The Systematicity of Metaphysics

Abstract It was a commonplace among nineteenth-century idealists that philosophy in general—and metaphysics in particular—is intrinsically systematic, to the extent that you can‘t sensibly take a position on any philosophical issue in isolation from a larger system. This meta-philosophical claim was widely repudiated by analytic philosophers throughout much of the twentieth century. I argue that the idealist contention has at long last been a vindicated, this vindication coming from the heart of analytic philosophy itself. Along the way I attempt to rigorously characterize systematicity in general and intrinsic systematicity in particular, explore the consequences of David Lewis‘s meta-philosophical claims, and ruminate on where we might go from here.