If truth required external referents, then 'man is an animal' would be false when no men exist, which Simon's account of truth-determination contradicts
Simon’s position as regards empty reference is crucially different from the one held by modists such as Boethius of Dacia and Radulphus Brito, who claim that the truth-makers of essential predications, as ‘man is an animal’, are real things in the external world, so that ‘man is an animal’ would be false if no man existed.[7] Simon, however, claims that it is true, supporting his claim with a careful account of truth-determination. According to him, for an essential predication such as ‘man is