TY - JOUR
T1 - Metaphysical Foundationalism and Theoretical Unification
AU - Brenner, Andrew
N1 - Funding Information:
Thanks to Rebecca Chan, Nevin Climenhaga, Peter Finocchiaro, David Mark Kovacs, Anna-Sofia Maurin, Alexander Skiles, Naomi Thompson, and anonymous referees. Work on this paper was supported by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.
PY - 2023/4
Y1 - 2023/4
N2 - Some facts ground other facts. Some fact is fundamental iff there are no other facts which partially or fully ground that fact. According to metaphysical foundationalism, every non-fundamental fact is fully grounded by some fundamental fact(s). In this paper I examine and defend some neglected considerations which might be made in favor of metaphysical foundationalism. Building off of work by Ross Cameron, I suggest that foundationalist theories are more unified than, and so in one important respect simpler than, non-foundationalist theories, insofar as foundationalist theories allow us to derive all non-fundamental facts from some fundamental fact(s). Non-foundationalist theories can enjoy a similar sort of theoretical unification only by taking on objectionable metaphysical laws.
AB - Some facts ground other facts. Some fact is fundamental iff there are no other facts which partially or fully ground that fact. According to metaphysical foundationalism, every non-fundamental fact is fully grounded by some fundamental fact(s). In this paper I examine and defend some neglected considerations which might be made in favor of metaphysical foundationalism. Building off of work by Ross Cameron, I suggest that foundationalist theories are more unified than, and so in one important respect simpler than, non-foundationalist theories, insofar as foundationalist theories allow us to derive all non-fundamental facts from some fundamental fact(s). Non-foundationalist theories can enjoy a similar sort of theoretical unification only by taking on objectionable metaphysical laws.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85110937026&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10670-021-00420-x
DO - 10.1007/s10670-021-00420-x
M3 - Journal article
SN - 0165-0106
VL - 88
SP - 1661
EP - 1681
JO - Erkenntnis
JF - Erkenntnis
IS - 4
ER -