Azzouni, Jody - Deflating Existential Consequence: A Case for Nominalism

Philosophy—at least that tradition of it I choose to work within—has at best an uneasy relationship with ontology. Carnap, notoriously, denied that genuine ontological questions (and purported optional answers to these questions) are meaningful, and this viewpoint is one that continues to be a live possibility (or at least a serious temptation) for contemporary philosophers. On the other hand, Quine's criterion for what a discourse is committed to is widely (and uncritically) adopted despite an official disagreement over what it amounts to, and whether a coherent version of it is even available.¹