Ontological class-warfare: a Dominant Kinds approach to the problem of Material Constitution

Abstract

The Problem of Material Constitution is among the oldest and most central problems in metaphysics. Various puzzles expose the problem, but for this narrative the standard statue/clay example serves: Is a clay statue a statue, or a piece of clay, or both? On the one hand, it seems that the object can survive crushing, suggesting it is a piece of clay. On the other hand, the object cannot survive crushing, which suggests it is a statue. So we ostensibly have two objects that share all the same parts and are "co-located", yet are related to the clay of which they are made in different ways. This is the Problem of Material Constitution (PMC). There are multiple "solutions" to the PMC advocated in the literature. The principal goal of this work is to examine the plausibility of the most recent and least-discussed solution to the PMC: the 'Dominant Sortal/Kinds' account. After discussing the assumptions that jointly cause the PMC and briefly addressing problems of 'co-locationism', I turn my attention, in the second chapter, to the two chief expositions of the Dominant Sortals/Kinds approach. After thoroughly examining these proposals, I diagnose three problems with the general strategy. First, is this account most properly called a 'Dominant Sortals' account or a 'Dominant Kinds' account? What rides on calling it one or the other? Second, how can we explain generation and corruption on this account without raising the PMC yet again? Third, how can we tell which sortal (or kind) is dominant? I devote the third chapter to the lines of development such an account must take to be a tenable solution to the PMC. Starting with the third problem, I conclude that only through an espousal of conventionalism can the Dominant Kinds (DK) theorist explain how we know when we have a token of kind K, for indeed we must know. To explain generation and corruption, the DK theorist must also adopt a particulate metaphysic. Finally, we conclude that the account is best described as a Dominant Sortals account, at least if 'kinds' are connotative of metaphysical realism, and 'sortals' of metaphysical non-realism.