Metaphysics and the Representational Fallacy

I’ve been asked to review Heather Dyke’s recent book Metaphysics and the Representational Fallacy (Routledge, 2007).

Dyke’s book is a critique of the methodology of contemporary metaphysics. The basic line is that contemporary metaphysicians are prone to draw conclusions about the structure of the non-representational world from premises about the structure of our representations (whether mental or linguistic) of the world. But this inference, according to Dyke, is fallacious – to pursue metaphysics this way is to commit “the representational fallacy”. Dyke’s project is then to develop a new strategy for doing metaphysics which avoids the representational fallacy.

Over the next couple of months, I’ll be posting my thoughts on each chapter. More soon…