Fundamental Things

Theory and Applications of Grounding

Bibliographic Data

ID18960448
AuthorsLouis Derosset (0000-0002-4431-2407, Professor of Philosophy, University of Vermont, corresponding author)
Year2023
Publication date2023-04-01
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueFundamental Things (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/oso/9780198812890.001.0001
OpenAlexW4360618528
Open LibraryOL39963184M
ISBN9780198812890
GOOGLE_BOOK_ID4hNkzwEACAAJ
LanguageEN
Citations received14
References cited47

The scientific successes of the last 400 years strongly suggest a view on which things are organized into layers, with phenomena in higher layers dependent on and determined by what goes on below. Philosophers have recently explored the idea that we can make sense of this idea by appeal to a relation called grounding. This book develops the rudiments of a theory of grounding, and applies that theory to questions of independent interest. The theorizing consists in saying in more detail what grounding is and how it relates to explanations of the relevant sort, discussing objections to the deployment of a notion of grounding, and drawing points of contrast between a grounding-centered approach to relative fundamentality and other approaches in the literature. The book then turns to a demonstration of how this theorizing bears fruit in the investigation of other interesting questions. The applications are to central questions concerning (i) how to distinguish between truths that say how objective reality is in itself, quite independently of us, and truths that do not; (ii) the nature of truth; and (iii) the relation between fundamental physical facts and the rich panoply of other facts that depend on and are determined by them, including facts concerning our own doings. The aim is to advance our understanding of one of the deepest and thorniest questions which the stunning scientific achievements of the last 400 years pose: how higher-level phenomena, including ourselves, fit into an ultimately physical world

Appeal · Epistemology · Sociology · sort · Computer Science · Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics · Law · Philosophy · Philosophy and History of Science · Philosophy and Theoretical Science

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