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Single Idea 8301

[filed under theme 7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 11. Ontological Commitment / a. Ontological commitment ]

Full Idea

Some abstract objects, notably certain universals, need to be invoked for explanatory purposes, even if it cannot be said that they themselves possess causal powers or enter into causal relations.

Gist of Idea

Some abstractions exist despite lacking causal powers, because explanation needs them

Source

E.J. Lowe (The Possibility of Metaphysics [1998], 10.2)

Book Ref

Lowe,E.J.: 'The Possibility of Metaphysics' [OUP 2001], p.213

A Reaction

I am unconvinced that an entity with no causal powers could be any kind of explanation, given that, by definition, it can't do anything. You would have to think that the world of pure reason functioned without the aid of causal powers.

The 21 ideas with the same theme [nature of existence commitments]:

10784 Whenever there's speech it has to be about something [Plato]
13879 For Frege, ontological questions are to be settled by reference to syntactic structures [Frege, by Wright,C]
6060 'Existence' means that a propositional function is sometimes true [Russell]
13938 A linguistic framework involves commitment to entities, so only commitment to the framework is in question [Carnap]
19485 Names have no ontological commitment, because we can deny that they name anything [Quine]
11101 General terms don't commit us ontologically, but singular terms with substitution do [Quine]
8496 What actually exists does not, of course, depend on language [Quine]
10667 A logically perfect language could express all truths, so all truths must be logically expressible [Quine, by Hossack]
15785 Our commitments are to an 'ontology', but also to an 'ideology', or conceptual system [Hintikka]
10548 The context principle for names rules out a special philosophical sense for 'existence' [Dummett]
10281 The objects we recognise the world as containing depends on the structure of our language [Dummett]
18211 You can reduce ontological commitment by expanding the logic [Field,H]
12226 The identity of Pegasus with Pegasus may be true, despite the non-existence [Hale/Wright]
7678 Ontology must include the minimum requirements for our semantics [Jacquette]
8258 Two of the main rivals for the foundations of ontology are substances, and facts or states-of-affairs [Lowe]
8301 Some abstractions exist despite lacking causal powers, because explanation needs them [Lowe]
12449 Modern metaphysics often derives ontology from the logical forms of sentences [Azzouni]
10643 We speak of a theory's 'ideological commitments' as well as its 'ontological commitments' [Linnebo]
10668 We are committed to a 'group' of children, if they are sitting in a circle [Hossack]
14491 Rival ontological claims can both be true, if there are analytic relationships between them [Thomasson]
18770 We can distinguish 'ontological' from 'existential' commitment, for different kinds of being [Anderson,CA]