The Principle of Sufficient Reason: A Reassessment

Alexander R. Pruss (Georgetown University, Washington DC)

The Principle of Sufficient Reason: A Reassessment
Format
Hardback
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Country
United Kingdom
Published
20 March 2006
Pages
350
ISBN
9780521859592

The Principle of Sufficient Reason: A Reassessment

Alexander R. Pruss (Georgetown University, Washington DC)

The Principle of Sufficient Reason (PSR) says that all contingent facts must have explanation. In this 2006 volume, which was the first on the topic in the English language in nearly half a century, Alexander Pruss examines the substantive philosophical issues raised by the Principle Reason. Discussing various forms of the PSR and selected historical episodes, from Parmenides, Leibnez, and Hume, Pruss defends the claim that every true contingent proposition must have an explanation against major objections, including Hume’s imaginability argument and Peter van Inwagen’s argument that the PSR entails modal fatalism. Pruss also provides a number of positive arguments for the PSR, based on considerations as different as the metaphysics of existence, counterfactuals and modality, negative explanations, and the everyday applicability of the PSR. Moreover, Pruss shows how the PSR would advance the discussion in a number of disparate fields, including meta-ethics and the philosophy of mathematics.

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