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Monist Special Issue on Categories

98:3 July 2015
Advisory Editors: Javier Cumpa and Peter M. Simons

A primary and enduring concern of metaphysics is the question of the categories, or principal divisions of being. In proposing a theory of categories, ontologists face several interconnected problems. What are categories? Are they genera, classes, concepts, or words? What categories are there and how is a proposed theory or table of categories justified? Is it by logic, by linguistics, by science, by intuition, or by common sense? Are categories immutable, or do they evolve through time? What form should a theory or table of categories take, and how should its completeness be demonstrated? How, finally, do theories of categories function in application: in science, in language, in ontology, and in technology?