answers to some of the most contentious issues in the field today.An introductory essay by the editors on the recurring metaphysical theme of reductionism versus primitivism prepares the reader for the text's distinctive format-a series of head-to-head debates by eighteen leading professionals in metaphysics. Squaring off on opposite sides of the issues, they debate nine of the deepest and most puzzling topics in the field of contemporary metaphysics..Offering clear and revelatory insights into sophisticated philosophical viewpoints, Contemporary Debates in Metaphysics is an excellent resource for advanced students and professional philosophers alike.

Theodore Sider is Professor of Philosophy at New York University. He is the author of Four-Dimensionalism and (with Earl Conee) Riddles of Existence.

John Hawthorne is Waynflete Professor of Metaphysical Philosophy at the University of Oxford. He is the author of Metaphysical Essays, and has published widely in metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of language, and Leibniz studies.

Dean W. Zimmerman is Associate Professor in the Philosophy department at Rutgers University. He is editor of Oxford Studies in Metaphysics, and author of numerous articles in metaphysics and philosophy of religion.