NDPR Galen Strawson Stuff, Quality, Structure: The Whole Go

0 views

Skip to first unread message

ndpr...@nd.edu

unread,

Jan 22, 2026, 4:04:17 PM (13 days ago) Jan 22

to philosophical...@nd.edu, philosophical-...@nd.edu, philosophical-...@nd.edu, philosophical-...@nd.edu

Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

2026.01.4 View this Review Online View Other NDPR Reviews

Galen Strawson, Stuff, Quality, Structure: The Whole Go, Oxford University Press, 2024, 192pp., $50.00 (hbk) ISBN 9780198903659.

Reviewed by David Builes, Princeton University

Galen Strawson’s Stuff, Quality, Structure: The Whole Go is an ambitious and wide-ranging work in fundamental metaphysics. Its primary goal is to present and defend an “identity metaphysics”, according to which many allegedly fundamental metaphysical distinctions are merely different ways of conceptualizing the same phenomena. There are many different components to Strawson’s identity metaphysics. One important claim is “categorical monism”, which is the view that there is only one fundamental ontological category, e.g., there is no real distinction between an object and the properties that it has. Another important claim is the so-called “powerful qualities” view, according to which there is...