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Full Idea
We can add to the Quinean advice to believe the ontology of your best theory that you should also regard the ideology of your best theory as carving at the joints.
Gist of Idea
Accept the ontology of your best theory - and also that it carves nature at the joints
Source
Theodore Sider (Writing the Book of the World [2011], 02.3)
Book Ref
Sider,Theodore: 'Writing the Book of the World' [OUP 2011], p.12
A Reaction
I've never liked the original Quinean formulation, but this is much better. I just take my ontological commitments to reside in me, not in whatever theory I am currently employing. I may be dubious about my own theory.
| 4216 | Express a theory in first-order predicate logic; its ontology is the types of bound variable needed for truth [Quine, by Lowe] |
| 18966 | Ontological commitment of theories only arise if they are classically quantified [Quine] |
| 8459 | Fictional quantification has no ontology, so we study ontology through scientific theories [Quine, by Orenstein] |
| 8497 | An ontology is like a scientific theory; we accept the simplest scheme that fits disorderly experiences [Quine] |
| 18964 | Ontology is relative to both a background theory and a translation manual [Quine] |
| 3325 | For Quine everything exists theoretically, as reference, predication and quantification [Quine, by Benardete,JA] |
| 15002 | If the best theory of adverbs refers to events, then our ontology should include events [Davidson, by Sider] |
| 18505 | Fundamental ontology aims at the preconditions for any true theory [Heil] |
| 14983 | Accept the ontology of your best theory - and also that it carves nature at the joints [Sider] |
| 16258 | To get an ontology from ontological commitment, just add that some theory is actually true [Maudlin] |
| 14489 | Theories do not avoid commitment to entities by avoiding certain terms or concepts [Thomasson] |