Priority Monism Is Contingent

Thought: A Journal of Philosophy 5 (1):23-32 (2016)
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Abstract

This paper raises a challenge to Jonathan Schaffer's priority monism. I contend that monism may be true at the actual world but fail to hold as a matter of metaphysical necessity, contrary to Schaffer's view that monism, if true, is necessarily true. My argument challenges Schaffer for his reliance on contingent physical truths in an argument for a metaphysically necessary conclusion. A counterexample in which the actual laws of physics hold but the physical history of the universe is different shows that priority monism is contingently true at best. I suggest some general lessons for discussion of metaphysical dependence.

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Max Siegel
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Citations of this work

Priority Monism Beyond Spacetime.Baptiste Le Bihan - 2018 - Metaphysica 19 (1):95-111.
Monism.Jonathan Schaffer - 2008 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Priority monism.Kelly Trogdon - 2017 - Philosophy Compass 12 (11):1-10.
Metaphysical Foundationalism: Consensus and Controversy.Thomas Oberle - 2022 - American Philosophical Quarterly 59 (1):97-110.
What is priority monism?David Mark Kovacs - 2020 - Philosophical Studies 178 (9):2873-2893.

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References found in this work

Monism: The Priority of the Whole.Jonathan Schaffer - 2010 - Philosophical Review 119 (1):31-76.
The Action of the Whole.Jonathan Schaffer - 2013 - Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 87 (1):67-87.
The limits of contingency.Gideon Rosen - 2006 - In Fraser MacBride (ed.), Identity and Modality. Oxford University Press. pp. 13--39.
Contingentism in Metaphysics.Kristie Miller - 2010 - Philosophy Compass 5 (11):965-977.
Conceptual Conservatism and Contingent Composition.Josh Parsons - 2013 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 56 (4):327-339.

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