more on this theme | more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
Being the case in reality and being fundamental are not sufficient for one another. If one agrees with Thales that the world is composed of water, and with Aristotle that water is indefinitely divisible, then water would be real but not fundamental.
Gist of Idea
Being real and being fundamental are separate; Thales's water might be real and divisible
Source
Kit Fine (The Question of Ontology [2009], p.174)
Book Ref
'Metametaphysics', ed/tr. Chalmers/Manley/Wasserman [OUP 2009], p.174
A Reaction
Presumably the divisibility would make a reductionist account of water possible. The Atlantic Ocean is real, but water molecules would have a more prominent place in the ontology of any good metaphysician.