Speaker Series: Shamik Dasgupta (UC Berkeley)

Shamik Dasgupta will present, “Realism and the Absence of Value”.

Much recent metaphysics is built around notions such as naturalness, fundamentality, grounding, dependence, essence, and others besides. I will argue that this kind of metaphysics should be rejected because it succumbs to a “problem of missing value”. Instead, I suggest that we return to a kind of Goodman-esque picture: the world is a structureless blob onto which we project categories that reflect our own interests and concerns.

Reception to follow.