“On What There Is”
E81089
“On What There Is” is a seminal philosophical essay by W.V.O. Quine that challenges traditional notions of ontology and argues for a criterion of ontological commitment based on the quantificational structure of our best scientific theories.
Aliases (2)
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
academic article
→
philosophical essay → |
| arguesAgainst |
traditional metaphysical ontology
→
uncritical acceptance of abstract entities → |
| author |
W. V. O. Quine
→
Willard Van Orman Quine → |
| centralThesis |
our ontological commitments are determined by what our best theories quantify over
→
questions of what there is are to be settled by examining the quantificational structure of our theories → |
| containsCharacter |
McX
→
Wyman → |
| countryOfPublication |
United States
→
|
| critiques |
Alexius Meinong's theory of objects
→
|
| field |
metaphysics
→
ontology → philosophy → philosophy of language → |
| hasNotableQuote |
To be is to be the value of a bound variable.
→
|
| hasSection |
critique of Meinongian ontology
→
|
| influenced |
analytic metaphysics
→
ontological debates in analytic philosophy → philosophy of language in the 20th century → theories of ontological commitment → |
| influencedBy |
Bertrand Russell
→
Rudolf Carnap → logical empiricism → logical positivism → |
| isConsidered |
classic text in analytic metaphysics
→
seminal essay on ontological commitment → |
| language |
English
→
|
| mainTopic |
abstract objects
→
existence → logical analysis of language → nominalism → ontological commitment → ontology → paraphrase in philosophy → quantification → universals → |
| methodologicalApproach |
logical analysis of formalized language
→
|
| philosophicalTradition |
analytic philosophy
→
|
| proposes |
criterion of ontological commitment based on bound variables of quantification
→
|
| publicationYear |
1948
→
|
| publishedIn |
Review of Metaphysics
→
|
| relatedWorkByAuthor |
Two Dogmas of Empiricism
→
Word and Object → |
| supportsView |
ontological relativity to a background theory
→
|
| usesExample |
Pegasus
→
fictional entities → mythical creatures → |
Referenced by (3)
| Subject (surface form when different) | Predicate |
|---|---|
|
From a Logical Point of View
("essay "On What There Is"")
→
|
hasPart |
|
From a Logical Point of View
("On What There Is")
→
|
notableEssay |
|
Willard Van Orman Quine
→
|
notableWork |