This book investigates the idea that the sources of necessity—essence, laws, and logic—have the power to explain because they exert necessity, a modal force, on the facts. The Sources of Necessity explores this idea through two interwoven themes: explanation and necessity. It develops a unified account of explanation and clarifies the distinctive explanatory contributions of each source. It examines the governing role of natural laws, the interaction between essences and logic in accounting for absolute necessity, and the existence and nature of metaphysical laws. On the theme of necessity, it argues for a primitivist and pluralist view about necessity, which in turn raises two thorny questions: ‘Why are the sources of necessity themselves necessary?’ and ‘Why are different kinds of necessity ordered by strength?’ To answer these questions, the book develops a rationalist view, proposing that contingent reality emerges from a cosmogenic sequence—one that unfolds from essences and logic, through the other sources, all the way to the realm of contingent facts.

Program:

10:00 Stephan Schmid: Einführung

10:05 Tobias Wilsch: Vorstellung des Buches

10:20 Kommentar durch Ralf Busse

10:40 Kommentar durch Barbara Vetter

11:00 Tobias Wilsch: Replik

11:15 Allgemeine Diskussion