Between Factualism and Substantialism: Structuralism as a Third Way

According to the substantialist, substances should be regarded as the fundamental ontological category. This has been subjected to criticism, recently and notably by Buonomo and Cumpa, drawing on aspects of modern physics. In this vein, I argue that reflection upon the Standard Model of elementary particle physics also undermines the substantialist position. However this does not necessarily clear the way for the factualist. Focussing on Dasgupta’s ‘generalism’ I suggest that although we are not compelled to adopt this stance, it does open the door to the structuralist position that might be viewed as a ‘third way’ between substantialism and factualism.