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Essays on the Metaphysics of Laws, Properties, and Groups

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Faller_cornellgrad_0058F_12135.pdf (308.36 KB)
Permanent Link(s)
https://doi.org/10.7298/cwy0-jf95
https://hdl.handle.net/1813/102951
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Cornell Theses and Dissertations
Author
Faller, August
Abstract

This dissertation is comprised of three papers: two on the metaphysics of grounding, laws, and properties, and one on the metaphysics of social groups. In Chapter 2, I argue that there are no fundamental laws of metaphysics and that metaphysical laws are not required for grounding. I offer a new view: the natures of properties explain grounding. Chapter 3 develops this idea. First, properties play their roles in grounding necessarily, so a Humean-quidditist-like view can be rejected. Next, a primitive-laws account of grounding can be rejected for not being sufficiently explanatory. Instead, we should embrace my proposal that there are "grounding powers." I show that properties can be individuated by their powers to ground and argue for a kind of structuralism, according to which non-fundamental properties just are powers to ground. Shifting gears, Chapter 4 asks: how do groups of people persist through time? Social groups can change their members, locations, and structure. I first argue that four-dimensionalism better explains the context sensitivity found in some cases. I then exploit two unique features of the social to argue for the stage theory, a type of four-dimensionalism. First, puzzle cases involving social groups actually happen, and so cannot be ignored. Second, only the stage theory can explain fission cases because pre-fission spatial coincidence is implausible for many kinds of groups and only the stage theory does not require spatial coincidence to explain these cases.

Description
110 pages
Date Issued
2020-08
Committee Chair
Pereboom, Derk
Committee Member
Bennett, Karen
Silins, Nicholas
Sider, Theodore
Degree Discipline
Philosophy
Degree Name
Ph. D., Philosophy
Degree Level
Doctor of Philosophy
Type
dissertation or thesis
Link(s) to Catalog Record
https://catalog.library.cornell.edu/catalog/13277758

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