Caspar Jacobs in Philosophers’ Annual: ‘It is not relationships between objects, but absolute properties that are most important’
An article by assistant professor Caspar Jacobs has been included in the prestigious Philosophers’ Annual, which compiles the ten best philosophy articles each year. In ‘Comparativist Theories or Conspiracy Theories?’, he addresses the question of whether objects have fundamental properties.
Jacobs specialises in metaphysics, also known as the philosophy of natural sciences. A central debate in this field is between comparativists and absolutists, who disagree on whether objects have fundamental properties or only exist in relation to each other.
‘A standard example is mass,’ says Jacobs. ‘We often say: that table weighs ten kilogrammes, a laptop one kilogramme. Weight is then a property of the object itself. You could also say: the table is ten times heavier than the laptop. You are then focusing on the relationship between the objects. The individual numbers associated with mass are then merely a representation of that relationship.’
Comparative conspiracy theory
In his award-winning article, Jacobs sides with the absolutists. ‘I argue that the relationships only work if there is something that connects them in a special way,’ he explains. ‘Suppose you have three objects: A, B, and C. A and B are equally heavy, and B and C are equally heavy. Then A and C must also be equally heavy, otherwise the other relationships do not make sense. In my paper, I call this a cosmic conspiracy: if you want to argue that relationships are fundamental, you almost have to believe in a conspiracy to accept that they correspond so strongly with each other. In my opinion, this strong correlation between the relationships is a reason to believe that there are underlying properties that explain why these relationships satisfy all these conditions.’
To calibration theory
In his article, Jacobs cites various versions of the absolutism-and-comparativism debate to support his argument. ‘You can see that the same pattern applies in every case, in which absolute properties are more fundamental than relative ones. You can extend this to particle physics, for example, where this debate also plays a role and this pattern recurs in calibration theory.’