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    Carmelics

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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
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    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that Possibilism can account for the truth of claims about merely possible individuals such as a possible child of Portman and Bush.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 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.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Merely possible individuals lack any identity conditions that would distinguish one from another, making quantification over them incoherent.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 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.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 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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    Strongest counterpoint
    Explore the most compelling reason on the other side.