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    Possibilism can account for the truth of claims about mer... — Carmelics
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    Possibilism can account for the truth of claims about merely possible individuals such as a possible child of Portman and Bush.

    Modality & PossibilityPhilosophy of Language
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    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.The possibilist holds that what actually exists is a proper subset of what exists.
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    • 2.The most inclusive domain of quantification includes merely possible individuals.
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    • 3.There are things in this inclusive domain that are parented by Portman and Bush in some possible worlds.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
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    • 1.Quine argued that to be is to be the value of a bound variable, meaning existence is exhausted by what actually instantiates properties in the causal order.
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    • 2.Possibilism inflates ontology with entities that bear no causal or epistemic relations to us, violating the methodological principle that ontological commitment requires empirical or rational grounding.
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    • 3.A merely possible child of Portman and Bush is not distinguished from infinitely many other merely possible children, making singular reference to it an illusion rather than a genuine semantic achievement.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
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    • 1.Merely possible individuals lack any identity conditions that would distinguish one from another, making quantification over them incoherent.
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    • 2.Without determinate identity conditions, 'a possible child of Portman and Bush' fails to pick out any particular entity, undermining the possibilist's semantic project.
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    Topics

    Philosophy of LanguageModality & Possibility

    Related

    A merely possible child of Portman and Bush is not distinguished from infinitely...Merely possible individuals lack any identity conditions that would distinguish ...Possibilism inflates ontology with entities that bear no causal or epistemic rel...Quine argued that to be is to be the value of a bound variable, meaning existenc...
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    The most inclusive domain of quantification includes merely possible individuals...The possibilist holds that what actually exists is a proper subset of what exist...There are things in this inclusive domain that are parented by Portman and Bush ...Without determinate identity conditions, 'a possible child of Portman and Bush' ...

    Similar

    Plantinga's view can account for the truth of claims about a possible ...93%Linsky and Zalta's view can account for the truth of claims about a po...91%The BF instance is falsified by the case of Bergoglio's children78%The formula 'there exists an x such that x is possibly a child of Berg...78%

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    The possibilist maintains that what actually exists is a proper subset of what exists. So, while nothing in the domain of the actual world could have been Portman and Bush's child, there are things in the most inclusive domain of quantification, which includes merely possible individuals, that are parented by Portman and Bush in some possible worlds. On Plantinga's view, there is an uninstantiated individual essence that could have been instantiated and, had it been instantiated, it would have b
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    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit