Segmenting ontology.
Ontological universalism is widespread, but this paper argues that the validity of many ontological claims is bounded, and thus that segmented (though not fragmented) ontologies may represent the world more accurately. To be more specific, it criticizes the work of Karen Barad, and of James Ladyman...
| Publicado en: | Synthese Vol. 206; no. 1; pp. 1 - 27 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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Springer Nature
Jul2025
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=186350951&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 186350951 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00397857 4LI jtl: Synthese issn: 00397857 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jul2025 vid: 206 iid: 1 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature artinfo: ui: 186350951 10.1007/s11229-025-05119-y ppf: 1 ppct: 26 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 1.1MB tig: atl: Segmenting ontology. aug: au: Elder-Vass, Dave affil: https://ror.org/04vg4w365 Loughborough University, Loughborough, England sug: keyword: Agential realism Critical realism Quantum mechanics Social ontology Structural realism ab: Ontological universalism is widespread, but this paper argues that the validity of many ontological claims is bounded, and thus that segmented (though not fragmented) ontologies may represent the world more accurately. To be more specific, it criticizes the work of Karen Barad, and of James Ladyman and Don Ross. Both draw ontological conclusions from interpretations of quantum mechanics and then attempt to universalize the reach of those conclusions. By contrast, the paper adapts a loosely Bhaskarian critical realism to develop a segmented ontology. This identifies two boundaries between three related but also substantially different ontological segments. At the boundary between the quantum and material segments, quantum particles can become entangled with larger systems in ways that provide determinate relative locations for material objects. This enables the emergence of causal powers that depend on determinate spatial relations between the parts of material objects. At the boundary between the material and social segments, mental properties provide the possibility of human agents forming intentional relations and thus enable the emergence of social causal powers. Regardless of the merits of this particular ontological scheme, I argue that segmented ontologies are likely to fit better with the causal structure of our universe. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Synthese is a copyright of Springer, 2025. All Rights Reserved. item: Synthese holder: Springer Nature dt: @attributes: year: 2025 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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