RETOS IMPORTANTES DEL ENVEJECIMIENTO

In the last section, I argued that conceptual grounding is independent from metaphysi- cal grounding. This shows that we need to carefully distinguish which type(s) of grounding are relevant in a given case. In this section, I will consider whether we can establish any generalresults about the relation between metaphysical and conceptual grounding. I’ll first briefly consider a proposal from Chalmers (2012). I’ll then defend the view that metaphys- ical and conceptual grounding are exclusive.

5.3.1 The Conceptual/Metaphysical Thesis

Chalmers (2012, 453) claims that metaphysical and conceptual grounding correspond over a certain restricted range of cases:

Conceptual/Metaphysical (C/M) Thesis: Suppose an in-virtue-of claimV in- volves only super-rigid expressions. ThenV involves metaphysical grounding iff it involves conceptual grounding.

Roughly, an expression is super-rigid when it takes the same extension across all epis- temic and metaphysical possibilities. For example, Chalmers suggests that the expressions ‘zero’, ‘wise’, and ‘cause’ are super-rigid (366-369). In contrast, the expression ‘water’ is clearly non-super-rigid (since, on the epistemic possibility that the water-like liquid in our environment turned out to be XYZ, ‘water’ would have referred to XYZ).

Without the super-rigidity restriction, there would be a clear class of counterexamples to C/M. For example, consider [40]: ‘x is an electron in virtue of the fact that x has a property with nomic role R’. Since ‘is an electron’ expresses whatever property happens to fill a certain nomic role R, the fact x’s being an electron is plausibly identical to the factx’s being a property with nomic roleR. So[40]plausibly involves conceptual but not metaphysical grounding (see 5.2.3). Speaking more generally: in-virtue-of claims with non-super-rigid terms often involve two different ways of describing the same worldly fact and so do not involve metaphysical grounding.

Because metaphysical grounding is supposed to be independent of our language, many theorists will immediately worry about counterexamples in the left-to-right direction: cases of metaphysical grounding without conceptual grounding. For this reason, Chalmers’ de- fense of C/M focuses on counterexamples of this sort. But upon reflection, we see that there are clear counterexamples in the right-to-left direction: cases of conceptual ground- ing without metaphysical grounding. For example, the bachelor example from 5.2.3 is one such case.23

5.3.2 The Grounding Exclusion Thesis

To exclude cases like [50], one might try to restrict C/M further. But I think that the pressures against viewing [50] as a case of metaphysical grounding actually extend much more generally. In fact, I will defend the opposite view that conceptual and metaphysical grounding are exclusive:

Grounding Exclusion (GE) Thesis: If an in-virtue-of claimV involves con- ceptual grounding, thenV does not involve metaphysical grounding.

Whereas C/M is most naturally paired with a deflationary approach to metaphysical ground- ing, GE supports a “cautious” approach: before jumping to conclusions about metaphysical structure, we should first check whether we can explain the phenomenon in semantic terms.

5.3.3 Preliminary notes

Here are three notes on the arguments for GE that I will present in the next section.

Substantive metaphysical grounding: On the standard view, there are substantive truths to discover about what metaphysically grounds what. On an alternative deflation- ary conception, truths about metaphysical grounding are merely conceptual truths (see

23_{This case falls within the scope of C/M because Chalmers (2012) considers ‘bachelor’, ‘unmarried’,}

and ‘male’ to be super-rigid terms (453-454). I note that[50]will be a counterexample to C/M even on a deflationary conception of metaphysical grounding — see 5.3.3.

Chalmers (2012, 458)). In the arguments ahead, I assume a non-deflationary conception of metaphysical grounding since this is the most common view in the literature. I will consider the alternative deflationary conception in 5.4.4.

Subject-predicate form: In my arguments, I’ll restrict attention to cases of conceptual grounding with the formV ≡‘xisβin virtue of the fact thatxisα’. In such cases, we can call the property expressed by ‘isβ’ a c-grounded property, and we can call the property expressed by ‘isα’ ac-basic property.24 So, for example, being baldis c-grounded while having 20 hairsis c-basic (n.b.: one should not read any implications about metaphysical fundamentality into these terms). This restriction will simplify presentation since I will only have to consider cases where, intuitively, the focus is on properties. But later, I’ll explain why the arguments for GE are extendable to other cases.

