Amie L. Thomasson Ontology Made Easy

Amie L. Thomasson Ontology Made Easy

Author: Amie L. Thomasson

Year: 1900

Introduction: The Forgotten Easy Approach 1 I.1. The Historical Backstory 4 I.2. The Rise of Neo-Quineanism 13 I.3. The Easy Approach to Ontology: A Preliminary Sketch 20 I.4. The Plan of This Book 22 PART I DEVELOPING EASY ONTOLOGY 1. Whatever Happened to Carnapian Deflationism? 29 1.1. Carnap’s Approach to Existence Questions 30 1.2. Quine and the Ascendency of Ontology 45 1.3. Putnam Takes Deflationism on an Unfortunate Turn 56 1.4. ‘Exists’ as a Formal Notion: A Brief History 63 1.5. Is Carnap Committed to Quantifier Variance? 69 1.6. Conclusion 80 2. The Unbearable Lightness of Existence 82 2.1. A Core Rule of Use for ‘Exists’ 83 2.2. What Are Application Conditions? 89 2.3. Do Application Conditions for ‘K’ Include That Ks Exist? 96 2.4. Answering Existence Questions Easily 112 2.5. Against Substantive Criteria of Existence 115 2.6. Lines of Reply 122 3. Easy Ontology and Its Consequences 127 3.1. Using Trivial Inferences to Answer Existence Questions 129 3.2. Three Forms of Easy Ontology 132 3.3. First Result: Simple Realism 145 3.4. Second Result: Metaontological Deflationism 158 4. Other Ways of Being Suspicious 161 4.1. Denying That Ontological Disputes Are Genuine Disput