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Fundamental Determinables, As Directions for Future Research Philosophers’ volume 12, no. 4 Introduction Imprint february 2012 Contemporary philosophers commonly suppose that any fundamental entities there may be are maximally determinate. More generally, they commonly suppose that, whether or not there are fundamental entities, any determinable entities there may be are grounded in, hence less fundamental than, more determinate entities. So, for example, Armstrong takes the physical objects Fundamental constituting the presumed fundamental base to be “determinate in all respects” (1961, 59), and Lewis takes the properties characterizing things “completely and without redundancy” to be “highly specific” (1986, 60). Here I’ll look at the usually cited reasons for these Determinables suppositions as directed against the case of determinable properties, in particular, and argue that none is compelling (Sections 1 to 3). The discussion in Section 3 will moreover identify positive reason for taking some determinable properties to be part of a fundamental (or relatively fundamental) base. I’ll close (Section 4) by noting certain questions arising from the possibility of fundamental determinables, as directions for future research. 1. Preliminaries 1.1 Fundamentality vs. relative fundamentality Let a fundamental base at a world w be a minimal collection of entities that, either individually or in combination, provide a complete Jessica Wilson metaphysical ground for the entire inventory of w. Then an entity e at University of Toronto a world w is fundamental iff: (i) at w, there is a fundamental base; and (ii) e is in this fundamental base.1 Here and elsewhere ‘entity’ is used ontologically generally, as accom- modating, e. g., particulars, properties, tropes, events, states of affairs, © 2012 Jessica Wilson 1. This and the following definition are intended as intuitively motivated stipu- <www.philosophersimprint.org/012004/> lations, not analyses of terms already in use. jessica wilson Fundamental Determinables processes, facts, or truths. I’ll discuss the operative notion(s) of ‘meta- • All God had to do to create the world was to create the physical grounding’ shortly. fundamental entities; these then metaphysically ground Whether or not there is a fundamental base at a world, we can make all the rest.2 sense of relative fundamentality. This notion is usually understood • Fixing the (distribution of) fundamental entities at a world against a background ontological framework involving a hierarchy of fixes all else at the world.3 “levels” ordered by mereological composition of particulars, and where at any given level L, some entities at L serve as a minimal relatively • The fundamental entities at a world are those in virtue of fundamental base both for all entities at L and for entities at compo- which all else obtains.4 sitional levels “higher” than L. There might be other frameworks for • The fundamental entities “carve nature at the joints”.5 which relative fundamentality makes sense, but for present purposes it won’t hurt to restrict focus to the hierarchical case. So let a relatively Related locutions appear in contexts where certain comprehensive fundamental base at a world w be a minimal collection of entities and (in Jackson’s terms) “discriminating” metaphysical frameworks existing at a compositional level L that, either individually or in com- are at issue, as with, for example, the physicalist thesis that all broadly bination, provide a complete metaphysical ground for all entities at scientific entities are “nothing over and above” the (relatively funda- level L or higher. Then an entity e1 at a world w is more fundamental mental) physical entities, and Schaffer’s characterization of monism as than a distinct entity e2 iff: the view that the whole is metaphysically “prior” to the parts. There are any number of ways one might go on to fill in such in- (i) At w, there is a relatively fundamental base at level L; tuitive characterizations of grounding, either as a general, broadly (ii) e1 is in this relatively fundamental base; and (iii) either e is an entity at a level higher than L, or e is an entity 2. See, e. g., Schaffer 2004, 100: “To speak metaphorically, “all God had to do” 2 2 was to create the primarily real”. What God has to do to create gunky worlds at L not in the base. is less clear. This characterization leaves open whether there are (even indefinitely 3. See, e. g., Dieks and de Regt 1998, 45: “the idea that deeper layers of reality are responsible for what happens at higher levels is well-entrenched in scientific many, in a gunky world) relatively fundamental bases at composition- practice. We argue that the intuition behind this idea is adequately captured al levels lower than L, relative to which e is non-fundamental. When by the notion of supervenience: the physical state of the fundamental physi- 1 cal layers fixes the states of the higher levels.” either the fundamentality or the relative fundamentality of an entity or 4. See, e. g., Fine 2001, 15: “[I]f the truth that P is grounded in other truths, then base may be at issue, I will speak of its being ‘(relatively) fundamental’. they account for its truth; P’s being the case holds in virtue of the other truths’ being the case.” See also Bricker 2006, 255: “[T]he determination relation […] 1.2 Metaphysical grounding is non-causal, and holds of necessity. But more must be said: a mere logical or functional determination is not to the point unless it carries with it ontologi- The notion of metaphysical grounding relevant to discussions of cal force. Thus, if the atomic truths determine the general truths, in the relevant fundamentality is often characterized in intuitive or gestural terms, sense, then the general propositions hold or fail to hold in virtue of, or because of, the holding or failing to hold of the atomic propositions.” as follows: 5. See, e. g., Lewis 1984, 227: “Among all the countless things and classes that there are, most are miscellaneous, gerrymandered, ill-demarcated. Only an elite minority are carved at the joints […]”. philosophers’ imprint – 2 – vol. 12, no. 4 (february 2012) jessica wilson Fundamental Determinables metaphysical notion6 or in some way more directly tied to cases;7 one the above locutions aim to characterize a “fixing” or “obtaining” rela- might also maintain that the relevant general notion is primitive.8 As I tion between entities in the world, as opposed to representational or read such locutions, and will interpret them here, they aim to character- epistemic states, this dependence is metaphysical or ontological, as op- ize metaphysical grounding as, at a minimum, a relation of complete posed to (merely) epistemological or formal/representational. While asymmetric ontological dependence. Reflecting the ‘All God had to do’, leaving open certain further details, a characterization of grounding as ‘fixing’, ‘in virtue of’, and ‘nothing over and above’ locutions, the depen- involving complete asymmetric ontological dependence, as informed dence associated with metaphysical ground is complete: if an entity is by the intuitive locutions, is, I believe, sufficiently specific to fix ideas metaphysically grounded in some other entity or entities then, in the and to avoid any untoward equivocation in what follows. first instance, the latter serve as a complete basis for the existence and That said, in the course of what follows I will sometimes discuss features of the former.9 (In the second instance, of course, we can speak two proposed criteria or “marks” of metaphysical grounding (or the of a partial metaphysical ground.) Because, when an entity is grounded related notion of comparative fundamentality), which have been in some other entity or entities, the latter are metaphysically “prior” to, commonly seen as legislating against the (relative) fundamentality of and carve nature “closer to the joints” than, the former, the dependence determinables. Neither criterion succeeds at providing an analysis of associated with metaphysical ground is asymmetric.10 Finally, because grounding/relative fundamentality, for reasons I’ll substantiate down the line; but each has a certain prima facie (and one has a secunda fa- 6. So, for example, Fine’s 1994 account of ontological dependence, as a relation cie) plausibility as indicating the holding of a relation of metaphysical holding between essences of entities (where, e. g., singleton Socrates onto- logically depends on Socrates, rather than vice versa), and his 2001 account grounding. As such, any case for the claim that determinables can be of the ‘in virtue of’ locution, as tracking a distinctively metaphysical explana- (relatively) fundamental needs to engage with these proposed criteria. tory relation between propositions, might be seen as different specifications of the intuitive characterizations. The first criterion is in terms of asymmetric existential necessita- 7. As with, e. g., attempts to more specifically characterize grounding as rel- tion, or metaphysical supervenience, with the rough idea being that evant to the physicalism debates in terms of supervenience, realization, or if some entity a asymmetrically existentially necessitates (provides a other notions. supervenience base for) some entity b, but not vice versa, then a is less 8. As do Schaffer 2009 and Rosen 2010. fundamental than b (Russell 1918, Armstrong 1987). That asymmet- 9. To allow that a complete ground might be smaller than a (relatively) funda- rical necessitation is relevant to metaphysical grounding reflects the mental base, we should specify that such a ground need not provide a basis for non-essential extrinsic features of an entity. fairly common supposition that the fact of, if not the specific details 10. On the face of it, the supposition that grounding is asymmetric rules out cases concerning, such grounding is tracked by the holding of sufficiently of grounding that involve identity, if, for example, every mental state type is strong (and asymmetrical) modal correlations.11 identical to a physical state type.
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