The aim of this workshop is to address recent themes in metaphysics on the nature of grounding and existence. The workshop will be held at the University of Geneva on behalf of eidos (the Centre for Metaphysics at the Universities of Geneva and Neuchâtel), and thanks to financial support from the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Watch this space for updates (including titles, abstracts, and more fine-grained directions).

26 September 2014

Uni-Bastions B106

  • 10:15am – 11:45am: Francesca Poggiolesi (Aix-Marseilles Université) – “On Defining and Formalizing the Notion of Ground”

Uni-Bastions B101

  • 12pm – 1:30pm: Michael J. Clark (Universität Hamburg) – “Partial to Grounding”
  • 3pm – 4:30pm: Jonathan Tallant (University of Nottingham) – “Fundamentally Negative”

27 September 2014

Uni-Bastions B101

  • 10:15am – 11:45am: Alexander Skiles (Université de Neuchâtel) – “Essence as Generalized Identity”
  • 12pm – 1:30pm: Jan Plate (Université de Neuchâtel) – “Do We Need Schafferian Grounding?”
  • 3pm – 4:30pm: Nathan Wildman (Universität Hamburg) – “Contingent Grounds for Necessities?”
  • 4:45pm – 6:15pm: Gideon Rosen (Princeton University) – “Notes on Grounding and Definition” [Keynote address]

28 September 2014

Uni-Bastions A206 (Alie Jura) 

  • 10:15am – 11:45am: Nikk Effingham (University of Birmingham) – “The Problems of Constitution Being Like Mereology”
  • 12pm – 1:30pm: Akiko Frischhut (Université de Genève) – “Change and Existence”

Organizers:

Jan Plate (University of Neuchâtel) and Alexander Skiles (University of Neuchâtel)

Affiliated Swiss NSF research projects:

Grounding: Metaphysics, Science, and Logic (principal investigators: Fabrice Correia, Benjamin Schnieder, and Marcel Weber)

The Nature of Existence: Neglected Questions at the Foundations of Ontology (principal investigators: Fabrice Correia and Kevin Mulligan)