Schaffer, Jonathan

"Reality's structure may violate our deepest intuitions."

"The question of what is real is never finally answered."

"We build our understanding on foundations we must constantly inspect."

"Objects and their properties form a unity we struggle to understand."

"The universe may be more holistic and less atomic than we believe."

"Metaphysical conservatism and metaphysical innovation both have their merits."

"The nature of composition is both simple and impossibly complex."

"We are pattern-seeking creatures imposing order on a perhaps chaotic reality."

"Fundamentality itself might be a relational property, not an intrinsic one."

"The world is not obligated to conform to our conceptual schemes."

"To understand objects is to understand how reality organizes itself."

"The deepest questions require both precision and wonder."

"We must be humble about what we claim to know about reality."

"Priority monism challenges us to think bigger and more boldly."

"The relation between whole and part is fundamental to all understanding."

"Objects persist, but their nature remains perpetually open to revision."

"Existence itself is the most fundamental and most mysterious concept."

"We theorize about reality because we cannot help but seek understanding."

"The structure of the world is independent of our knowledge of it."

"Metaphysical questions are practical questions in disguise."

"We must think carefully about what we mean by 'real'."

"The world contains multitudes, and our theories must accommodate them."

"Causation and grounding are two windows into reality's nature."

"The puzzle of existence cannot be avoided by ignoring it."

"Our concepts are tools for understanding, not mirrors of reality."

"The fundamental is not always the obvious."

"We construct metaphysics not from the abstract but from the concrete world."

"Objects are real because they persist and interact regardless of our awareness."

"The question of what grounds what is as important as the question of what exists."

"We must learn to think beyond our default metaphysical assumptions."