Combining Texts

Ideas for 'No Understanding without Explanation', 'Some Puzzles of Ground' and 'Against 'Ostrich Nominalism''

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2 ideas

7. Existence / C. Structure of Existence / 1. Grounding / a. Nature of grounding

14262	Formal grounding needs transitivity of grounding, no self-grounding, and the existence of both parties [Fine,K]
	Full Idea: The general formal principles of grounding are Transitivity (A«B, B«C/A«C: if A helps ground B and B helps C, then A helps C), Irreflexivity (A«A/absurd: A can't ground itself) and Factivity (A«B/A; A«/B: for grounding both A and B must be the case).
	From: Kit Fine (Some Puzzles of Ground [2010], 4)

7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 3. Reality

8507	Some think of reality as made of things; I prefer facts or states of affairs [Armstrong]
	Full Idea: Some philosophers (like Devitt) think of reality as made up of things. Others, like me, think of it as made up of facts or states of affairs.
	From: David M. Armstrong (Against 'Ostrich Nominalism' [1980], §3)
	A reaction: Devitt is a follower of Quine on this. Personally I rather like 'processes'. Unanalysed things with predication (Quine) don't look promising. I currently favour things with active powers, which give rise to properties. See Shoemaker and Ellis.