W.V.O. Quine on What There Is

• Authors: Grobler A.
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The paper considers Quine's maxim: 'To be is to be the value of a variable'. After some remarks on the actual and possible Polish translations of ontological commitment, an analysis of the doctrine follows. In conclusion, Quine's restriction of ontology to the possible referents of terms, to the exclusion of the possible referents of predicates, is claimed unjustified, both in the light of subsequent development of Quine's thought and in the light of empiricism in general. Next, an attempt is made to account for the question of the referents of predicates in the framework of empiricism. A solution is sketched in terms of a revision of the so-called syntagmatic presuppositions. In this account, Quine's maxim is generalized to 'to be is to satisfy a syntagmatic presupposition'.

Keywords

EN

LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS; ONTOLOGICAL COMMITMENT; PREDICATE; QUINE WILLARD VAN ORMAN; SYNTAGMATIC PRESUPPOSITIONS

Discipline

• PHILOSOPHY: PHILOSOPHY

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk
• Journal: Przegląd Filozoficzny. Nowa Seria
• Year: 2008
• Volume: 17
• Issue: 4(68)
• Pages: 137-145
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Grobler A.

• A. Grobler, Uniwersytet Opolski, Instytut Filozofii, ul. Plebiscytowa 5, 45-359 Opole, Poland

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

09PLAAAA06415