De Re Essentialism, Species, and Modal Ambiguity

The journal Metaphysica is published semi-annually. The editors aim to create an international forum of ontology and metaphysics for readers all over the world. In the Anglo-Saxon countries (in particular the USA and Australia) the volume of research publications in ontology and metaphysics significantly increased during the last two decades. European philosophers, on the other hand, initially seemed reticent to address ontological and metaphysical topics, undoubtedly due to deeply rooted Kantian ideas about the “end of metaphysics.” Since the nineties, however, sentiments have changed in favour of a new “ontological turn” within Central European philosophy. In Austria, Switzerland, and Germany an increasing number of philosophical publications present systematic treatments of ontological and metaphysical issues. At the same time there is a new strong interest in reviewing historical contributions to ontology and metaphysics, from Parmenides to Plato, Aristotle, Occam, Leibniz and further to Brentano, Husserl, and Nicolai Hartmann. Since there is no other European journal devoted to the discussion of ontological and metaphysical issues in particular, the editors found it necessary to fill this gap by founding the journal Metaphysica.