Leuenberger, S. (2020) The fundamental: Ungrounded or all-grounding? Philosophical Studies, 177, pp. 2647-2669. (doi: 10.1007/s11098-019-01332-x) (PMID:32713965) (PMCID:PMC7370665)
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Abstract
Fundamentality plays a pivotal role in discussions of ontology, supervenience, and possibility, and other key topics in metaphysics. However, there are two different ways of characterising the fundamental: as that which is not grounded, and as that which is the ground of everything else. I show that whether these two characterisations pick out the same property turns on a principle—which I call “Dichotomy”—that is of independent interest in the theory of ground: that everything is either fully grounded or not even partially grounded. I then argue that Dichotomy fails: some facts have partial grounds that cannot be complemented to a full ground. Rejecting Dichotomy opens the door to recognising a bifurcation in our notion of fundamentality. I sketch some of the far-reaching metaphysical consequences this might have, with reference to big-picture views such as Humeanism. Since Dichotomy is entailed by the standard account of partial ground, according to which partial grounds are subpluralities of full grounds, a non-standard account is needed. In a technical “Appendix”, I show that truthmaker semantics furnishes such an account, and identify a semantic condition that corresponds to Dichotomy.
| Item Type: | Articles |
|---|---|
| Status: | Published |
| Refereed: | Yes |
| Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: | Leuenberger, Professor Stephan |
| Authors: | Leuenberger, S. |
| College/School: | College of Arts > School of Humanities > Philosophy |
| Journal Name: | Philosophical Studies |
| Publisher: | Springer |
| ISSN: | 0031-8116 |
| ISSN (Online): | 1573-0883 |
| Published Online: | 14 August 2019 |
| Copyright Holders: | Copyright © 2019 The Author |
| First Published: | First published in Philosophical Studies 177:2647-2669 |
| Publisher Policy: | Reproduced under a Creative Commons license |
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