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Full Idea
It would be difficult to understand the popularity of 'abstract entities' - numbers, sets, propositions - in the absence of an implicit acknowledgement of the importance of truthmakers.
Gist of Idea
Abstract objects wouldn't be very popular without the implicit idea of truthmakers
Source
John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 08.07)
Book Ref
Heil,John: 'The Universe as We Find It' [OUP 2012], p.170
A Reaction
I love Idea 18496, because it leads us towards a better account of modality, but dislike this one because it reveals that the truthmaking idea has led us to a very poor theory. Truthmaking is a good question, but not much of an answer?
Related Ideas
Idea 18496 If possible worlds are just fictions, they can't be truthmakers for modal judgements [Heil]
Idea 18497 Many reject 'moral realism' because they can't see any truthmakers for normative judgements [Heil]
| 10320 | If a genuine singular term needs a criterion of identity, we must exclude abstract nouns [Dummett, by Hale] |
| 10547 | Abstract objects can never be confronted, and need verbal phrases for reference [Dummett] |
| 9872 | Abstract objects need the context principle, since they can't be encountered directly [Dummett] |
| 18213 | Abstract objects are only applicable to the world if they are impure, and connect to the physical [Field,H] |
| 18498 | Abstract objects wouldn't be very popular without the implicit idea of truthmakers [Heil] |
| 10315 | We can't believe in a 'whereabouts' because we ask 'what kind of object is it?' [Hale] |
| 8915 | How we refer to abstractions is much less clear than how we refer to other things [Rosen] |