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Full Idea
Ontology is doubly relative. Specifying the universe of a theory makes sense only relative to some background theory, and only relative to some choice of a manual of translation of one theory into another.
Gist of Idea
Ontology is relative to both a background theory and a translation manual
Source
Willard Quine (Ontological Relativity [1968], p.54)
Book Ref
Quine,Willard: 'Ontological Relativity and Other Essays' [Columbia 1969], p.54
A Reaction
People tend to forget about the double nature of Quine's notion of ontological commitment, and usually only talk about the commitment of the theory being employed. Why is the philosophical community not devoting itself to the study of tranlation manuals?
| 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] |