Motivating Categories: a Side Effect of Structural Realism
Motivating Categories: a Side Effect of Structural Realism

Summary/Abstract: In this paper I discuss Jonathan Bain’s answer to the argument against radical ontic structural realism (OSR) based on the idea that a structure is an isomorphism class and thus cannot be the only thing that exists. I examine Bain’s proposal of replacing the set-theoretic approach to OSR with a categorial approach and argue that several of his argumentative moves are deficient. First, Bain seems to define wrongly some of the mathematical concepts involved in category theory, for instance that of ‘maximal ideal’, and he also attempts to use these concepts in ways that would be detrimental to OSR itself. Both of these deficiencies undermine his claims. Second, the very form of Bain’s argument is, to some point, self-defeating, since defining any category whatsoever presupposes some fixed set-theoretic framework.

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