Jonathan Schaffer

Last updated
Jonathan Schaffer
Education Rutgers University (PhD), Kenyon College (BA)
Institutions Rutgers University
Thesis Causation and the Probabilities of Processes (1999)
Doctoral advisor Brian P. McLaughlin
Other academic advisors Barry Loewer, Tim Maudlin, David Lewis

Jonathan Schaffer is an American philosopher specializing in metaphysics and also working in epistemology, mind, and language. He is best known for his work on grounding and his development of monism, and is also a notable proponent of contrastivism.

Contents

Career

Since earning his PhD from Rutgers University in 1999, Schaffer has published 73 papers. [1] He wrote his PhD thesis Causation and the Probabilities of Processes under Brian McLaughlin. In 2000, he accepted a position as assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in Amherst, Massachusetts, earning tenure by 2004. In that period he was awarded the Philosophy of Science Recent PhD Essay Contest in 2001, and the Young Epistemologist Prize in 2002. [2]

In 2007, Schaffer accepted a permanent research position at the Australian National University, and was described as "one of philosophy's most creative and interesting younger figures". [3] He subsequently won awards for two papers published that year, the American Philosophical Association's 2008 Article Prize, for "Knowing the Answer" in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research , and the Australasian Journal of Philosophy's 2008 Best Paper Award, for "From Nihilism to Monism". [4]

In 2010, Schaffer accepted a permanent position at Rutgers University. [5] In 2014 he was awarded the Lebowitz Prize for excellence in philosophical thought by Phi Beta Kappa in conjunction with the American Philosophical Association. [6] In 2015 he was promoted to Distinguished Professor, and from 2016-19 he had a Humboldt Prize. [7]

Philosophical Work

Meta-Ontology

Schaffer advocates a neo-Aristotelean approach to Ontology in which existence questions are largely trivial. Composite objects, abstract objects, fictional characters, and many other philosophically contentious entities exist. Rather than debating such objects' existence, the primary role of metaphysics is to organize all existent entities into a hierarchical dependence structure. Within this structure, all existing things are classified as fundamental entities, derivative entities, or grounding relations. [8]

Fundamental entities (also called substances) have nothing ontologically prior to them upon which their existence depends. They are the most basic units of existence. Derivative entities, on the other hand, depend upon other entities for their existence. Schaffer uses the holes in a block of Swiss Cheese as an example of a derivative entity, since the holes are ontologically dependent upon the cheese. A derivative entity may be grounded in either another derivative entity or in a substance. A grounding relation is a primitive relation of dependence that holds between a derivative entity and that entity's "grounds". Grounding relations are irreflexive, asymmetric, and transitive. [8] This allows for chains of grounding. Schaffer asserts that all chains of grounding must terminate in a fundamental entity in his "well-foundedness" assumption. [9]

Priority Monism

Schaffer is perhaps most well-known for his arguments in favor of Priority Monism. Priority Monism is a form of Monism that claims that while very many entities exist, only one is fundamental. For Schaffer, this entity is the cosmos. Schaffer's position is motivated by his belief that the whole universe may be an entangled system and thus have properties that are not reducible to the universe's parts. "Monism: The Priority of the Whole" [9] also contains his Argument from Gunk, according to which mereological atoms cannot be fundamental due to the possibility of infinitely divisible matter.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Existence</span> State of being real

Existence is the state of being real or participating in reality. The terms "being", "reality", and "actuality" are often used as close synonyms. Existence contrasts with nonexistence, nothingness, and nonbeing. A common distinction is between the existence of an entity and its essence, which refers to the entity's nature or essential qualities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metaphysics</span> Branch of philosophy dealing with reality

Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality. This includes the first principles of: being or existence, identity, change, space and time, cause and effect, necessity, actuality, and possibility.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monism</span> View that attributes oneness or singleness to a concept

Monism attributes oneness or singleness to a concept, such as to existence. Various kinds of monism can be distinguished:

Neutral monism is an umbrella term for a class of metaphysical theories in the philosophy of mind, concerning the relation of mind to matter. These theories take the fundamental nature of reality to be neither mental nor physical; in other words it is "neutral".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ontology</span> Philosophical study of being and existence

In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophical study of being. It investigates what types of entities exist, how they are grouped into categories, and how they are related to one another on the most fundamental level. Ontologists often try to determine what the categories or highest kinds are and how they form a system of categories that encompasses the classification of all entities. Commonly proposed categories include substances, properties, relations, states of affairs, and events. These categories are characterized by fundamental ontological concepts, including particularity and universality, abstractness and concreteness, or possibility and necessity. Of special interest is the concept of ontological dependence, which determines whether the entities of a category exist on the most fundamental level. Disagreements within ontology are often about whether entities belonging to a certain category exist and, if so, how they are related to other entities.

