Cover; The Elements and Patterns of Being: Essays in Metaphysics; Copyrighth; Dedication; Preface; Contents; List of Figures; Introduction; 1: The Duty of Philosophy (c.1965); 2: The Elements of Being (1953); 3: Universals and Existents (1960); 4: Universal Concepts and Particular Processes (1962); 5: How Reality is Reasonable (1974); 6: Necessary Facts (1963); The Physiology of Facts; Intrinsic and Extrinsic Relations; Necessity and Contingency; Abstracta and Universals; The Concrete and the General; Confessions and Anticipations; 7: Dispensing with Existence (1962)
8: The Sea Fight Tomorrow (1951)9: The Myth of Passage (1951); 10: The Nature of Time (1966); Appendix on Time Travel; 11: The Shape of Time (1968); 12: The Bugbear of Fate (1974); References; Index
Summary
Donald C. Williams (1899-1983) was a key figure in the development of analytic philosophy. This book will be the definitive source for his highly original work, which did much to bring metaphysics back into fashion. It presents six classic papers and six previously unpublished, revealing his full philosophical vision for the first time
