Priority Monism: Is The Cosmos More Fundamental Than Its Parts
Jonathan Schaffer argues the cosmos is more fundamental than its parts—and analytic metaphysics should listen
Part-Whole Relations: Classical Versus Non-Classical Mereology
How axioms about parts and wholes quietly shape everything we can say about identity and existence
Thick and Thin Particulars: What Armstrong Got Right
Armstrong's thick-thin distinction reveals why concrete objects cannot be reduced to bundles of properties
Counterfactual Dependence: The Logic of What Would Have Been
How possible worlds semantics reveals the precise logic behind our reasoning about unrealized possibilities
Emergence: When Wholes Are More Than Their Parts
How complex systems generate properties that defy prediction—or perhaps explanation itself
Formal Ontology: Structure Common To All Domains
The universal categories and relations that structure every possible domain of existence
The Grounding Revolution: How Metaphysical Explanation Really Works
Supervenience describes correlation; grounding reveals explanation—the directed structure of metaphysical dependence
Natural Kinds Cut Nature at Its Joints: Why Some Categories Are Special
Some classifications merely organize—others reveal the genuine divisions written into reality itself
Why Composition Puzzles Reveal Deep Truths About Objects
How your answer to one question about parts and wholes determines what exists in your universe
Modality De Re: What Could Objects Themselves Have Been
How distinguishing what's possible for descriptions from what's possible for things reveals the essential natures of objects
Tropes Versus Universals: What Are Properties Really?
Whether properties are shared universals or unique particulars shapes everything from natural laws to what objects fundamentally are.
Abstract Objects Exist—Here's Why Platonism Remains Compelling
Why accepting that numbers genuinely exist may be more rational than denying them
Temporal Parts: Do Objects Have Stages Like Events Have Phases
Perdurantism says you're spread through time like a worm—what exists now is just one slice of you.
How Causation Connects Events: Regularity Versus Counterfactual Accounts
Why the metaphysics of causal connection shapes everything from scientific explanation to moral responsibility and practical decision-making.
Personal Identity Through Time: What Makes You the Same Person Tomorrow
Three rival theories of what makes you persist through time—and why the answer shapes how we think about punishment, planning, and the self.
Events As Metaphysical Category: What Happens When Something Happens
Understanding the metaphysics of happenings—why events form their own fundamental category distinct from objects, and what determines their identity
Vagueness Goes Metaphysical: When Reality Itself Is Indeterminate
Explores whether fuzzy boundaries exist only in language or in reality itself, revealing what this means for logic and truth.
Properties Are Not What You Think: The Bundle Theory Challenge
Discover why the seemingly simple question of what objects really are reveals deep puzzles about identity and existence.
Dispositions and Powers: The Hidden Structure of What Things Can Do
Exploring why what things can do might be more fundamental than what things merely are.
Truthmakers: What Makes True Statements True
Why truths cannot float free of reality, and how this insight disciplines everything we claim about what exists.
Why Possible Worlds Explain Necessity Better Than Any Alternative
Understanding how philosophers ground possibility and necessity reveals the hidden architecture beneath every counterfactual claim you make.