Grounding, Fundamentality and Ultimate Explanations [Paperback]

This Element explores the notions of grounding and fundamentality as they relate to ultimate explanations.This Element shows a long lineage of philosophers concerned with coming to understand what explains everything broadly construed or within a certain domain. Contemporarily some philosophers focus on the notion of fundamentality - that there is something that is without explanation.This Element shows a long lineage of philosophers concerned with coming to understand what explains everything broadly construed or within a certain domain. Contemporarily some philosophers focus on the notion of fundamentality - that there is something that is without explanation.There is a long lineage of philosophers concerned with coming to understand what explains everything broadly construed, or within a certain, restricted domain. We call such explanations ultimate explanations. Contemporarily, philosophers of a certain stripe have devoted much attention to the notion of fundamentality - that there is something which is without explanation. This Element explores some of the connections between fundamentality and ultimate explanations both contemporarily and historically.Introduction; 1. Groundwork: grounding and fundamentality; 2. The history of an idea: ultimate explanations and the bottom of the world; 3. The metaphysics of fundamentality; 4. The epistemology of fundamentality; 5. Fundamentality: some misgivings and its alternatives; References.