Impact Factor: 0.2

Journal

Metaphysica

International Journal for Ontology and Metaphysics

Edited by: Rafael Hüntelmann , Uwe Meixner and Erwin Tegtmeier
Managing Editor: Georg Koridze
Editorial Board: Brian Davies , Edward Charles Feser , Herbert Hochberg , Ludger Jansen , Ingvar Johansson , Christian Kanzian , Gyula Klima , Robert C Koons , Wolfgang Künne , Winfried Löffler , Kevin Mulligan , Frederic Nef , Nathan Oaklander , David Oderberg , Francesco Orilia , Alvin Plantinga , Matjaz Potrc , Christof Rapp , Maria Elisabeth Reicher-Marek , Thomas Sattig , Richard Schantz , Oliver Scholz , Johanna Seibt , Peter Simons , Barry Smith , Niko Strobach , Käthe Trettin and Daniel von Wachter

Language: English

First published: April 30, 2014

Publication Frequency: 2 issues per year

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About this journal

The journal Metaphysica is published semi-annually. The editors aim to create an international forum of ontology and metaphysics for readers all over the world. In the Anglo-Saxon countries (in particular the USA and Australia) the volume of research publications in ontology and metaphysics significantly increased during the last two decades. European philosophers, on the other hand, initially seemed reticent to address ontological and metaphysical topics, undoubtedly due to deeply rooted Kantian ideas about the “end of metaphysics.” Since the nineties, however, sentiments have changed in favour of a new “ontological turn” within Central European philosophy. In Austria, Switzerland, and Germany an increasing number of philosophical publications present systematic treatments of ontological and metaphysical issues. At the same time there is a new strong interest in reviewing historical contributions to ontology and metaphysics, from Parmenides to Plato, Aristotle, Occam, Leibniz and further to Brentano, Husserl, and Nicolai Hartmann. Since there is no other European journal devoted to the discussion of ontological and metaphysical issues in particular, the editors found it necessary to fill this gap by founding the journal Metaphysica.

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Is There Really Any “Merely Verbal” Ontological Dispute?

July 28, 2025

Carlota G. Llorente

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Contemporary debates on metaontology focus on discussions between two main positions: realism and deflationism. Ontological realism claims to deal with an independent objective reality, while deflationism downgrades the seriousness of ontology. From a position close to deflationism, E. Hirsch suggests that certain debates in ontology are not substantive but “merely verbal”. From a proper deflationist position, however, it seems doubtful that any ontological dispute can be merely linguistic without further consequences. The aim of this article is to argue that no ontological debate can remain purely verbal. For this purpose, a brief introduction to Hirsch’s ideas will be presented, followed by three different arguments against “merely verbal” disputes: semantic, epistemic and ontological.
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The Problem of God and Abstract Objects: A Reassessment

July 11, 2025

Joshua R. Sijuwade

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This article aims to provide a reassessment of the relationship between God and abstract objects. This reassessment will provide a new conceptualisation of this important relationship and will be formulated, first, within the theoretical framework of ‘Theistic Aspectivalism’, which is grounded on the notion of an aspect, proposed by Donald L.M. Baxter, which provides a means to ward off the ‘Bootstrapping Problem’. Second, within the theoretical framework of ‘Theistic Essentialism’, which is based on the notion of essence and essential dependence, as proposed by Kit Fine, Jonathan Lowe, and Katherin Koslicki, which provides a metaphysical basis for the relationship between God and abstract objects to be further elucidated and for the position of ‘Platonic Theism’ to be free from the primary issues that are often raised against it.
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Dispositionalism and the Intrinsic Nature of Pure Powers

June 30, 2025

Vassilis Livanios

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Most recently, a number of philosophers have stressed the need for an intrinsic characterisation of the nature of powerful properties which nonetheless is compatible with the widely shared view that powers are intimately connected to the properties of their manifestations. This paper argues that the adoption of such an intrinsic criterion for the identity of pure powers has important consequences for Dispositionalism, the theory of modality according to which the truth of all alethic modal claims is grounded in the powers of actual entities. To this end, the paper examines the cases of two possibilities regarding pure powers and defends the view that these possible cases undermine the extensional adequacy of Dispositionalism.
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Fiction without Fictional Characters: An Anti-Realist Account

