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    Carmelics

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    Made withinDC&Austin
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    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that Quine's indispensability criterion demands that ontological commitment track explanatory necessity, not conceptual convenience.

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

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.The distinction between explanatory necessity and conceptual convenience is itself vague and theory-laden, not objectively determinate.
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    • 2.Mathematical objects appear indispensable to our best physics explanations, challenging whether the criterion excludes abstracts coherently.
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    • 3.What counts as 'necessary' for explanation depends on background assumptions that vary across epistemic frameworks and contexts.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Scientific theories commit us only to entities genuinely required by their best explanations, not mere mathematical conveniences.
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    • 2.Distinguishing explanatory necessity from conceptual convenience prevents ontological bloat and maintains parsimony principles.
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    • 3.Entities like numbers may be conceptually useful but explanatorily dispensable if science can be reformulated without them.
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