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    Metaphysical modal entailment is insufficient as a criter... — Carmelics
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    Home/Philosophy of Language
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    Metaphysical modal entailment is insufficient as a criterion for ontological commitment because ontological commitment is sensitive to distinctions that metaphysical necessity cannot accommodate.

    Philosophy of Language
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    2 reasons for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.Quine's criterion ties ontological commitment to the bound variables of a theory's canonical notation, not to what is necessarily co-extensional with those variables.
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    • 2.Two theories can share all metaphysical necessities yet differ in their bound variables, meaning modal entailment cannot substitute for the syntactic criterion Quine identifies.
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    • 3.If modal entailment sufficed, number theory and set theory would share identical commitments wherever their objects are necessarily interdefinable, which contradicts standard ontological practice.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
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    • 1.Fine's work on essence shows that metaphysical necessity is grounded in essence, but essence is object-specific: Socrates essentially belongs to {Socrates}, yet {Socrates} does not essentially contain Socrates.
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    • 2.Ontological commitment tracks what a theory's truth genuinely requires the existence of, and this requirement is sensitive to asymmetric essential dependencies that necessity, being symmetric, cannot capture.
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    • 3.Because necessary co-existence does not imply mutual ontological dependence, a criterion based on metaphysical entailment systematically conflates genuinely required posits with merely co-necessary but explanatorily idle ones.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
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    • 1.Ontological commitment appears to be sensitive to fine-grained distinctions between what a theory commits one to.
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    • 2.Metaphysical necessity is too coarse-grained to track these distinctions (e.g., it cannot distinguish triangular polygons from trilateral polygons, or relevant from irrelevant necessary existents).
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    Topics

    Philosophy of LanguageModality & Possibility

    Key Terms

    Ontology(Carnap argues this enterprise is based on a mistake)
    The philosophical discipline that tries to answer hard questions about what there really is.
    criterion(as used in philosophy to describe a test for whether an idea works)
    A standard or rule used to decide whether something counts as true or valid.
    entailment(Conceptualist framework)
    Understood in terms of truth at a world
    metaphysical(Ayer's Logical Positivist usage)
    Language that purports to refer beyond the physical world and lacks empirical consequences, which Ayer classifies as not literally significant
    metaphysical necessity(Distinguishing types of necessity)
    A property of things that must be the case but not purely by logical form — true in all possible worlds without being logical tautologies
    modal(in logic and metaphysics)
    Dealing with possibility and necessity—questions about what could be true, what must be true, and what's merely contingent (could go either way).
    ontological commitment(Used to derive that literal truth of 'a is F' entails existence of a)
    The criterion by which acceptance of a sentence as literally true commits one to the existence of the objects referred to by singular terms in that sentence, provided the sentence cannot be paraphrased away.

    Related

    Because necessary co-existence does not imply mutual ontological dependence, a c...Fine's work on essence shows that metaphysical necessity is grounded in essence,...If modal entailment sufficed, number theory and set theory would share identical...Metaphysical necessity is too coarse-grained to track these distinctions (e.g., ...
    +4 moreShow less
    Ontological commitment appears to be sensitive to fine-grained distinctions betw...

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: ontological-commitment
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    All of these objections to modal criteria for ontological commitment have a common source: ontological commitment appears to be sensitive to distinctions that metaphysical necessity cannot accommodate. One solution, then, would be to seek a more discriminating entailment relation. Thus, the third objection suggests that a priori entailment should replace metaphysically modal entailment. In the modal quantifier criterion, one could quantify over domains and sub-domains of worlds that are conceptu
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Ontological commitment tracks what a theory's truth genuinely requires the exist...
    Quine's criterion ties ontological commitment to the bound variables of a theory...
    Two theories can share all metaphysical necessities yet differ in their bound va...

    Similar

    A priori entailment cannot fully replace metaphysically modal entailme...93%The modal quantifier account of ontological commitment requires an inv...90%The epistemological entailment relation, rather than modal entailment,...90%An a priori entailment relation must replace modal entailment in the a...90%
    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (2 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit