more from Willard Quine

Single Idea 16965

[catalogued under 7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 6. Criterion for Existence]

Full Idea

Existence is what existential quantification expresses. …It is unreasonable to ask for an explication of (general) existence in simpler terms. …We may still ask what counts as evidence for existential quantifications.

Gist of Idea

All we have of general existence is what existential quantifiers express

Source

Willard Quine (Existence and Quantification [1966], p.97)

Book Reference

Quine,Willard: 'Ontological Relativity and Other Essays' [Columbia 1969], p.97


A Reaction

This has been orthodoxy for the last 60 years, with philosophers talking of 'quantifying over' instead of 'exists'. But are we allowed second-order logic, and plural quantification, and vague domains?