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Single Idea 17304

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

Full Idea

Grounding is something like metaphysical causation. Just as causation links the world across time, grounding links the world across levels. Grounding connects the more fundamental to the less fundamental, and thereby backs a certain form of explanation.

Gist of Idea

As causation links across time, grounding links the world across levels

Source

Jonathan Schaffer (Grounding, Transitivity and Contrastivity [2012], Intro)

Book Ref

'Metaphysical Grounding', ed/tr. Correia,F/Schnieder,B [CUP 2012], p.122

A Reaction

Obviously you need 'levels' for this, which we should take to be structural levels.

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]
17306 If ground is transitive and irreflexive, it has a strict partial ordering, giving structure [Schaffer,J]
17304 As causation links across time, grounding links the world across levels [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]