Monism
The Priority of the Whole
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10697800 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jonathan Schaffer (0009-0003-6340-8353, Engineering Arts (United States), corresponding author) |
| Year | 2010 |
| Volume | 119 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 31-76 |
| Publication date | 2010-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Philosophical Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0031-8108 • E-ISSN: 1558-1470 |
| Publisher | Duke University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1215/00318108-2009-025 |
| OpenAlex | W2115902680 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 260 |
| References cited | 72 |
Which is prior, the whole or its parts? The monist holds that the whole is prior to its parts, and thus views the cosmos as fundamental, with metaphysical explanation dangling downward from the One. The pluralist holds that the parts are prior to their whole, and thus tends to consider particles fundamental, with metaphysical explanation snaking upward from the many. There seem to be physical and modal considerations that favor the monistic view. Physically, there is good evidence that the cosmos forms an entangled system and good reason to treat entangled systems as irreducible wholes. Modally, mereology allows for the possibility of atomless gunk, with no ultimate parts for the pluralist to invoke as the ground of being
Epistemology · Mereology · Metaphysics · Monism · Physicalism · Physics · Pluralism (philosophy) · Theoretical physics · Philosophy · Philosophy and Theoretical Science · Quantum Mechanics and Applications · Space Science and Extraterrestrial Life
Logical Realism and the Metaphysics of Logic
Philosophies of being in India I
Panpsychism and God
Metaphysical Foundationalism and the Principle of Sufficient Reason
Micro and Macro Philosophy
Oxford Studies in Metaphysics, Volume 9
A Minimal Metaphysics for Scientific Practice
Kant on the Sources of Metaphysics
Substance
Parthood and Composition in Quantum Mechanics
Truth and Social Reality
Laws for Metaphysical Explanation
Grounding in the image of causation
Grounding and Necessity
Against Grounding Necessitarianism
No Work for a Theory of Grounding
What Not to Multiply Without Necessity
Metaphysical Explanation by Constraint
Formal Ontology
A mereological argument for the non‐spatiotemporality of things in themselves
El problema de la fundamentalidad para el panpsiquismo
Monismo prioritario, relaciones internas y libertad modal
The Discreteness of Matter
Towards a Philosophy of Chemical Reactivity Through the Molecule in Atoms-of Concept
“Do identity and distinctness facts threaten the PSR?”
The Relative Identity of All Objects
Janus-Faced Grounding
Haecceitism and Symmetry-Breaking
The Universe Waking Up
Mind-Independence, Realism, and Reality
Anne Conway's Ontology of Creation
Grounding Functionalism and Explanatory Unificationism
Metaphysical Rationalism Requires Grounding Indeterminism
Anne Conway as a Priority Monist
The cultural flow of monism in dance
A new puppet puzzle
The irreducibility of chemistry to Everettian quantum mechanics
Some Spanners in the Works of Grounding Mechanisms Removed
Alexander Bogdanov and the question of unity
Energy and productivity-based theory of cycle and crisis
Does it Make a Difference Whether We are Monists or Pluralists? Metametaphysical Reflections on Monism in Jonathan Schaffer and Hegel’s Realphilosophien
The Principle of Sufficient Reason in Kant's Nova Dilucidatio
Ingarden on the varieties of dependence
Leibniz’s opposition to monism
Is Spinoza a dualist
A Taxonomy for the Mereology of Entangled Quantum Systems
Quantum Tunneling to the Pacific? Remarks on Alexander Wendt’s Quantum Social Science
Grounding, Understanding, and Explanation
We Need Non-factive Metaphysical Explanation
On the Necessity of Priority Monism
Priority Perdurantism
On Aspects, Identity Theory, and the Dual Aspect Account
Varieties of Metaphysical Coherentism
The Grounds and the Components of Concepts
Atomism and Fundamentality
Against Symmetry Fundamentalism
A Problem for Extensional Articulations of Physicalism
An Extensional Mereology for Structured Entities
A New Argument for the Groundedness of Grounding Facts
Two Physicalist Arguments for Microphysical Manyism
Grounding and the Epistemic Regress Problem
How to Understand Russellian Panpsychism
A note on the topic of single-author articles in science
Is Sartre an Eleatic Monist
Metaphysically Opaque Grounding
The Taming of the Grounds
Monism and Monotheism
There Is No Distinctively Semantic Circularity Objection to Humean Laws
Why Composition Matters
Lotze on Comparison and the Unity of Consciousness
What kind of monism is Spinoza's?—A new analysis
Panentheism and Theistic Cosmopsychism
Cosmopsychism and the Problem of Evil
Reinterpreting Anne Conway
A Theory of Creation Ex Deo
Exclusion, subset realization, and part‐whole relations
A substantial problem for priority monism
Intrinsic Properties and the Problem of “Other Things”
Grounding, Internality, and Actuality
Paradox as a Guide to Ground
The harmony of grounding
Which quantum foundations for the minimalist ontology framework
Two notions of fusion and the landscape of extensionality
Indiscernibility and the grounds of identity
Setting the story straight
A Humean Non-Humeanism
Relevance and the aim of fundamental metaphysics
From representationalism to identity representationalism
Metaphysical explanation and the cosmological argument
In defense of fact-only grounding
Upwards essence
Non-Humeanism and determinism
Tamers, deniers, and me
Parsimony and internal complexity
How to be a postmodal directionalist
Could a middle level be the most fundamental
The laws of modality
What is priority monism
God’s place in the world
Grounding, infinite regress, and the thomistic cosmological argument
A World of States of Affairs
Mind in a Physical World
A Spinoza Reader
Warranted Christian Belief
On What Grounds What
Putnam's paradox
New work for a theory of universals
Composition as a Fiction
Elements of Metaphysics
A Defence of Common Sense
The hierarchical ordering of reality in Plotinus
The Blackwell Guide to Metaphysics
Plato on Parts and Wholes
The Elimination of Metaphysics Through Logical Analysis of Language
Parmenides and Melissus
The Elements of Being
The Question of Realism
Hegel
The Philosophy of Logical Atomism
Biobjectivism and Indirect Correspondence
Essence and Modality
Frege
No Place for Particles in Relativistic Quantum Theories
Leibniz on Mathematics and the Actually Infinite Division of Matter
Perceiving God
Parthood
Language, Truth, and Logic
The Spirit of Modern Philosophy
The Value and Destiny of the Individual
Logic, or the Morphology of Knowledge
Substance
Parts of Classes
"Could Extended Objects Be Made Out of Simple Parts? An Argument for "Atomless Gunk
Eleatic Questions
Life in Configuration Space
Relational Holism and Quantum Mechanics
The Problem of the Many
| Unique citing works | 260 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 17,33 |
| Citation span | 2011 - 2026 (16) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | Yes |
| Citation types | Neutral: 256 |