Combining Texts

All the ideas for '67: Platonic Questions', 'Abstract Objects' and 'Existence and Quantification'

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34 ideas

1. Philosophy / F. Analytic Philosophy / 5. Linguistic Analysis
Questions about objects are questions about certain non-vacuous singular terms [Hale]
2. Reason / D. Definition / 12. Paraphrase
An expression is a genuine singular term if it resists elimination by paraphrase [Hale]
4. Formal Logic / D. Modal Logic ML / 1. Modal Logic
Quine says quantified modal logic creates nonsense, bad ontology, and false essentialism [Melia on Quine]
5. Theory of Logic / A. Overview of Logic / 7. Second-Order Logic
Various strategies try to deal with the ontological commitments of second-order logic [Hale/Wright on Quine]
5. Theory of Logic / F. Referring in Logic / 1. Naming / d. Singular terms
We should decide whether singular terms are genuine by their usage [Hale]
Often the same singular term does not ensure reliable inference [Hale]
Plenty of clear examples have singular terms with no ontological commitment [Hale]
If singular terms can't be language-neutral, then we face a relativity about their objects [Hale]
7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 3. Being / b. Being and existence
Philosophers tend to distinguish broad 'being' from narrower 'existence' - but I reject that [Quine]
7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 6. Criterion for Existence
All we have of general existence is what existential quantifiers express [Quine]
7. Existence / C. Structure of Existence / 7. Abstract/Concrete / a. Abstract/concrete
The abstract/concrete distinction is based on what is perceivable, causal and located [Hale]
Colours and points seem to be both concrete and abstract [Hale]
The abstract/concrete distinction is in the relations in the identity-criteria of object-names [Hale]
Token-letters and token-words are concrete objects, type-letters and type-words abstract [Hale]
7. Existence / C. Structure of Existence / 7. Abstract/Concrete / b. Levels of abstraction
There is a hierarchy of abstraction, based on steps taken by equivalence relations [Hale]
7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 11. Ontological Commitment / b. Commitment of quantifiers
Existence is implied by the quantifiers, not by the constants [Quine]
7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 11. Ontological Commitment / c. Commitment of predicates
Theories are committed to objects of which some of its predicates must be true [Quine]
7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 11. Ontological Commitment / d. Commitment of theories
Express a theory in first-order predicate logic; its ontology is the types of bound variable needed for truth [Quine, by Lowe]
Ontological commitment of theories only arise if they are classically quantified [Quine]
7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 11. Ontological Commitment / e. Ontological commitment problems
You can be implicitly committed to something without quantifying over it [Thomasson on Quine]
7. Existence / E. Categories / 1. Categories
In formal terms, a category is the range of some style of variables [Quine]
8. Modes of Existence / D. Universals / 1. Universals
If F can't have location, there is no problem of things having F in different locations [Hale]
It is doubtful if one entity, a universal, can be picked out by both predicates and abstract nouns [Hale]
Realists take universals to be the referrents of both adjectives and of nouns [Hale]
8. Modes of Existence / E. Nominalism / 1. Nominalism / c. Nominalism about abstracta
Objections to Frege: abstracta are unknowable, non-independent, unstatable, unindividuated [Hale]
9. Objects / A. Existence of Objects / 2. Abstract Objects / a. Nature of abstracta
Shapes and directions are of something, but games and musical compositions are not [Hale]
Many abstract objects, such as chess, seem non-spatial, but are not atemporal [Hale]
If the mental is non-spatial but temporal, then it must be classified as abstract [Hale]
Being abstract is based on a relation between things which are spatially separated [Hale]
9. Objects / A. Existence of Objects / 2. Abstract Objects / c. Modern abstracta
The modern Fregean use of the term 'object' is much broader than the ordinary usage [Hale]
9. Objects / A. Existence of Objects / 2. Abstract Objects / d. Problems with abstracta
We can't believe in a 'whereabouts' because we ask 'what kind of object is it?' [Hale]
9. Objects / F. Identity among Objects / 1. Concept of Identity
The relations featured in criteria of identity are always equivalence relations [Hale]
9. Objects / F. Identity among Objects / 3. Relative Identity
We sometimes apply identity without having a real criterion [Hale]
15. Nature of Minds / A. Nature of Mind / 2. Psuche
When the soul is intelligent and harmonious, it is part of god and derives from god [Plutarch]