The Lightness of Being: A Metaontological Investigation
Project Description
Ontological debates—debates about what exists—are among the most central traditional debates in philosophy. However, the vigor with which disputants pursue ontology is often met with skepticism. Debating whether, say, ordinary objects like tables exist seems to many somehow defective, even though to others such a debate seems philosophically central and urgent. This has led to a growing interest in metaontology, the study of ontological questions themselves. Perhaps one can make progress in ontology, or even philosophy more generally, by asking the fundamental question of what existence is to begin with.
One metaontological view, associated with for example Rudolf Carnap, is that questions about existence are shallow and easily answered. Call this the lightness of being view, or for short the lightness view. According to the lightness view, in many cases when we come to see what it is for things of certain kind to exist, we should be able to see that they indeed do exist, and that opposition to the view that they do simply relies on a misconception. Is some version of this view correct, and what exactly are the consequences of (a reasonable version of) this view? The idea behind the project is to undertake a thorough investigation of these issues, and to investigate the connections between these general discussions and specific ontological debates.
Seminars, Conferences and Workshops
Seminars, conferences and workshops will be organized within the auspices of the project.
Seminars
2017
- March 16, 2017: Bruno Whittle, University of Glasgow, “Exceptional Logic”
2016
- June 1, 2016: Jon Litland, University of Texas, Austin, "Ways of Ground"
- February 25, 2016: Donnchadh O'Conaill, University of Helsinki, "Grounding as Fact-Constitution"
2015
- 31 augusti 2015: Agustín Rayo, MIT, "Modality and Being"
Conferences and Workshops
2017
- November 14-15, 2017: Workshop – Ontology and Metaontology
2016
- November 28-29, 2016: Conference - Existence
- September 12-13, 2016: Conference - Topics in Ontology and Metaontology
2015
- November 16-17, 2015: Inaugural Workshop - The Lightness of Being
About the Project
The project is based in Uppsala
Duration
2015-2018
Funding
The project is financed by The Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences
- Matti Eklund (Uppsala) (principal)
- Øystein Linnebo (Oslo)
- Agustín Rayo (MIT)
- Jonathan Shaheen (Uppsala)
- Tobias Wilsch (Tübingen, former project member)