Fundamental Things: A Workshop with Louis deRosset

Fundamental Things: A Workshop with Louis deRosset

Date: June 20, 2025
Venue: Dipartimento di Scienze Umane, Aula 2B, Università degli Studi dell'Aquila.

Louis deRosset’s Fundamental Things. Theory and Applications of Grounding (OUP 2023) develops a theory of grounding that articulates the prominent philosophical view that reality is structured in layers, with higher-level phenomena depending on and being determined by more fundamental ones.

 This workshop hosts some of the leading philosophers currently working on grounding, fundamentality, and the layered structure of reality. Their talks will discuss various facets of these topics and disclose new research perspectives. An extended Q&A session with deRosset about the book will allow attendees to engage directly with the author.

Program

9:30–9:45 Introduction

9:45–10:40 Louis deRosset (University of Vermont), “Ground and Fundamentality: Subterranean Notes”

10:40–11:35 Joaquim Giannotti (Universidad Mayor – Santiago), “The Elusive Distinction between Grounding and Causation”

Coffee Break

12:05–13:00 David Mark Kovacs (Tel Aviv University), “Iterated Determination Question”

Lunch

14:30–15:25 Kelly Trogdon (Virginia Tech), “Incompletable Grounding and Sparse Ontology”

15:25–16:20 Benjamin Schnieder (University of Vienna), “Grounds and Concepts”

16:20–16:50 Coffee Break

16:50–17:45 Yannic Kappes (University of Vienna), “Functors Solve the Connection Problem for Nonreductivism”

17:45–19:30 Q&A on Fundamental Things (Oxford University Press, 2023), with the participation of the author

Participation & Accessibility

• No registration is required – the event is open to all.

• The workshop will also be available via live streaming for remote participants (link on the event page)

For more details and updates, please visit the event page: https://sites.google.com/fisppa.it/prinonground/events/fundamental-things.

Contact Information

For further inquiries, please contact:

Giorgio Lando – [email protected]

Giorgio Mazzullo – [email protected]