Two Pictures of a World's Structure; Two Views on the Scope of Modal Knowledge

Rough Draft.

First Picture: At the fundamental level of reality, all that exists are point-sized objects bearing wholly intrinsic properties. All else supervenes on the fundamental level. 

Second picture: At the fundamental level of reality, a significant number of things exist that are interdependent, interlocking, interrelated. A significant number of essential properties at this level are relational properties.

The first picture warrants confidence in wide scope for modal knowledge. For on that view, one can generate a new possible world merely by adding, subtracting, and recombining the base-level entities in virtually any way you like without the threat that a given recombination is impossible. 

By contrast, the second picture doesn't warrant antecedent confidence in wide scope for modal knowledge. For on that view, lots of recombinations are ruled out as impossible.

Which picture is correct? As recently pointed out by French and McKenzie (among others) current evidence from physics and other fields indicate that the second picture is closer to the truth. John Seddon made the same point way back in the 70's, but few besides Peter van Inwagen took note.

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