The Varieties of Grounding

Description of the Project

Grounding, as a non-causal relation of explanation or determination, is one of the most discussed notions in contemporary philosophy. It is expected to be applicable in a vast range of philosophical disciplines. However, there is widespread disagreement both about its formal features and about its philosophical roles. This disagreement may put pressure on a monistic conception of grounding, suggesting the possibility of a plurality of grounding relations. As a consequence, a debate between monism and pluralism about grounding has emerged in the literature (Schaffer (2009), Rosen (2010) and Berker (2018) all defend a monist approach, while Fine (2012), Dasgupta (2014) and Richardson (2020) set forth different forms of grounding pluralism).

Initially, this debate tended to pivot only on general formal and theoretical features of grounding. More recently, a greater attention has been paid to its applications in various fields of inquiry (see for example the essays collected in the Routledge Handbook of Metaphysical Grounding, Raven 2020, Part V, Applications). In this project we plan to follow an application-first approach to the philosophical debate on grounding. More specifically, we shall focus on the various connections and applications of grounding to specific philosophical problems, and we shall assess whether these connections and applications support monism or pluralism.

We envision three broad directions of inquiry. In the first (Applicative Strategy), we will study a variety of philosophical, logical and semantical applications of grounding, with an eye on the possibility of improving on existing treatments. In the second (Direct Strategy), we will inquire whether different applications of grounding require the introduction of one or multiple grounding relations. In the third (Reverse Strategy), we will compare monism and pluralism in the various fields in which grounding is applied (e.g. monism/pluralism on truth, monism/pluralism on parthood) with monism and pluralism on grounding, in order to unveil inferential links among various forms of monism and pluralism, and to investigate common methodological problems concerning various monism/pluralism debates.

The research project is articulated in four Research Units (Padua, Catholic University of Milan, L’Aquila, and State University of Milan), which will apply one or more of the three aforementioned strategies to different areas of applications of grounding: Padua will mainly work on the relation between grounding and identity and between grounding and truthmaking, Milan (Catholic U.) on grounding, ontological dependence and truth, L’Aquila on the applications of grounding to mereology and the philosophy of mind, and Milan (State U.) on the mutual relationship between grounding and other ontological domains, such as the ontology of fiction. The main activities will be jointly organized by the four Research Units, in order to strengthen an already well-established research network. 

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