Grounding, Fundamentality and Ultimate Explanations

This Element explores the notions of grounding and fundamentality as they relate to ultimate explanations.

This Element shows a long lineage of philosophers concerned with coming to understand what explains everything broadly construed or within a certain domain. Contemporarily some philosophers focus on the notion of fundamentality - that there is something that is without explanation.There is a long lineage of philosophers concerned with coming to understand what explains everything broadly construed, or within a certain, restricted domain. We call such explanations ultimate explanations. Contemporarily, philosophers of a certain stripe have devoted much attention to the notion of fundamentality - that there is something which is without explanation. This Element explores some of the connections between fundamentality and ultimate explanations both contemporarily and historically.