Abstract

The Metaphysical Society of America announces a call for papers for its March 2001 meeting at the State University at Buffalo. The general theme of the meeting will be categories. Many philosophical questions of interest may be raised concerning this theme. Here are a few examples: What is a category? How many categories are there? What is the ontological status of categories? Are categories invented or discovered? How are categories related to their members? Are some categories more fundamental than others? What are the most fundamental categories? How are categories related to predication? What is the relation of categories to reality? What is the relation of categories to language? What is the relation of categories to thought? Are categories historical? Are categories subject to time and space? These and other questions may be explored systematically or historically. Every philosopher of consequence has had something to say about categories. Think about Aristotle, Kant, Peirce, and Whitehead, to mention just four of the most obvious ones. The program committee welcomes papers addressing any aspect of the general theme. Considering the focus of the meeting, the importance of the theme, and the relative lack of collections available on this topic and effort will be made to publish a selection of the papers.