Fundamentality and Ontological Minimality

In this chapter, a generic definition of fundamentality as an ontological minimality thesis is sought and its applicability examined. Most discussions of fundamentality are focused on a mereological understanding of the hierarchical structure of reality, which entails an atomistic, object-oriented metaphysics. But recent work in structuralism calls for an alternative understanding and it is not immediately clear that the conception of fundamentality at work in structuralism is commensurable with the mereological conception – even some sort of metaphysical infinitism might fare better. However, it is proposed that once we understand fundamentality as an ontological minimality thesis, these two as well as further conceptions of fundamentality can all be treated on a par, including infinitism of the ‘boring’ type, where the same structure repeats infinitely.