Skip to content

Topics Thinkers Changes ContributorsLoading account…

Carmelics

A reasoning platform. Break down any belief into clear reasons, explore both sides, and weigh the evidence honestly.

Navigate

Topics
Search
Recent Changes
Contribute
How It Works
Glossary
Thinkers
Contributors
About
Statistics
Terms
Privacy

Database

Statements: —
Perspectives: —
Topics: —

Press ? for keyboard shortcuts

Made within

DC&

Austin

Statements: 321,452
Perspectives: 108,905
Topics: 42

Treating all posited entities as equally genuine collapse... — Carmelics

History Edit See Inverse

Part of a larger discussion

Challenges→Ontological pluralism is warranted: all entities, whatever their type, demand the same careful ontological scrutiny.

Treating all posited entities as equally genuine collapses the distinction between what exists and what merely subsists, undermining the explanatory work ontology is supposed to do.

?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.

1 reason for

1 reason against

Reasons For

1 perspective

Reason for

?

1.Ontology's primary function is explaining why some things causally matter and others don't; equating all entities erases this distinction.
?
Think about whether this reason is strong or weak
2.Numbers and fictional characters have fundamentally different modal properties than physical objects; treating them identically obscures real differences.
?
Think about whether this reason is strong or weak
3.Distinguishing existence from subsistence preserves theoretical parsimony by limiting causal responsibility to entities that actually produce effects.
?
Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

Reasons Against

1 perspective

Reason against

?

1.The existence/subsistence distinction is itself metaphysically obscure and may merely relocate rather than solve the ontological problem.
?
Think about whether this reason is strong or weak
2.Abstract objects like sets and propositions demonstrably do explanatory work in mathematics and logic despite lacking causal powers.
?
Think about whether this reason is strong or weak
3.Positing equal ontological status allows unified frameworks (e.g., category theory) that prove more powerful than hierarchical entity classification.
?
Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

Sign in or register to share your perspective on this statement.

Next step

Based on where you are in your exploration

Strongest counterpoint

Explore the most compelling reason on the other side.

Key Terms

Explanatory work(what a theory accomplishes in helping us understand the world): The job that something does in explaining or accounting for why things are the way they are—the actual work of making sense of phenomena.
Ontology(Carnap argues this enterprise is based on a mistake): The philosophical discipline that tries to answer hard questions about what there really is.
Subsists(as used in metaphysics): Exists or maintains existence, particularly in a specific way or dependent manner.
posited entities(as used in ontology and metaphysics): Things that someone assumes or proposes to exist, whether or not we have strong evidence for them.

Connections

2 topics

Truth & Knowledge1 linked Modality & Possibility1 linked

Related

Abstract objects like sets and propositions demonstrably do explanatory work in ...Distinguishing existence from subsistence preserves theoretical parsimony by lim...Numbers and fictional characters have fundamentally different modal properties t...Ontological pluralism is warranted: all entities, whatever their type, demand th...

+3 moreShow less

Ontology's primary function is explaining why some things causally matter and ot...Positing equal ontological status allows unified frameworks (e.g., category theo...

Details

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

The existence/subsistence distinction is itself metaphysically obscure and may m...