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    Nominalists who reject thin-truth-ism and accept the stan... — Carmelics
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    Nominalists who reject thin-truth-ism and accept the standard criterion of ontological commitment must adopt either a paraphrase view or a fictionalist view of mathematical sentences.

    Truth & Knowledge
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    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Thin-truth-ism is rejected.
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    • 2.The standard criterion of ontological commitment is accepted.
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    • 3.Mathematical sentences like '3 is prime' appear to commit us to the existence of abstract objects.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Hartry Field's error theory demonstrates a third option: mathematical sentences are systematically false, yet indispensable for representing physical structure.
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    • 2.A nominalist can accept that '3 is prime' is literally false while explaining its instrumental utility without paraphrase or fictionalist pretense.
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    • 3.Error theory thus escapes the dichotomy by denying mathematical sentences have truth-apt content requiring ontological commitment.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Quine's criterion of ontological commitment applies only to sentences in our best confirmed scientific theories, not to all grammatically well-formed sentences.
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    • 2.A nominalist can argue, following Jody Azzouni, that mathematical vocabulary is 'ontologically deflating'—its surface grammar does not trigger Quinean commitment.
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    • 3.If the criterion is domain-restricted rather than universal, the forced dichotomy between paraphrase and fictionalism dissolves without abandoning thin-truth-ism's rejection.
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    Topics

    Philosophy of LanguageTruth & Knowledge

    Key Terms

    Mathematical sentences(what the statement is about)
    Statements written in mathematical language, like 'two plus two equals four' or more complex equations and theorems.
    criterion of ontological commitment(Used by Quinean nominalists to respond to the One Over Many argument, but also deployed in the singular term argument for platonism)
    A principle, associated with Quine, by which one is ontologically committed to the entities over which one's first-order quantifiers range
    fictionalist view(One variety of nominalism)
    A nominalist position according to which the Platonist claim (P) is not equivalent to the nominalist datum (N), treating apparent reference to universals as fictional or non-literal
    nominalists(as the subject of the statement)
    Philosophers who believe that only concrete, individual things exist (like this specific red apple), and that abstract concepts like 'redness' or 'justice' aren't real things—they're just words we use to group similar objects together.
    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.
    paraphrase view(One of two general nominalist strategies, contrasted with fictionalism)
    The nominalist strategy of holding that mathematical sentences are true but should be read via alternative paraphrases that do not commit the speaker to the existence of abstract objects.
    thin-truth-ism(Philosophy of mathematics and metaontology)
    A view on which existential expressions (quantifiers) like 'there is' are ambiguous, such that sentences like 'There are infinitely many prime numbers' can be literally true without committing to the existence of the entities quantified over.

    Related

    A nominalist can accept that '3 is prime' is literally false while explaining it...A nominalist can argue, following Jody Azzouni, that mathematical vocabulary is ...Error theory thus escapes the dichotomy by denying mathematical sentences have t...Hartry Field's error theory demonstrates a third option: mathematical sentences ...
    +5 moreShow less
    If the criterion is domain-restricted rather than universal, the forced dichotom...Mathematical sentences like '3 is prime' appear to commit us to the existence of...

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: platonism
    View source passageHide passage
    In any event, if we reject thin-truth-ism — i.e., if we accept premise (1) and the standard criterion of ontological commitment — then there are two general strategies that nominalists can adopt in giving a view of mathematical sentences like ‘3 is prime’. First, they can endorse a paraphrase view, and second, they can endorse a fictionalist view. Those who endorse paraphrase views claim that while sentences like ‘3 is prime’ are true, they should not be read as platonists read them, because we
    Extraction notes

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

    Details

    Quine's criterion of ontological commitment applies only to sentences in our bes...
    The standard criterion of ontological commitment is accepted.
    Thin-truth-ism is rejected.

    Similar

    Nominalists can reject the standard criterion of ontological commitmen...88%If thin-truth-ism is coherent, then the standard ontological commitmen...86%By the criterion of ontological commitment, accepting a sentence as tr...82%The criterion of ontological commitment holds that existential commitm...81%
    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit