Full Idea
Naïve translation from natural language into formal language can obscure necessary ontology as easily as it can create superfluous ontological commitment. …The lion's share of metaphysical work is done when settling on the right translation.
Gist of Idea
Naïve translation from natural to formal language can hide or multiply the ontology
Source
Tim Maudlin (The Metaphysics within Physics [2007], 3.1)
Book Reference
Maudlin,Tim: 'The Metaphysics within Physics' [OUP 2007], p.82
A Reaction
I suspect this is more than a mere problem of 'naivety', but may be endemic to the whole enterprise. If you hammer a square peg into a round hole, you expect to lose something. Language is subtle, logic is crude.