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Full Idea
Quine's well-known slogan "no entity without identity" means that no object should be admitted into our ontology unless its identity conditions, the conditions that say which object it is, have been settled.
Clarification
Our 'ontology' is what we believe exists
Gist of Idea
"No entity without identity" - our ontology must contain items with settled identity conditions
Source
report of Willard Quine (Speaking of Objects [1960]) by Joseph Melia - Modality Ch.4
Book Ref
Melia,Joseph: 'Modality' [Acumen 2003], p.95
A Reaction
This invites science fiction scenarios, where we admit the existence of something before we have a clue what it is (whether it is physical, hallucination, divine..). Quine's slogan seems attractive but optimistic. How 'settled'?
| 2611 | It is currently held that quantifying over something implies belief in its existence [Ayer] |
| 19486 | We can use quantification for commitment to unnameable things like the real numbers [Quine] |
| 16963 | Existence is implied by the quantifiers, not by the constants [Quine] |
| 1610 | To be is to be the value of a variable, which amounts to being in the range of reference of a pronoun [Quine] |
| 5747 | "No entity without identity" - our ontology must contain items with settled identity conditions [Quine, by Melia] |
| 10700 | First- and second-order quantifiers are two ways of referring to the same things [Boolos] |
| 13877 | Singular terms in true sentences must refer to objects; there is no further question about their existence [Wright,C] |
| 12213 | Ontological claims are often universal, and not a matter of existential quantification [Fine,K] |
| 12440 | If objectual quantifiers ontologically commit, so does the metalanguage for its semantics [Azzouni] |