The Ways Things Are

This book is a collection of essays in systematic ontology. The parts of its title - Things and Ways They Are - are indicative of two broadly and intensively discussed issues in current ontology, namely, what categories of entities there are and in what ways they are relevant for our discourses. The three sections of the volume correspond to focuses of ontological research: Before Ontology is dedicated to conceptual, methodological, and meta-ontological issues; Ontology at Work raises general topics of categorial ontology, and the final section Ontology in Application discusses questions such as those relating to free will and our conception of the human being. The book is a tribute to Edmund Runggaldier on the occasion of his 65th birthday. Its seventeen papers are authored by such distinguished scholars as Lynne Rudder Baker, Franz von Kutschera, E. J. Lowe, Otto Muck, Paul Weingartner, Timothy Williamson, and many others.