Includes bibliographical references and index.

General introduction : what is metaphysics? / Robin Le Poidevin -- History of metaphysics -- Introduction to part I : millennia of metaphysics / Peter Simons -- Presocratic themes : being, not-being and mind / David Sedley -- Plato : arguments for forms / Richard Patterson -- Aristotle : form, matter and substance / Stephen Makin -- Aristotle : time and change / Ursula Coope -- Medieval metaphysics I : the problem of universals / Claude Panaccio -- Medieval metaphysics II : things, non-things, God and time / John Marenbon -- Descartes : the real distinction / Dugald Murdoch -- Hobbes : matter, motion and cause / George MacDonald Ross -- Spinoza : substance, attribute and mode / Richard Glauser -- Locke : the primary and secondary quality distinction / Lisa Downing -- Leibniz : mind-body causation and pre-established harmony / Gonzalo Rodriguez-Pereyra -- Berkeley : arguments for idealism / Tom Stoneham -- Hume : necessary connections and distinct existences / Alexander Miller -- Kant : the possibility of metaphysics / Lucy Allais -- Hegel and Schopenhauer : reason and will / Rolf-Peter Horstmann -- Anti-metaphysics I : Nietzsche / Maudemarie Clark -- Bradley : the supra-relational absolute / W.J. Mander -- Whitehead : process and cosmology / Peter Simons -- Heidegger : the question of being / Herman Philipse -- Anti-metaphysics II : verificationism and kindred views / Cheryl Misak -- Metaphysics revivified / Avrum Stroll -- Ontology : on what exists -- Introduction to part II : being and related matters / Ross P. Cameron -- To be / Chris Daly -- Not to be / Graham Priest -- Razor arguments / Peter Forrest -- Substance / David Robb -- Intrinsic and extrinsic properties / Ross P. Cameron -- Universals : the contemporary debate / Fraser MacBride -- Particulars / Herbert Hochberg -- Composition, persistence and identity / Nikk Effingham -- Relations / John Heil -- Events, facts and states of affairs / Julian Dodd -- Possible worlds and possibilia / John Divers -- Mathematical entities / Peter Clark -- Fictional objects / Richard Hanley -- Vagueness / Elizabeth Barnes -- Minor entities : surfaces, holes and shadows / Roberto Casati -- Truthmakers and truthbearers / John Bigelow -- Values / Kevin Mulligan -- Metaphysics and science -- Introduction to part III : the study of nature / Robin Le Poidevin -- Space, absolute and relational / Tim Maudlin -- Infinity and metaphysics / Daniel Nolan -- The passage of time / Eric T. Olson -- The direction of time / D.H. Mellor -- Causation / Michael Tooley -- Laws and dispositions / Stephen Mumford -- Determinism and probability / Phillip Percival -- Essences and natural kinds / Alexander Bird -- Metaphysics and relativity / Katherine Hawley -- Metaphysics and quantum physics / Peter J. Lewis -- Supervenience, reductionism, and emergence / Howard Robinson -- Biometaphysics / Barry Smith -- Social entities / Amie L. Thomasson -- The mental and the physical / Louise Anthony -- The self / John Campbell.

The Routledge Companion to Metaphysics is organized into three parts: History of Metaphysics, Ontology, and Metaphysics and Science. Each section features an introduction which places the range of essays in context, while a glossary allows reference to key terms and definitions.--