filmed discussion

Hilan from Brazil was in Cairo today. He’s a Sussex Ph.D. (in Philosophy) interviewing various people who are doing metaphysics in Europe and the Middle East.

We sat down at Estoril and spoke for what amounted to 28 minutes on tape, I think. If the audio/video are good enough (Estoril is dark and the sound can sometimes be muffled there) we’ll post it on the web somewhere.

Main topics:

*why is metaphysics returning to the stage these days?
*is metaphysics necessary?
*what is the fate of the subject in a world of objects?
*why should objects be something different from their qualities?

Those were the 4 easiest questions on his list, and were enough for the 28 minutes of film. His 12 other questions were trickier and I’ll give a written response to those. He’s preparing a book of interviews, with the new twist that some analytic metaphysicians will be included. (I believe Stephen Mumford in Nottingham will be among them. He and Hilan seem to know each other personally. Hilan is a big admirer of George Molnar’s Powers as well as the work of Kit Fine.)