Grounding is necessary and contingent

Authors

Richardson, K

Abstract

Grounding is necessary just in case: if P grounds Q, then necessarily: if P, then Q. Many accept this principle. Others propose counterexamples. Instead of straightforwardly arguing for, or against, necessity, I explain the sense in which grounding is necessary and contingent. I argue that there are two kinds of grounding: what-grounding (which tells us what it is for things to be the case) and why-grounding (which tells us why things are the case), where the former kind is necessary while the latter is contingent.

Citation

Richardson, K. (2021). Grounding is necessary and contingent. Inquiry (United Kingdom), 64(4), 453–480. https://doi.org/10.1080/0020174X.2019.1612777

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