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Abstract: Mereological atomism is the thesis that everything is ultimately composed of atomic parts. Typically, this thesis is characterized by an axiom stating, more simply, that everything has atomic parts. The present paper argues that the success of the standard characterization crucially depends both on how the notion of composition is related to the notion…

Title: Mini-Meno: How to Get More Out of Your Transmission Abstract: My positive thesis is that competent deduction can add justification not already present in the premise – contrary to a tradition inaugurated by Plato’s dialogue Meno. My negative thesis is there is a novel counter-example to Counter-closure. According to this conservative principle, if you now…

Metaphysical structure is the way things hang together, in and of themselves, and aside from their causes and effects and propensities to behave. Examples include: truth depending on reality, the mind depending on the brain, sets depending on their members, disjunctions depending on their disjuncts, wholes depending on their parts, types being realised by their…

Abstract: This talk develops ontological pluralism about non-being, the view that there are multiple ways, kinds, or modes of non-being. I suggest that the view is both more plausible and defensible than it first seems, and that it has many useful applications across a wide variety of metaphysical and explanatory problems. After drawing out the relationship…

Title: How Serious is Serious Actualism? Abstract: Serious Actualism is a view which many find compelling: it is impossible for an object to exemplify a property and not exist. In this talk, I aim to do two things. First, I argue that there are compelling reasons for thinking that there is a property of nonexistence and…

Title: Essence, Potentiality, and Modality Abstract: According to essentialism, metaphysical modality is founded in the essences of things, where the essence of a thing is roughly akin to its real definition. According to potentialism (also known as dispositionalism), metaphysical modality is founded in the potentialities of things, where a potentiality is roughly the generalized notion of a disposition. Essentialism and…

Title: Indicative Conditionals: Probabilities and Relevance Abstract: Adams’ Thesis claims that the acceptability of a simple indicative conditional equals the corresponding conditional probability. The Thesis is widely endorsed, but arguably false and refuted by empirical research. To fix it, we submit, we need a relevance constraint: we accept a simple conditional ‘If Ï•, then ψ’ to the extent…

Title: “Good News for the Subregion Theory of Parthood” Abstract: The Subregion Theory of Parthood is probably the most intuitive theory of parthood. It says that whatever is exactly located at a subregion of your exact location is part of you, and nothing else is. Mutatis mutandisfor all material objects. I defend this view from…

Title: Modeling contingently existing propositions (and other intensions). Abstract: The traditional Montagovian framework for the analysis of intensional language uses constant domain models. However, in other areas of philosophy which employ modal logic, it is much more common to use variable domain models which permit various forms of contingent existence. Part of the difficulty in…

Title: CONVERSE PREDICATES AND THE INTERPRETATION OF SECOND ORDER QUANTIFICATION   ABSTRACT: In this paper I argue that we cannot interpret second-order quantification as quantification over properties and relations. My argument forges a hitherto unexplored connection between debates typically conducted independently, one metaphysical, about whether there are converse relations, the other logical, about the interpretation of…

Abstract: The denial of necessary connections between distinct existences is generally taken to be at the heart of Humanism, and any philosophical account that requires necessary connections is rejected on the grounds that it violates Hume’s dictum.  In this paper, I focus on Armstrong’s account of lawhood.  Lewis objects to Armstrong’s account on Humean grounds…