Emma Jaura
University of Nottingham
There have been a number of recent attempts to identify the best metaphysical framework for capturing Rovelli’s Relational Quantum Mechanics (RQM). To my knowledge, most of these attempts seem to commit to some form of fundamentalia, whether they be traditional objects, physical relations, events or ‘flashes’, or the cosmos as a fundamental whole. Rovelli’s own recommendation that ‘a natural philosophical home for RQM is an anti-foundationalist perspective’, gives us reason to explore options beyond these foundationalist frameworks, and take seriously a picture that lacks fundamentalia.
I construct an argument from elimination in favour of a view that conjoins Anti-foundationalism and RQM. The argument involves showing that Priority Monism and Priority Pluralism are exhaustive foundationalist options, and that there are reasons to reject their union with RQM. One kind of priority pluralism recently defended by Morganti and Dorato is Metaphysical Coherentism. They argue that coherentism is a way of interpreting the metaphysical structure of RQM that has marked improvement over its competitors. Their version of coherentism commits to fundamentalia, and they leave the debate open as to whether these should be thought of as objects or as events. I offer the positive proposal that Anti-foundationalist Coherentism provides a promising ontology for RQM: it inherits the benefits of metaphysical coherentism and avoids its challenges by jettisoning its commitment to fundamentalia.
Chair: Sanggu Lee
Time: September 8th, 11:20-11:50
Location: HS E.002
SOPhiA 2026 