Bundle Theory With Kinds (with Markku Keinänen)

Abstract: Is it possible to get by with just one ontological category? We evaluate L.A. Paul’s attempt to do so: the mereological bundle theory. We will also examine Paul’s arguments against a version of universal bundle theory that takes spatiotemporal colocation instead of compresence or coinstantiation as the feature by which we can identify genuine bundles. The upshot is that Paul’s attempt to construct a one category ontology may be challenged with some of her own arguments. In the positive part of the paper we outline a two category ontology with property universals and kind universals. We compare this version of bundle theory and Paul’s mereological bundle theory and apply them to a case study concerning entangled fermions and bosons.