Alfonso Romero Zuniga
Universität Tübingen
This talk critically examines the ontological distinction between events and processes, questioning whether such a divide is necessary. The standard account advocate a fundamental division based on linguistic distinctions (progressive/perfective, telic/atelic), where events are static, closed, perduring entities, while processes are dynamic, ongoing, enduring ones. I challenge this dualism, proposing a unified, monistic account.
My approach employs a slot-structured mereology, treating occurrences as four-dimensional wholes composed of instantaneous states arranged into slots according to their essential kind. Filling slots involves states fulfilling specific causal roles. I distinguish between tight occurrences, which have complex instantiation conditions fully realized across their temporal structure, and loose occurrences, composed of repeated slots ultimately realized by tight occurrences, fully instantiated at every relevant interval.
I argue linguistic distinctions motivating dualism (telic/perfective vs. atelic/imperfective) reflect structural differences between tight and loose occurrences, not distinct ontological categories. Once I have presented my proposal, I will address two major challenges to monism posed by dualists. First, dualists claim only processes endure and thus change, but my analysis is able to model change within perdurantist structures through variations in slot-fillers; this structural distinction explains persistence, change, and interruption. Secondly, regarding the problem of interruption, where dualists claim that processes can be interrupted while events cannot. I argue that so-called interrupted events do not represent incomplete occurrences, but rather unfulfilled attempts at realizing a structured whole.
My compatibilist monism offers a parsimonious alternative, maintaining explanatory advantages without ontological fragmentation, clearly modeling how events and processes interrelate within a unified, structured framework.
Chair: Jacopo Giraldo
Time: 05 September, 15:20-15:50
Location: HS E.002
SOPhiA 2026 