Casati, R. & Varzi, A.C. - Holes and Other Superficialities

We talk about holes, we count them, we describe and measure them. We explain other people's or even animals' behavior by attributing intentions and other attitudes whose content includes reference to—or representations of—holes. People and animals do certain things because they believe they have come across a hole, because they want to dig a hole, to pass through a hole, to jump over a hole, to get out of a hole, or to hide inside one. Holes are something about which we commonly reason, and—like other particulars such as tables, stones, drops of oil—they seem to be indispensable in accounting for certain causal interactions.