David Malet Armstrong (8 July 1926-13 May 2014) has been one of the most influential
contemporary metaphysicians working in the analytic tradition and surely the greatest 20th
century Australian philosopher. His main merit is to have reestablished metaphysics as a
respectable branch of philosophy placing it at the centre of the philosophical debate and
giving it the status of an authoritative and competent interlocutor of both rational and
empirical sciences. By means of a rigorously argumentative approach and a sharp prose
Armstrong has built a whole metaphysical system that is a comprehensive and unified picture
of the fundamental structure of the world. The various chapters of the book address the key
issues concerning Armstrong' view about the problem of universals the nature of states of
affairs the ontological ground of possibility nomic necessity and dispositions the
truthmaker theory and the theory of mind. This volume aims to celebrate Armstrong's memory
bringing new understanding and hopefully stimulating more work on his philosophy with the
conviction that it constitutes an invaluable heritage for contemporary research in metaphysics.
