Ontology, priority, and teleology: A defense of Classical Platonism

Classical Platonism is the thesis that, metaphysically, the most fundamental elements of the world are ends or purposes, and that things are metaphysically dependent on their ends. Classical Platonists believe that teleology is a real feature of the world, and that metaphysical dependence--or "metaphysical priority"--is itself teleological. This dissertation defends Classical Platonism in four chapters.;In chapter one I argue that the proper scope of ontological investigation is metaphysical priority rather than existence, but that priority cannot be "brute"--i.e. unanalyzable. My argument is that, when the topic is metaphysical, questions of existence have trivial answers, and ontological questions do not. So whatever the ontological questions are, they are not questions about existence. Instead, I argue that they are questions about priority.;In chapter two I argue for Classical Platonism by showing that the sense in which ordinary material objects are something "over and above" their parts is a teleological sense. The intuitive distinction between integrated objects, which are in some sense "prior" to their parts, and mere heaps, which are not, is that the former and not the latter are teleologically prior to their parts.;In chapter three I present a detailed account of the Classical Platonist's ontology, which is an ontology of Forms. The Forms include entities like perfect cat-health and perfect knifehood, which are standards against which the excellence of things like cats and knives are measured. After explaining what the Forms are, I show that teleology is basic and indispensable to any theory of universals--i.e. properties and relations that are somehow "shared" in their entirety by distinct objects.;In chapter four I respond to objections to Classical Platonism: that it allows for circular chains of metaphysical dependence, that it makes objects metaphysically dependent on what does not exist, and that it is unable to account for its own requirement that matter have a proper function.