Abstract

Are there “thin objects” whose existence does not make any substantial demand on the world? In my Thin Objects (OUP 2018) I defend an affirmative answer based on a Fregean form of abstraction. This talk develops two central aspects of the resulting view in a new and alternative way, using the notion of grounding. First, every truth about some thin objects is grounded in a truth that does not involve these objects. Second, the notorious “bad company problem” for abstractionism can be solved by insisting that every truth about the desired abstracta be grounded in a truth that is solely about some prior and independently available ontology. I explain how the resulting view is a form of “soft platonism” with some broadly Aristotelian features.

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