Ontology made easy /
This volume aims to develop the easy approach to ontology, showing how it leads to both a first-order simple realism about the disputed entities and a form of metaontological deflationism that takes ontological disputes themselves to be misguided, since existence questions may be answered by straigh...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
New York :
Oxford University Press,
2014.
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Connect to the full text of this electronic book |
Table of Contents:
- ""Cover""; ""Ontology Made Easy""; ""Copyright""; ""Dedication""; ""Contents""; ""Acknowledgments""; ""Introduction: The Forgotten Easy Approach""; ""I.1 The Historical Backstory""; ""I.2 The Rise of Neo-Quineanism""; ""I.3 The Easy Approach to Ontology: A Preliminary Sketch""; ""I.4 The Plan of This Book""; ""Part I Developing Easy Ontology""; ""1 Whatever Happened to Carnapian Deflationism?""; ""1.1 Carnap�s Approach to Existence Questions""; ""1.2 Quine and the Ascendency of Ontology""; ""1.3 Putnam Takes Deflationism on an Unfortunate Turn""
- ""1.4 �Exists� as a Formal Notion: A Brief History""""1.5 Is Carnap Committed to Quantifier Variance?""; ""1.6 Conclusion""; ""2 The Unbearable Lightness of Existence""; ""2.1 A Core Rule of Use for �Exists�""; ""2.2 What Are Application Conditions?""; ""2.3 Do Application Conditions for �K� Include That Ks Exist?""; ""2.4 Answering Existence Questions Easily""; ""2.5 Against Substantive Criteria of Existence""; ""2.6 Lines of Reply""; ""3 Easy Ontology and Its Consequences""; ""3.1 Using Trivial Inferences to Answer Existence Questions""; ""3.2 Three Forms of Easy Ontology""
- ""3.3 First Result: Simple Realism""""3.4 Second Result: Metaontological Deflationism""; ""4 Other Ways of Being Suspicious""; ""4.1 Denying That Ontological Disputes Are Genuine Disputes""; ""4.2 Denying That We Can Know the Answers""; ""4.3 Denying That There Are Answers to Know""; ""4.4 Understanding Hard Ontology""; ""5 Fictionalism versus Deflationism""; ""5.1 Motives for Fictionalism""; ""5.2 The Fictionalist�s Case against Easy Arguments""; ""5.3 A Problem for the Fictionalist�s Analogy""; ""5.4 How the Fictionalist Incurs a Debt""; ""5.5 A Reply for the Fictionalist""
- ""5.6 The Deflationary Alternative""""5.7 Conclusion""; ""Part II Defending Easy Ontology""; ""6 Do Easy Arguments Give Us Problematic Ontological Commitments?""; ""6.1 Are We Over-Committed?""; ""6.2 Why Easy Arguments Require No Magic""; ""6.3 Do We Get the Objects We Wanted?""; ""6.4 Conclusion""; ""7 Do Doubts about Conceptual Truths Undermine Easy Arguments?""; ""7.1 Why Easy Ontology Needs Conceptual Truths""; ""7.2 Williamson�s Attack on Analyticity""; ""7.3 How Easy Inferences Survive""; ""7.4 Caveats and Conclusions""
- ""8 Are Easy Arguments Threatened by the Bad Company Objection?""""8.1 The Bad Company Challenge for the Easy Approach""; ""8.2 Avoiding Bad Company""; ""8.3 The Limited Impact of Bad Company Objections""; ""9 Do Easy Arguments Fail to Answer Ontological Questions?""; ""9.1 Hofweber�s Solution to the Puzzle about Ontology""; ""9.2 Focus and Ontology""; ""9.3 Ways to Read the Quantifier""; ""10 Can Hard Ontological Questions Be Revived in Ontologese?""; ""10.1 Existence Questions in Ontologese""; ""10.2 Just More Metaphysics?""; ""10.3 Avoiding the Joint-Carving Quantifier""