Fundamentality and Grounding

This Element shows how contemporary physics can enrich debates over the metaphysics of fundamentality.

Kerry McKenzie (Author)

9781108714020, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 3 March 2022

75 pages
22.8 x 15.1 x 0.5 cm, 0.136 kg

A suite of questions concerning fundamentality lies at the heart of contemporary metaphysics. The relation of grounding, thought to connect the more to the less fundamental, sits at the heart of those debates in turn. Since most contemporary metaphysicians embrace the doctrine of physicalism and thus hold that reality is fundamentally physical, a natural question is how physics can inform the current debates over fundamentality and grounding. This Element introduces the reader to the concept of grounding and some of the key issues that animate contemporary debates around it, such as the question of whether grounding is 'unified' or 'plural' and whether there exists a fundamental level of reality. It moves on to show how resources from physics can help point the way towards their answers - thus furthering the case for a naturalistic approach to even the most fundamental of questions in metaphysics.

1. Introduction
2. Getting on the dartboard with 'levels', 'priority', and 'grounding'
3. Levels of Nature, Levels of Metaphysics, and the Plurality of Priority
4. Viciousness and Fundamentality
5. Concluding Remarks.

Subject Areas: Philosophy of science [PDA], Philosophy: epistemology & theory of knowledge [HPK], Philosophy [HP]