Empty-Base Explanation

The possibility and fruitfulness of empty-base explanation is defended by general considerations from the theory of explanation, as well as concrete applications to

• the practice of explanation by status,
• the explanation of logical theorems, causal connections, and laws of nature,
• self-explanation,
• the use of IBE in metaphysics,
• the notion of zero-ground (which it provides with a solid theoretical footing), and
• ultimate explanation and its application to philosophical cosmology, the debate about the PSR, and the question of why there is anything at all.

For this book, Yannic Kappes has received the 2022 De Gruyter Prize for Ontology and Metaphysics from the German Society for Analytic Philosophy (GAP).