Process philosophy, also ontology of becoming, or processism, is an approach in philosophy that identifies processes, changes, or shifting relationships as the only real experience of everyday living. In opposition to the classical view of change as illusory or accidental, process philosophy posits transient occasions of change or becoming as the only fundamental things of the ordinary everyday real world.

An ontological commitment of a language is one or more objects postulated to exist by that language. The 'existence' referred to need not be 'real', but exist only in a universe of discourse. As an example, legal systems use vocabulary referring to 'legal persons' that are collective entities that have rights. One says the legal doctrine has an ontological commitment to non-singular individuals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aristotelianism</span> Philosophical tradition inspired by the work of Aristotle

Aristotelianism is a philosophical tradition inspired by the work of Aristotle, usually characterized by deductive logic and an analytic inductive method in the study of natural philosophy and metaphysics. It covers the treatment of the social sciences under a system of natural law. It answers why-questions by a scheme of four causes, including purpose or teleology, and emphasizes virtue ethics. Aristotle and his school wrote tractates on physics, biology, metaphysics, logic, ethics, aesthetics, poetry, theatre, music, rhetoric, psychology, linguistics, economics, politics, and government. Any school of thought that takes one of Aristotle's distinctive positions as its starting point can be considered "Aristotelian" in the widest sense. This means that different Aristotelian theories may not have much in common as far as their actual content is concerned besides their shared reference to Aristotle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward N. Zalta</span> American philosopher (born 1952)

Edward Nouri Zalta is an American philosopher who is a senior research scholar at the Center for the Study of Language and Information at Stanford University. He received his BA from Rice University in 1975 and his PhD from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1981, both in philosophy. Zalta has taught courses at Stanford University, Rice University, the University of Salzburg, and the University of Auckland. Zalta is also the Principal Editor of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Ernest Sosa is an American philosopher primarily interested in epistemology. Since 2007 he has been Board of Governors Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University, but he spent most of his career at Brown University.

Meta-ontology is the study of the field of inquiry known as Ontology. The goal of meta-ontology is to clarify what ontology is about and how to interpret the meaning of ontological claims. Different meta-ontological theories disagree on what the goal of ontology is and whether a given issue or theory lies within the scope of ontology. There is no universal agreement whether meta-ontology is a separate field of inquiry besides ontology or whether it is just one branch of ontology.

Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that investigates principles of reality transcending those of any particular science. Cosmology and ontology are traditional branches of metaphysics. It is concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world. Someone who studies metaphysics can be called either a "metaphysician" or a "metaphysicist".

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to metaphysics:

In Being and Time, the philosopher Martin Heidegger makes the distinction between ontical and ontological, or between beings and being as such. He labeled this the "ontological difference." It is from this distinction that he develops the concept of "fundamental ontology."

Theodore "Ted" Sider is an American philosopher specializing in metaphysics and philosophy of language. He is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University.

The internal–external distinction is a distinction used in philosophy to divide an ontology into two parts: an internal part concerning observation related to philosophy, and an external part concerning question related to philosophy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jessica Wilson</span> Canadian metaphysician

Jessica M. Wilson is an American professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto Scarborough. Her research focuses on metaphysics, especially on the metaphysics of science and mind, the epistemologies of skepticism, a priori deliberation, and necessity. Wilson was awarded the Lebowitz Prize for excellence in philosophical thought by Phi Beta Kappa in conjunction with the American Philosophical Association.

Gideon Rosen is an American philosopher. He is a Stuart Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University, where he specializes in metaphysics, philosophy of mathematics, and ethics.

Grounding is a topic in metaphysics. Consider an ordinary physical object, such as a table, and the atoms it is made of. Without the atoms, the table would not exist. The table's existence depends on the existence of the atoms. This kind of dependence is called "grounding" to distinguish it from other kinds of dependence, such as the dependence of an effect on its cause. It is sometimes called metaphysical or ontological dependence.

Ontological priority is a concept in philosophy where one entity is prior to another in being. This can be understood in terms of one entity depending on another entity, in terms of degrees being or in terms of linguistic reference.

References

  1. ↑ Schaffer's CV
  2. ↑ Schaffer's CV
  3. ↑ "Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog: Jonathan Schaffer to ANU". Leiterreports.typepad.com. 2007-03-26. Retrieved 2012-02-19.
  4. ↑ Schaffer's Awards Archived October 21, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  5. ↑ "Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog: Rutgers Raids the ANU: Schaffer, Schellenberg to New Brunswick in 2011". Leiterreports.typepad.com. 2009-11-20. Retrieved 2012-02-19.
  6. ↑ News - Rutgers University
  7. ↑ Schaffer's CV
  8. 1 2 "On What Grounds What".
  9. 1 2 "Monism: The Priority of the Whole"
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