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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 Quinean criteria are not biased but are methodologically neutral: they simply reflect what a given theory quantifies over, leaving realists free to quantify over universals.

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    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.The framework privileges parsimony and empirical adequacy—values that systematically favor nominalism over realist ontologies.
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    • 2.Allowing universal quantification over universals requires additional theoretical machinery that the criterion penalizes indirectly.
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    • 3.A truly neutral method would not embed implicit commitments to physicalism or preference for sparse ontologies in its formulation.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
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    • 1.Quinean criteria merely describe what entities a theory commits to, without prescribing which ontology is correct.
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    • 2.Realists and nominalists can both apply the same quantificational test; the method itself permits multiple ontological conclusions.
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    • 3.Neutrality consists in providing a tool agnostic about outcomes, not in forcing particular metaphysical conclusions.
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