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Full Idea
In the quantification '(∃)(x=a)', it is the existential quantifier, not the 'a' itself, which carries the existential import.
Gist of Idea
Existence is implied by the quantifiers, not by the constants
Source
Willard Quine (Existence and Quantification [1966], p.94)
Book Ref
Quine,Willard: 'Ontological Relativity and Other Essays' [Columbia 1969], p.94
A Reaction
The Fregean idea seems to be that the criterion of existence is participation in an equality, but here the equality seems not more than assigning a name. Why can't I quantify over 'sakes', in 'for the sake of the children'?
5745 | Quine says quantified modal logic creates nonsense, bad ontology, and false essentialism [Melia on Quine] |
8789 | Various strategies try to deal with the ontological commitments of second-order logic [Hale/Wright on Quine] |
4216 | Express a theory in first-order predicate logic; its ontology is the types of bound variable needed for truth [Quine, by Lowe] |
14490 | You can be implicitly committed to something without quantifying over it [Thomasson on Quine] |
16966 | Philosophers tend to distinguish broad 'being' from narrower 'existence' - but I reject that [Quine] |
18966 | Ontological commitment of theories only arise if they are classically quantified [Quine] |
16961 | In formal terms, a category is the range of some style of variables [Quine] |
16963 | Existence is implied by the quantifiers, not by the constants [Quine] |
16964 | Theories are committed to objects of which some of its predicates must be true [Quine] |
16965 | All we have of general existence is what existential quantifiers express [Quine] |