The philosophical study of what exists and what it means for something to exist is one of the core concerns of metaphysics. This is an introduction to ontology that provides readers with an account of the central ideas of the subject of being.

Preface Acknowledgements Introduction: being as such Part I: Pure philosophical ontology 1. What it is to be (on Heidegger) 2. Combinatorial ontology 3. Why there is something rather than nothing 4. Why there is only one logically contingent actual world 5. Concepts of existence in philosophical logic and the analysis of being qua being Part II: Applied antology and the metaphysics of science 6. Ontological commitment (on Quine) 7. Appearance, reality, substance, transcendence 8. Physical entities: space, time, matter and causation, physical states of affairs and events, natural laws 9. Abstract entities, particular and universal: numbers, sets, properties, qualities, relations, propositions, possibilities, logical, mathematical, and metaphysical laws 10. Subjectivity of mind in the world of objective physical facts 11. God: a divine supernatural mind? 12. Ontology of culture, language, art and artefacts Conclusion: scientific-philosophical ontology Notes Bibliography Index