Fields of Sense

This bold meditation breaks a new path beyond both anti-realism and metaphysical realism. Gabriel discloses senses as real ways for the things to be. Thus, he overcomes the metaphysical distinction between mind and world and makes sense of the reality of thinking as well. A huge step forward for philosophy. Jocelyn Benoist, Professor of Philosophy, Sorbonne Gabriel‘s project of a new realist ontology effortlessly bridges the gap between continental and analytic philosophy. Altogether an enviable achievement. The work is bound to provide a strong impetus to new ways of thinking about ontological questions. Hans Sluga, William and Trudy Ausfahl Professor of Philosophy, UC Berkeley Markus Gabriel is one of the leaders of the revival of interest in realism in contemporary European philosophy. In this volume, he develops his own ambitious, distinctive and provocative version of the view, one that is likely to spur much discussion. Paul Boghossian, Silver Professor of Philosophy at New York University A new realist ontology based on the concept of fields of sense It is still a widespread assumption that metaphysics and ontology deal with roughly the same questions. They are supposed to be concerned with the fundamental nature of reality and to give an account of the meaning of ‘existence‘ or ‘being‘ in line with the broadest possible metaphysical assumptions. Against this, Markus Gabriel proposes a radical form of ontological pluralism that divorces ontology from metaphysics, understood as the most fundamental theory of absolutely everything (the world). He argues that the concept of existence is incompatible with the existence of the world and therefore proposes his innovative no-world-view. In the context of recent debates surrounding new realism and speculative realism, Gabriel also develops the outlines of a realist epistemological pluralism. His idea here is that there are different forms of knowledge that correspond to the plurality of fields of sense that must be acknowledged in order to avoid the trap of metaphysics. Markus Gabriel is Chair in Epistemology, Modern, and Contemporary Philosophy and Director of the International Centre for Philosophy at the University of Bonn.