•  296
    The Necessity of Finite Modes in Spinoza
    Cheolhak-Korean Journal of Philosophy 156 49-89. 2023.
    It is standard to think that in Spinoza’s system, all things are necessary and in no sense contingent. However, in his classic book, Spinoza’s Metaphysics, published in 1969, Edwin Curley argues based on the proposition 28 of the first part of the Ethics that Spinoza endorses necessitarianism of only a modest kind, according to which when it comes to finite modes, there is a sense in which they are contingent. In this paper, I revisit Curley’s argument. Commentators have responded to Curley’s ar…Read more
  •  189
    Essence and Thisness
    In Dean Zimmerman & Karen Bennett (eds.), Oxford Studies in Metaphysics Vol. 13, Oxford University Press. 2023.
    The project of grounding necessity in essence often goes together with the model of essence that assimilates the constitutive essence of an object to the definition of it. The paper argues that if the grounding project is to succeed, the definitional model must be questioned. Like any object whatever, a concrete individual is necessarily identical to that individual. It is argued that this necessity can have an essential ground only if the primitive identity property of it or its thisness is ess…Read more
  •  80
    From the analogy of being to modes of being?
    Philosophical Studies 179 (10): 3133-3139. 2022.
    In The Fragmentation of Being, Kris McDaniel argues for ontological pluralism, proposing that we should accept not just being itself but also modes of being into which being fragments. McDaniel’s guiding idea is that being is analogous, and given the analogy of being, being should be taken to fragment into modes of being. I argue that even if McDaniel is right that being is analogous, ontological pluralism is not forced upon us. Given the analogy of being, objects don’t have being simpliciter bu…Read more
  •  55
    Priest’s Hyper-Dialetheist Solution to the Problem of Unity
    International Journal of Philosophical Studies 25 (4): 544-550. 2017.