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Full Idea
Fifty years ago, Quine convinced everyone who cared that the argument for abstract objects, if there were going to be one, would have to be a posteriori in nature; an argument that numbers, for example, are indispensable entities for 'total science'.
Gist of Idea
Quine's indispensability argument said arguments for abstracta were a posteriori
Source
report of Willard Quine (On What There Is [1948], §1) by Stephen Yablo - Apriority and Existence
Book Ref
'New Essays on the A Priori', ed/tr. Boghossian,P /Peacocke,C [OUP 2000], p.196
A Reaction
This sets the scene for the modern debate on the a priori. The claim that abstractions are indispensable for a factual account of the physical world strikes me as highly implausible.
8856 | Quine's indispensability argument said arguments for abstracta were a posteriori [Quine, by Yablo] |
2796 | For Quine the only way to know a necessity is empirically [Quine, by Dancy,J] |
5476 | Essentialists say natural laws are in a new category: necessary a posteriori [Ellis] |
9174 | It is necessary that this table is not made of ice, but we don't know it a priori [Kripke] |
2408 | Kripke has demonstrated that some necessary truths are only knowable a posteriori [Kripke, by Chalmers] |
4960 | "'Hesperus' is 'Phosphorus'" is necessarily true, if it is true, but not known a priori [Kripke] |
4966 | Theoretical identities are between rigid designators, and so are necessary a posteriori [Kripke] |
14631 | How can you show the necessity of an a posteriori necessity, if it might turn out to be false? [Jackson] |
16421 | Critics say there are just an a priori necessary part, and an a posteriori contingent part [Stalnaker] |
15171 | The necessary a posteriori is statements either of identity or of essence [Sidelle] |