Ross D. Inman is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, USA. He is a former Research Fellow at the University of Notre Dame, Center for Philosophy of Religion and Saint Louis University. He was awarded the 2014 Marc Sanders Prize in Philosophy of Religion. His research has appeared in Philosophical Studies, Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion, Metaphysica, and Philosophia Christi.

• Introduction1. Serious Essentialism2. Grounding and Essence3. Fundamental Mereology and the Priority of Substance4. Against Part-Priority5. Substantial Priority: Cats, Statues, and Lumps6. Substantial Priority: Vagueness, the Many, and Overdetermination7. Getting Personal: Substantial Priority and Personal Ontology8. Counting the Cost9. Substantial Priority and Empirical Inadequacy

"Ross Inman's book is a fine attempt to pursue afresh the question of what is fundamental in our ontology. The project is ambitious, well thought out, carefully investigated with attention to the detail and mastery of the literature—and the book is very well written . . . Even the reader who might have reasons to disagree with Inman's conclusions will find the book a very worthwhile read, and will have to engage with the many powerful arguments that Inman presents." – Anna Marmodoro in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews"Ross Inman’s book is an excellent new installment in the ongoing renaissance of Aristotelian metaphysics in analytic philosophy . . . Inman demonstrates that neo-Aristotelian hylomorphism has the resources to resolve a number of outstanding problems and paradoxes in metaphysics, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of physics." – Robert C. Koons in Philosophia Christi