A moderate-grain theory of states of affairs

Dan Marshall (Lingnan University)

Dan Marshall (Lingnan) will present "A moderate-grain theory of states of affairs" at 11 in Old Quad G10 on Friday, 19 July. 

Abstract: A state of affairs is a way things are or a way things aren’t. The two most popular theories of the individuation conditions of states of affairs are the coarse-grain theory, according to which states of affairs are identical if and only if they are necessarily equivalent, and the structure theory, according to which states of affairs are structured in the same kind of way sentences are structured. Despite their popularity, both these theories have serious problems. This paper proposes and defends a new moderate-grain theory of states of affairs that avoids these problems by individuating states of affairs more finely than the coarse-grain theory and more coarsely than the structure theory. Roughly, according to the proposed theory, two states of affairs are identical if and only if they are necessarily equivalent and they are about the same things.