  If a metaphysical distinction between objects and events is granted, then a question arises as to the relation between the entities in the two categories. Objects are prime actors in events; objectless events are uncommon. But so are eventless objects; events make up the lives of objects. In a radical mood, however, one can think of the entities in one category as being metaphysically dependent on entities in the other. For instance, it has been claimed that events supervene on their participants (Lombard 1986; Bennett 1988), or that objects depend on the events in which they partake (Parsons 1991). In a more moderate way, one can grant objects and events an equal ontological status but maintain that either objects or events are primary in the order of thought. Thus, it has been argued that a pure event-based ontology would not be sufficient for the success of our re-identifying practices, which require a stable frame of reference of the sort that is adequately provided only by objects (Strawson 1959). A similar asymmetry between objects and events seems to be endorsed by natural language, which has expressions such as ‘the fall of the apple’ but not ‘the pomification of the fall’. However, these asymmetries may be attenuated to the extent that objects, too, may and sometimes must be identified via reference to events. For example, if we track down the father of Sebastian or the author of Waverley, it is by identifying certain events in the first place—of fathering and of writing, respectively (Moravcsik 1965; Davidson 1969; Lycan 1970; Tiles 1981).