Logic and Ontological Pluralism

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31 Scopus citations

Abstract

Ontological pluralism is the doctrine that there are different ways or modes of being. In contemporary guise, it is the doctrine that a logically perspicuous description of reality will use multiple quantifiers which cannot be thought of as ranging over a single domain. Although thought defeated for some time, recent defenses have shown a number of arguments against the view unsound. However, another worry looms: that despite looking like an attractive alternative, ontological pluralism is really no different than its counterpart, ontological monism. In this paper, after explaining the worry in detail, I argue that considerations dealing with the nature of the logic ontological pluralists ought to endorse, coupled with an attractive philosophical thesis about the relationship between logic and metaphysics, show this worry to be unfounded.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)419-448
Number of pages30
JournalJournal of Philosophical Logic
Volume41
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 2012
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Free logic
  • Logical realism
  • Many-sorted logic
  • Metaphysics
  • Notational variants
  • Ontological pluralism
  • Ontology

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Philosophy

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