Holes present a fascinating case study for ontologists and epistemologists. Naive descriptions treat holes as objects of reference and quantification, comparable to ordinary material objects — "This hole has no lid" or "That cheese has seven holes." We appeal to holes to explain causal interactions ("The hole in the roof caused a leak") and events ("The water spilled because the bucket has a hole"), providing initial evidence for treating holes as real entities. Yet holes appear more elusive than ordinary objects, ontologically and epistemologically, as paradigms of nothingness. Should we consider hole-talk a misleading façon de parler? Are holes real things or mere entia representationis, as-if entities, fictions?
Hole representations appear commonplace in human cognition. People perceive holes, form corresponding concepts lexicalized as nouns, and some languages discriminate types — superficial hollows, inner cavities, see-through perforations. Developmental psychology confirms infants and adults perceive, count, and track holes as easily as cookies and tins (Giralt & Bloom 2000; Horowitz & Kuzmova 2011; Porter et al. 2016). If holes are entities, they appear as spatiotemporal particulars with determinate shape, size, and location — "These things have birthplaces and histories. They can change, and things can happen to them" (Hofstadter & Dennett 1981). Yet holes are immaterial: every hole has a material "host" and may have a material "guest," but the hole itself is not made of matter.
This immateriality creates conundrums. If perception is grounded on causation (Locke, Essay II-viii-6) and causality requires materiality, immaterial bodies cannot be causal sources. A causal theory of perception would not apply to holes, making our impression of perceiving them a systematic illusion — unless absences can be causally efficacious (Lewis 2004). Identity criteria for holes are also difficult to specify, more so than for material objects, since we cannot rely on constituting stuff or the host's identity conditions.
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