Vagueness and the Laws of Metaphysics

Wasserman, Ryan

doi:10.1111/phpr.12269

Cited by 11 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 32 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…See Dasgupta (2014: 12) and Sider (2011: 145). For more on the laws of metaphysics, see Wasserman (2017), Wilsch (2015;, Glazier (2016), Schaffer (2017a;2017b), and Barker (2020).…”

Section: Simple Generalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Against Purity

Barker

2023

Ergo an Open Access Journal of Philosophy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A fundamental fact is “pure” just in case it has no grounded entities—ex. Tokyo, President Biden, the River Nile, {Socrates}, etc.—among its constituents. Purity is the thesis that every fundamental fact is pure. I argue that Purity is false. My argument begins with a familiar conditional: if Purity is true, then there are no fundamental “grounding facts” or facts about what grounds what. This conditional is accepted by virtually all of Purity’s defenders. However, I argue that it is also the first step toward Purity’s undoing. For, if every grounding fact has a ground, then some grounded entities have “groundmates” or distinct grounded entities that share their full grounds. But, if there are groundmates, then Purity is false. So Purity leads to a contradiction. Therefore, it is false. I close by noting that my argument against Purity also gives us a powerful reason to think that some grounding facts are fundamental.

show abstract

“…See Dasgupta (2014: 12) and Sider (2011: 145). For more on the laws of metaphysics, see Wasserman (2017), Wilsch (2015;, Glazier (2016), Schaffer (2017a;2017b), and Barker (2020).…”

Section: Simple Generalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Against Purity

Barker

2023

Ergo an Open Access Journal of Philosophy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…There seem to be various ways of implementing this idea. To mention but one, Wasserman (2018) and Emery (2019), though in different contexts, both suggest that we should allow for the possibility of indeterministic cases of grounding. Here is Wasserman's explanation of his law-based theory of vagueness:…”

Section: Logical Spacementioning

confidence: 99%

Indeterminacy: Deep but not Rock Bottom

Mariani

2020

Philosophical Books

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A great deal of recent discussions in metaphysics has focused on the notion of fundamentality. There is disagreement over how best to analyze this notion (for an overview, see Tahko, 2018), as well as whether it should be analyzed or rather taken as a primitive (see, e.g., Wilson, 2014: p. 561). Large part of the interest in this topic stems from what it promises as results. For instance, it has been

show abstract

“… 5 I am assuming here that there is such a thing as the result of applying a given law to a given state, even when that state is merely possible. Although this assumption is controversial ((Wasserman, 2015 )), it is made plausible by the widely held (see Skiles 2020 for references) principles of Necessitation (necessarily, if a grounds b , then necessarily, if a obtains, b obtains) and Internalism (necessarily, if a grounds b , then necessarily, if a and b obtain, then a grounds b ). Necessitation and Internalism together entail that necessarily, if a grounds b , then necessarily, if a obtains, a grounds b .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Symmetries and ground

Glazier

2024

Philos Stud

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

If the tiles of a mosaic are arranged symmetrically, then the image those tiles constitute must be symmetric as well. This paper formulates and defends the general principle at work in this case: roughly, that a symmetry cannot ground an asymmetry. It is argued that the principle supports strong objections to four metaphysical views: qualitativism, relationalism, the tenseless or ‘B’ theory of time, and comparativism. A response to these objections is developed which appeals to fragmentalism, the view that reality contains facts which are incompatible with one another. But fragmentalism might be thought too bizarre to tolerate, and if it is, then the objections developed in this paper may well be fatal.

show abstract

Vagueness and the Laws of Metaphysics

Cited by 11 publications

References 32 publications

Against Purity

Against Purity

Indeterminacy: Deep but not Rock Bottom

Symmetries and ground

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About