Holes

Global Science Sun, 04 Oct 2026 14:54:10 GMT Moderate confidence — 64/100

Holes are an interesting case study for ontologists and epistemologists.
On the one hand, naive descriptions of the world treat holes as objects of reference and quantification, on a par with ordinary material objects (‘This hole has no lid’; ‘That cheese has seven holes’).
Moreover, we often appeal to holes to account for causal interactions (‘The hole in the roof caused a leak’), or to explain the occurrence of certain events (‘The water spilled because the bucket has a hole’).

Holes are an interesting case study for ontologists and epistemologists.
On the one hand, naive descriptions of the world treat holes as objects of reference and quantification, on a par with ordinary material objects (‘This hole has no lid’; ‘That cheese has seven holes’).
Moreover, we often appeal to holes to account for causal interactions (‘The hole in the roof caused a leak’), or to explain the occurrence of certain events (‘The water spilled because the bucket has a hole’).

Sources: Stanford