Five Seminal Metaphysics Books from Aristotle to David Lewis

The Collector presents five books that shaped Western metaphysics: Aristotle's 'Metaphysics' (4th century BC), Thomas Aquinas's 'Summa Theologica' (1265–1274), Immanuel Kant's 'Critique of Pure Reason' (1781), Martin Heidegger's 'Being and Time' (1927), and David Lewis's 'On the Plurality of Worlds' (1986). Aristotle's work, compiled by Andronicus of Rhodes in the 1st century BC, introduced the Four Causes and teleology. Aquinas reconciled Aristotelian empiricism with Christian doctrine, arguing for God's existence via the Five Ways. Kant's 'Copernican Revolution' shifted focus to the epistemic subject, dividing reality into phenomena and noumena. Heidegger centered on Dasein, being-toward-death, and care, influencing existentialism. Lewis advanced modal realism, positing that all logically possible worlds are concretely real. The article notes Darwin's theory of evolution dismantled Aristotelian teleology, and Lewis's ideas resonate in pop culture and theoretical physics.