Research Group
in Analytic Philosophy

Abstract

This talk is concerned with the relation, which Thomas Sattig has brought to light in Sattig (2014; 2015), between constitutionalism, the grounding problem affecting this view and determinism.

First, Sattig argues that if constitutionalism is correct, then our world is indeterministic just in virtue of ordinary facts about ordinary objects. This is the problem of cheap indeterminism.

After presenting the problem Sattig states that, in fact, he believes constitutionalists can solve it, but at the price of having to abandon a very promising way to solve the grounding problem.

The main aim of this talk is to present a new proposal to solve the grounding problem and defend that this allows constitutionalists to solve the problem of cheap indeterminism without having to abandon this new solution to the grounding problem.

References

Sattig, T. (2014), ‘Pluralism and Determinism.’ Journal of Philosophy 111 (3):135-150.

Sattig, T. (2015), The Double Lives of Objects: An Essay in the Metaphysics of the Ordinary World. OUP Oxford.