PhD in Metaphysics

University of Sheffield

Metaphysics is about the most general nature of reality as a whole. Here are some typical metaphysical questions: Do material things exist independently of our perception of them, or does the world consist only of conscious beings and their sensations Are there any nonphysical things, such as the number 42 or the Pythagorean theorem Are conscious beings like ourselves material or immaterial Is there a god Several of our staff and students work on metaphysical problems to do with human beings. For example, what sort of thing is a human person And what does it take for us to persist through time--for a past or future being to be you rather than someone or something else Eric Olson is a leading advocate of ‘animalism’, the view that we are biological organisms. This is controversial because it’s incompatible with the view that our persistence consists in some sort of psychological continuity.