Heavyweight status: In the arguments ahead, I will appeal to some implicit restric- tions on how we must view the objects and properties involved in metaphysical grounding claims. In this note, I will explain these restrictions. Focusing on properties first, consider the following proposed case of metaphysical grounding:

3. xis roughly spherical in virtue of the fact thatxhas determinate shapeR

We can distinguish four ways of thinking about the propertybeing roughly spherical: elim- inativism, (class or predicate) nominalism, deflationism, and “heavyweight” views (where “heavyweight” is a catch-all term for any view not covered in the other categories). I’ll now explain why the first three of these views are incompatible with viewing[3]as a case of metaphysical grounding.

(i) Eliminativism: If the property being roughly spherical doesn’t exist, there are no rough sphericality facts to be related by metaphysical grounding. So eliminativism is in- compatible with viewing [3] as a case of metaphysical grounding.25

24_{I note that a property’s status as c-grounded will be relative to the in-virtue-of claim under consideration;}

this complication won’t arise in the discussion ahead.

(ii) Deflationism: According to deflationary theorists, properties are mere “shadows of predicates”: there is nothing true of properties other than what is correctly assertible of them in ordinary language.26 _{In particular, there is no room for metaphysical theorizing}

todiscoverthat a deflationary property is involved in certain metaphysical grounding rela- tions. But this is in direct conflict with the stated goal of (non-deflationary) metaphysical grounding theorists, who aim to discover substantive patterns of dependence. For this rea- son, deflationary properties are incompatible with viewing [3] as a case of metaphysical grounding (as the relation is standardly conceived).27 (For further discussion, see Schaf- fer (2009, 360), who also claims that we should reject a deflationary view of the entities involved in grounding relations.)

(iii) Class or predicate nominalism: Suppose we identifybeing roughly sphericalwith a certain set of individuals{x1, x2, . . . , xn}.28 Then to say that [3]involves metaphysical

grounding is to say thatx’s having a certain determinate shape Rmetaphysically grounds x’s being a member of the set{x1, x2, . . . , xn}.29 But this seems wrong. It isn’t obvious

what metaphysically explains facts aboutx’s membership in sets, but it certainly isn’t ex- plained by the fact that x has a certain shape. Of course, the class nominalist can accept some instances of metaphysical grounding; my claim is merely that someone who views the propertybeing roughly sphericalas a mere set will not view[3]itself as a case of meta- physical grounding. Similar remarks apply to other “reductive” versions of nominalism.30

26_{Says Schiffer (1996, 159): “there’s nothing more to the nature of properties ... than is determined by our}

[property-hypostatizing] linguistic practices. What we can learn about them is what our linguistic practices license us to learn about them.”

27_{Some deflationists claim that there is a sense in which properties are derivative from our linguistic}

practices (see Schiffer (1996, 161)). So one might adopt a view on which deflationary properties are meta- physically grounded in our linguistic practices. But even if this is correct, the deflationist will still deny that

x’s being roughly sphericalis metaphysically grounded byx’s having determinate shapeR(which is what is needed for[3]to involve metaphysical grounding).

28_{See, e.g., Lewis’ (1983) account of abundant properties.}

29_{Since some nominalists do not countenance facts, we should perhaps view the metaphysical grounding}

relata in some other way for present purposes. This technicality does not affect the current point.

The above discussion suggests that the properties involved in metaphysical grounding claims must be “heavyweight” entities. I use this label as a catch-all term for any view not covered above. It is only on a heavyweight conception that it makes sense to try to discover relations of metaphysical dependence.

Analogous remarks apply to objects. There are eliminativist and deflationist views of objects, and these views are incompatible with metaphysical grounding for the same reasons given above. In summary: the properties and objects involved in cases like[3]must be heavyweight if we are to view such cases as involving metaphysical grounding.31 I’ll appeal to this result in the arguments that follow.