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Single Idea 18471

[filed under theme 7. Existence / C. Structure of Existence / 1. Grounding / a. Nature of grounding ]

Full Idea

The concept of 'grounding' appears to cry out for treatment as a family resemblance concept, a concept whose instances have no more in common than different games do.

Gist of Idea

Different types of 'grounding' seem to have no more than a family resemblance relation

Source

Fraser MacBride (Truthmakers [2013], 1.6)

Book Ref

'Stanford Online Encyclopaedia of Philosophy', ed/tr. Stanford University [plato.stanford.edu], p.10

A Reaction

I like the word 'determinations', though MacBride's point my also apply to that. I take causation to be one species of determination, and truth-making to be another. They form a real family, with no adoptees.

The 25 ideas with the same theme [how we should understand the grounding relation]:

17186 Men say they prefer order, not realising that we imagine the order [Spinoza]
21765 The ground of a thing is not another thing, but the first thing's substance or rational concept [Hegel, by Houlgate]
23855 Creation produced a network or web of determinations [Weil]
17272 2+2=4 is necessary if it is snowing, but not true in virtue of the fact that it is snowing [Fine,K]
17276 If you say one thing causes another, that leaves open that the 'other' has its own distinct reality [Fine,K]
17284 An immediate ground is the next lower level, which gives the concept of a hierarchy [Fine,K]
17285 'Strict' ground moves down the explanations, but 'weak' ground can move sideways [Fine,K]
17288 We learn grounding from what is grounded, not what does the grounding [Fine,K]
15007 If you make 'grounding' fundamental, you have to mention some non-fundamental notions [Sider on Fine,K]
15006 Something is grounded when it holds, and is explained, and necessitated by something else [Fine,K, by Sider]
14262 Formal grounding needs transitivity of grounding, no self-grounding, and the existence of both parties [Fine,K]
14097 Things could be true 'in virtue of' others as relations between truths, or between truths and items [Rosen]
18471 Different types of 'grounding' seem to have no more than a family resemblance relation [MacBride]
18472 Which has priority - 'grounding' or 'truth-making'? [MacBride]
17304 As causation links across time, grounding links the world across levels [Schaffer,J]
17306 If ground is transitive and irreflexive, it has a strict partial ordering, giving structure [Schaffer,J]
13748 Grounding is unanalysable and primitive, and is the basic structuring concept in metaphysics [Schaffer,J]
16598 Priority was a major topic of dispute for scholastics [Pasnau]
17292 Avoid 'in virtue of' for grounding, since it might imply a reflexive relation such as identity [Audi,P]
17295 Ground relations depend on the properties [Audi,P]
17297 A ball's being spherical non-causally determines its power to roll [Audi,P]
17302 Ground is irreflexive, asymmetric, transitive, non-monotonic etc. [Audi,P]
17303 The best critique of grounding says it is actually either identity or elimination [Audi,P]
17270 Is existential dependence by grounding, or do grounding claims arise from existential dependence? [Correia/Schnieder]
23008 Grounding is intended as a relation that fits dependences between things [Baron/Miller]