Making things up

273 Pages·2017·1.251 MB·English

by  Bennett, Karen

Making Things Up

Making Things Up
Karen Bennett
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For my family, by birth and by choice

Acknowledgments
Itturns out that bookstakea long time to write, especially if the lives of people
around you begin and end while you are writing them. Some of the ideas have
been kicking around in various forms since about 2009 or 2010, but they have
evolved significantly. Even now, finally declaring the manuscript finished, I am
not sure I believe everything I say in this book, though I will hold my tongue
aboutjustwhichpartsworryme.
Since it has taken a long time to write, I have presented parts of the book in
manyplaces,andreceivedagreatdealofusefulfeedbackfromagreatnumberof
people. I am certain that I have accidentally left some names off the below list;
whoeveryouare,pleaseacceptmyapologies.
First, thanks to two extremely thorough and charitable readers for Oxford
UniversityPress,whoraisedpressingquestionsandcaughtseveralmistakesand
unclearpassages.IwishIcouldthankthembyname.
Second,thankstoaudiencesatthefollowingconferencesordepartments.The
list is long, and all of these discussions helped shape the book in ways big or
small:aconferenceonnaturalnessatArchéattheUniversityofStAndrews;the
UniversityofBarcelona;theBellinghamSummerPhilosophyConference;Brown
University;theCentralAPA(twice);theCreightonClubmeeting;aconferenceof
fundamentality at the ANU; the University of Georgia; the “Big vs Small”
conference at the University of Hamburg; the University of Houston; the
University of Illinois Chicago; Indiana University; the University of Konstanz;
the Lake Geneva Graduate Conference; the University of Leeds; the Midwest
Annual Workshop in Metaphysics; a Mellon Humanities Corridor Workshop;
MetaphysicalMayhem(twice);theUniversityofMississippi;theKlineworkshop
attheUniversityofMissouri;theUniversityofMainz;theUniversityofMassa-
chusetts at Amherst; MIT; the University of Miami; the University of Missouri;
the Morris colloquium on metaphysics and its history at the University of
Colorado Boulder; the University of Nebraska; North Carolina State; the
University of Notre Dame; NYU; the NYU-Columbia Graduate Conference;
the 41st annual Oberlin Colloquium in Philosophy; Oxford University; the
RanchMetaphysicsWorkshop;aconferenceonbridgingphysicsandmetaphys-
icsattheUniversityofRochester;RutgersUniversity;USC;SouthernMethodist
University; Stanford University; the University of Texas at Austin; and the
BurmanLecturesatUmeåUniversity.
viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
At some of those conferences, I was lucky enough to have a commentator.
Thanks to Paul Audi, Kenny Boyce, Sara Bernstein, Nick Haverkamp, Thomas
Hofweber, Daniel Nolan, Alison Peterman, Erica Shumener, and Meghan
Sullivanfordoingagreatjobandgivingmealottothinkabout.
Thanks also to my colleagues and students here at Cornell. I held a reading
group on a very early draft of the book, taught some of the issues in graduate
seminars, and twice discussed some material at a faculty work-in-progress
meeting. Particular thanks to Nathaniel Baron-Schmitt, Augie Faller, Thomas
Foerster,CarlGinet,DavidKovacs,DanielMurphy,EricRowe,andNicoSilins.
IwouldespeciallyliketothankTedSider,whowasmycolleagueformostofthe
time I was writing the book, and whose comments over the years have been, as
always,invaluabletome.
I’dalsoliketosingleoutsomeparticularpeoplewhosignificantlyengagedwith
themanuscript,eitherbyextendeddiscussion,orgivingmewrittencomments—
afewofthemmultipletimes,overthecourseofseveralyears.Thebookwouldbe
far worse without their help: Elizabeth Barnes, Ralf Busse, Ross Cameron, Cian
Dorr, Louis deRosset, Kit Fine, Jon Litland, Barbara Montero, Laurie Paul,
JonathanSchaffer,JasonTurner,TobiasWilsch,JessicaWilson,andDavidYates.
Finally,thankyoutoRobertandHelenAppel,whosegenerousgifttoCornell
endows the Appel Fellowship in the Humanities and Social Sciences. This
fellowship gave me an extra semester of leave in 2012, during which the book
projectreallygotstarted.
Chapters2and3beganlifeas“ConstructionArea:NoHardHatRequired,”in
Philosophical Studies, though the material is markedly different except for the
beginning. Chapter7 reproduces a little bit from “By Our Bootstraps,” which
appearedinPhilosophicalPerspectives25.Finally,Chapter8containsafewpages
from my “There is no Special Problem with Metaphysics,” which appeared in
PhilosophicalStudies.Fullcitationscanbefoundinthebibliography.
Finally, I owe an enormous debt to David, for everything, and to Lila, for
keepingitreal.
OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,17/4/2017,SPi
Contents
1. Introduction 1
2. BuildingI:BreakingGround 6
2.1 SomeBuildingRelations 8
2.2 TwoMainAxesofDifference 16
2.3 WhatIsaUnityThesis? 18
2.4 Monism(s)andUnityTheses 21
2.5 AgainstGeneralistMonismaboutBuildingRelations 25
3. BuildingII:CharacterizingtheClass 30
3.1 Methodology 30
3.2 Directedness 32
3.2.1 Replyingtochallenges 34
3.2.2 Apositiveargument 39
3.3 Necessitation 47
3.3.1 Againstindeterministicbuilding 50
3.3.2 Twokindsofbuildingdeterminism 52
3.3.3 Whyanotherclauseisneeded 55
3.4 Generativity 57
3.5 OughtMoreBeAdded? 59
3.6 WrappingUp 65
4. Causing 67
4.1 TwoKindsofCausalTaint 68
4.2 TheFirstKindofCausalTaint:CausationisaBuildingRelation 71
4.2.1 Fiveanalogies 71
4.2.2 Amethodologicalprinciple 78
4.2.3 Objectionstotheclaimthatcausationis
abuildingrelation 79
4.3 TheSecondKindofCausalTaint:SomeParticularBuilding
RelationsAreThemselvesCausal 83
4.3.1 Thefirstgradeofcausalinvolvement 83
4.3.2 Thesecondgradeofcausalinvolvement 85
4.3.3 Thethirdgradeofcausalinvolvement 95
4.4 BacktoTwoKindsofCausalTaint 99
5. AbsoluteFundamentality 102
5.1 MethodologicalPreliminaries 104
5.2 Independence 105
5.3 Completeness 107
5.4 TheRelationbetweenIndependenceandCompleteness 111
5.5 Interlude:IsBuildingWell-Founded? 118