June 30, 2025

Jansan Favazzo

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This paper outlines a semantic analysis of fictional discourse alternative both to fictional realism and fictional fictionalism. The core idea is that competent speakers use fictional proper names in order to talk about certain pluralities of fictional depiction tokens rather than exotic entities such as Anna Karenina and Clarissa Dalloway. In order to corroborate this intuition, I propose an account of fictional proper names based on a Goodmanian notion of secondary extension and a model for the theory built upon negative free logic and plural quantification. Such a model aims to offer an anti-realist translation for three classes of problematic data: paratextual sentences, metatextual sentences, and negative existentials.
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Color May Be the Phenomenal Dual Aspect of Two-State Quantum Systems

June 25, 2025

Tal Hendel

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Panmicropsychism is the hypothesis that the physical ultimates of our universe (i.e., its fundamental physical ingredients) are also its phenomenal ultimates (i.e., its fundamental phenomenal ingredients). In this paper, I argue that, just as the mathematical description of the physical ultimates of our universe displays simplicity, symmetry, and beauty, panmicropsychists should similarly expect the mathematical description of the phenomenal ultimates to reflect these same qualities. I exemplify this claim using what is arguably the simplest of all types of phenomenal qualities – color. Specifically, I utilize phenomenological data on color to construct the maximally symmetric mathematical description of phenomenal color space. I then show that this mathematical description is isomorphic to the mathematical description of two-state quantum systems (qubits) in a mixed state. Based on this isomorphism, I suggest that color may be the phenomenal dual aspect of two-state quantum systems.
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Mind, Computation and the Incompleteness of the Formal System

May 7, 2025

Thomas Hauer

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The nature of mind and the relationship of mind to the current form of AI is one of the great and fundamental topics of contemporary philosophy and science. Is the human mind computational or not? Can the brain perform processes that no Turing machine can perform? Can the mind be simulated? Does the incompleteness of the formal system, or the undecidability of all formulas, mean the impossibility of intelligent behaviour? Is it a necessary condition of intelligence to answer all possible questions and tasks, and if so, what answers will be sufficient in the assessment? Only correct answers, or on the contrary, does “only correct” mean too precise and therefore infallible, thus again exclusively “inhuman”? The main aim of this study is to analyse Gödel’s answer to the question about the nature of mind, his metaphysical assumptions and its implications for the current debate on AI.
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Constitution versus Predication: An Essentialist Reply to the Modalist Challenge

April 14, 2025

Márta Ujvári

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Meeting successfully the modalist challenge needs the reconsideration of certain issues. In particular, the purposeful slip of tongue from essence or sortal form to essential properties made by the modalists creates the illusion that essentialism is a sort of de re necessity. To dispel the illusion one has to show why coming about under a kind and also being of that kind is not a property of the instances of that kind. The distinction between constitution under a form and the predication of properties to substances constituted by their form is explored as pertinent to the essentialist reply. Propria as ‘necessary accidents’ are connected to essences. The suggestion is that one can draw, with this connection, on the intensional notion of metaphysical necessity. Lastly, the role of particularized immanent sortal forms is considered by suggesting that they can fill out a gap in the universalist account of sortal essences.
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Retraction of: Johanna Seibt’s Process Ontology of Categorical Inference: On Nomological Axiomatics and Category Projection

March 23, 2022

Ekin Erkan

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Johanna Seibt’s Process Ontology of Categorical Inference: On Nomological Axiomatics and Category Projection

October 1, 2021

Ekin Erkan

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Drawing from a Sellarsian realist-naturalist epistemology, we trace different levels of cognitive hierarchy procedures through which a representational system learns to update its own states and improve its ‘map-making’ capabilities from pre-conscious operations which modulate base-localization functions, to patterns of epistemic revision and integration at the conceptual and theoretical levels, producing a nomological double of its world. We show how ontological theorization becomes diachronically coordinated with and constrained by empirical science, and how the formal-quantitative kernel of scientific theories corresponds to qualitative-conceptual determinations at the structural level. Following Johanna Seibt’s characterization of ontology as a theory of categorial inference, we trace the preservation of inferential semantic structure across ontological theories in relation to model languages and provide provisional indications to coordinate Seibt’s account with a convergent realist assessment of systematic modeling, defining the epistemological conditions for articulating the preservation of formal structure in theories toward a limit-point of enquiry.

