Could there have been Nothing?: Against Metaphysical Nihilism

184 Pages·2011·0.53 MB·English

by  Geraldine Coggins

Could There Have Been Nothing?
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Could There Have Been
Nothing?
Against Metaphysical Nihilism
Geraldine Coggins
KeeleUniversity,UK
©GeraldineCoggins2010
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Coggins,Geraldine,1975–
Couldtherehavebeennothing?:againstmetaphysicalnihilism/
GeraldineCoggins.
p. cm.
Summary:“Couldtherehavebeennothing?isthefirstbook-lengthstudy
ofmetaphysicalnihilism–theclaimthattherecouldhavebeenno
concreteobjects.Itcriticallyanalysesthedebatearoundnihilismand
relatedquestionsaboutthemetaphysicsofpossibleworlds,concrete
objectsandontologicaldependence”—Providedbypublisher.
ISBN978–0–230–57363–5(hardback)
1. Nihilism. 2. Metaphysics. I. Title.
B828.3.C592011
110—dc22 2010034127
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
PrintedandboundinGreatBritainby
CPIAntonyRowe,ChippenhamandEastbourne
To
Maureen and Gabriel Coggins
and
Killian, Conor and Sinéad O’Brien
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Contents
ListofDiagrams ix
Preface x
1 CouldThereHaveBeenNothing? 1
1.1 Couldtherehavebeennothing?–Onequestion,
threeanswers 3
1.2 Possibleworlds 4
1.3 Couldthingshavebeendifferent? 5
1.4 Nihilism,anti-nihilismandphilosophical
explanations 6
1.5 Thestructureofthediscussion 7
1.6 Thenatureofmetaphysicsandtheroleofintuition 9
1.7 Anoteonsometechnicalterms 10
2 MetaphysicalNihilismandtheSubtractionArgument 11
2.1 Premise(A1) 12
2.1.1 Unitsets 14
2.1.2 Partsofconcreteobjects 16
2.2 Rodriguez-Pereyra’ssubtractionargument∗ 17
2.3 Premise(A2) 22
2.4 Premise(A3)andtheothersubtractionpremises 24
3 PossibleWorlds 26
3.1 Metaphysicalnihilism,thesubtractionargument
andworlds 26
3.2 Threeviewsofworldsandobjects 27
3.3 Whataboutsets? 38
3.4 Anotherwayout? 44
3.5 Theproblemwithmemberlessness 47
3.6 Modalfictionalism 51
3.7 Conclusion 54
4 Concreteness 57
4.1 Whatisnihilism? 57
4.2 Criteriaofconcreteness 59
4.3 Thesense-perceptionaccount 61
vii
viii Contents
4.4 Thecausalaccount 63
4.5 Thespatio-temporalaccount 65
4.6 TheIdentityofindiscernibles 71
4.7 Naturalboundaries 75
4.8 Otheraccountsofconcreteness 81
4.9 Thetemporalcriterionofconcreteness
andpossibleworldtheories 82
4.10 Themotivationfornihilism 83
5 Concreta,DependenceandAnti-Nihilism 86
5.1 Moresubtractionarguments 87
5.2 Premise(A1) 87
5.3 Premise(A2)andAnti-nihilism1 88
5.3.1 Themodalontologicalarguments 92
5.4 Premise(A3)andAnti-nihilism2 94
5.4.1 Doabstractobjectsexistineverypossible
world? 96
5.4.2 Ersatzismandanti-ersatzism 98
5.4.3 Thechallengefromabsolutenihilism 99
5.4.4 Doabstractobjectsdependonconcrete
objects? 100
5.4.5 Universalsandtheemptyset 106
5.4.6 Dependence 111
5.5 Onemorechallengetonihilism 113
5.6 Conclusion 115
6 TheMetaphysicsofSubtraction 117
6.1 Subtractability 117
6.2 Thesubtractionpremise 119
6.3 Generalstrategiesfordefendingmetaphysical
nihilism 123
6.4 Thedownwardinductionargumentformetaphysical
nihilism 125
6.5 Downwardinductioninthesubtractionargument 129
6.6 Objectionsandreplies 132
6.7 Conclusion 135
7 TheTroublewithMetaphysicalNihilism 137
Notes 143
Bibliography 161
Index 169
List of Diagrams
1 ThecategorytheoryIamattributingtoRodriguez-Pereyra 49
2 ThecategorytheoryIamendorsing 50
ix