<p>Philosophers typically classify causation, grounding, and other determination relations as distinct kinds. These relations are often modeled in set-theoretic terms, but this treatment ends up flattening the rich conceptual structure that makes determination metaphysically significant. As a result, accounts of mixed chains of determination often appear fragmented and unconvincing, especially in cases drawn from fundamental physics. This paper develops a novel approach for modeling determination that avoids the information loss of purely extensional treatments and captures hybrid cases within a unified representation. The framework uses the geometrical structure of conceptual spaces to expand the metaphysician’s toolkit for analyzing the multi-faceted nature of determination. Finally, the paper argues that the explanatory success of this framework supports an underlying metaphysical thesis: That there is a single, primordial form of determination.</p>

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Metaphysical Hybridization

  • Antonio Vassallo

摘要

Philosophers typically classify causation, grounding, and other determination relations as distinct kinds. These relations are often modeled in set-theoretic terms, but this treatment ends up flattening the rich conceptual structure that makes determination metaphysically significant. As a result, accounts of mixed chains of determination often appear fragmented and unconvincing, especially in cases drawn from fundamental physics. This paper develops a novel approach for modeling determination that avoids the information loss of purely extensional treatments and captures hybrid cases within a unified representation. The framework uses the geometrical structure of conceptual spaces to expand the metaphysician’s toolkit for analyzing the multi-faceted nature of determination. Finally, the paper argues that the explanatory success of this framework supports an underlying metaphysical thesis: That there is a single, primordial form of determination.