Journal Impact Factor	0.2	2024, Journal Citation Reports (Clarivate, 2025)
5-year Journal Impact Factor	0.2	2024, Journal Citation Reports (Clarivate, 2025)
Journal Citation Indicator	0.34	2024, Journal Citation Reports (Clarivate, 2025)
CiteScore	0.5	2024, Scopus (Elsevier B.V., 2025)
SCImago Journal Rank	0.186	2024, SJR (Scimago Lab, 2025; Data Source: Scopus)
Source Normalized Impact per Paper	0.408	2024, CWTS Journal Indicators (CWTS B.V., 2025; Data Source: Scopus)

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Guidelines for submitting articles
Articles should be written on a computer (compatible with Word 2000 or lower, line spacing 1.5; type-size 12 pt) and submitted via the online submission system ScholarOne https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/mp.

The deadline for submitting articles is (for No. 1) January 1st, and (for No. 2) July 1st.

The text should be no longer than 25 pages, including an abstract and keywords. The languages of publication is English.

For more information and a detailed stylesheet, please see the link Instructions for Authors.

For previously published articles, the authors must ensure that no copyright is infringed.
All articles submitted will be refereed on an anonymous basis. We cannot accept any liability for unsolicited manuscripts. They will not be sent back unless the author makes an explicit request and provides return postage.

Books for review should be sent to the editorial office: redaktion@metaphysica.de
Please send reviews to the Review Editor via https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/mp.

Managing Editor
Dr. Rafael Hüntelmann
Phone: +49 2247 96 99-320
Fax: +49 2247-96 99-321

Review Editor
Dr. Käthe Trettin

Editors

Rafael Hüntelmann
Theodor-Körner-Straße 7
53819 Neunkirchen-Seelscheid
Germany
Tel. +(49)2247 96 99-320
Fax +(49)2247-96 99-321
Email: huentelmann@metaphysica.de

Uwe Meixner
Universität Augsburg
Institut für Philosophie
Universitätsstr. 10
D-86135 Augsburg
Germany
Email: meixner@metaphysica.de

Erwin Tegtmeier
Philosophisches Seminar der Universität Mannheim
68131 Mannheim
Germany
Email: tegtmeier@metaphysica.de

Editorial Board
Brian Davies, Fordham University, New York, U.S.A.
Herbert Hochberg, University of Texas at Austin, U.S.A.
Ludger Jansen, University of Rostock, Germany
Ingvar Johansson, Umea University, Sweden
Christian Kanzian, Universität Innsbruck, Austria
Gyula Klima, Fordham University, New York, U.S.A.
Robert C Koons, University of Texas at Austin, U.S.A.
Wolfgang Künne, University of Hamburg, Germany
Winfried Löffler, University of Innsbruck, Austria
Kevin Mulligan, University of Genève, Switzerland
Frederic Nef, Institut Jean Nicod, Paris, France
Nathan Oaklander, University of Michigan at Flint, U.S.A.
David Oderberg, Reading University, UK
Francesco Orilia, University of Macerata, Italy
Alvin Plantinga, Notre Dame University, U.S.A.
Matjaz Potrc, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Christof Rapp, University of Munich, Germany
Maria Elisabeth Reicher-Marek, Technical University of Aachen, Germany
Thomas Sattig, University of Tübingen, Germany
Richard Schantz, University of Siegen, Germany
Oliver Scholz, University of Münster, Germany
Johanna Seibt, University of Aarhus, Denmark
Peter Simons, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland
Barry Smith, University of Buffalo, U.S.A.
Käthe Trettin, Frankfurt/Main, Germany
Daniel von Wachter, International Academy of Philosophy, Liechtenstein

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Philosophy Metaphysics, Ontology

Journal information

Additional information

eISSN:

1874-6373

ISSN:

1437-2053

Language:

English

Publisher:

De Gruyter

Additional information

First published:

April 30, 2014

Publication Frequency:

2 issues per year

eISSN: 1874-6373

ISSN: 1437-2053

Audience(s) for this journal

Academics (Philosophy, Metaphysics, Ontology), Libraries, Institutes

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