This thesis is a study of a metaphysical position I call ”absence realism” or ”realism about absences”. In short, an absence realist commits to the existence of absences. An absence realist thinks that some expressions of the form ”There is an absence of F in G” are best thought of as quantifying over absences. This thesis consists of two chapters. In chapter 1 I present an overview of absence realism. In §1.1 I motivate absence realism by arguing that the obvious alternative way of construing absence expressions seems to commit us to negative entities in the form of negative facts. In §1.2 I present the basic positive case for absence realism. In §1.3. I present and critically discuss three absence realist accounts from Sartre, Casati & Varzi, and Sorensen. In §1.4 I present two general explanatory challenges for absence realism. In chapter 2 I present and develop an alternative absence realist account. The essence of my proposal is that absences are mereological complements of what they are absences of. An absence of x is composed of everything that is not a part of x, thus occupying every spatiotemporal location that contains something that is not a part of x. In §2.1 I present the required metaphysical presuppositions behind the theory and suggest some desiderata it ought to meet. In §2.2. I develop a semi-formal theory of absences that defines absences as mereological complements of what they are absences of. In §2.2.1 I suggest an interpretation of the theory and use it to answer the explanatory challenges raised in §1.4. I argue that there are absences of past, future, and possible things; that there are only absences of spatiotemporally extended entities; and that they are composed out of ordinary entities. In §2.2.2 I look at the issue of where exactly are absences spatiotemporally located and whether they are countable particulars or universals. I close by considering some potential worries and objections.
A Realist metaphysics of absences
Ryymin, R. (Author). 1 May 2020
Student thesis: Master's Thesis › Master of Philosophy