Abstract
Let “explanationism” be the view that ontology is fundamentally an explanatory enterprise. What it does is “on a par” with natural science, as Quine put it. Carnap appears to offer a “lighter weight” alternative in “Empiricism, Semantics, and Ontology”: ontology is concerned with semantics and language choice. This paper argues that Carnap’s account of the internal/external distinction is of less use than Carnap suggests for diagnosis of disputes in ontology. But he largely agrees with Quine about explanationism. I propose that explanationism is an attractive metametaphysical position between “heavy weight” and “light weight” views. Its method is abductive inference, which is broader than “light weight” methods. Since it is “on a par” with natural science, ontology contributes nothing beyond the claim that what there is, is what our best theories say there is. Hence, it is not “heavy weight”.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Armstrong, D. M. (1978). Universals and scientific realism: Nominalism and realism (Vol. 1). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bacon, J. (1995). Universals and property instances. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Benovsky, J. (2014). Tropes or universals: How (not) to make one’s choice. Metaphilosophy, 45(1), 69–86.
Carnap, R. (1934). Logische Syntax der Sprache. Springer, Vienna. English translation by Amethé Smeaton, Countess von Zeppelin, under the title The Logical Syntax of Language, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, and Co., 1937.
Carnap, R. (1955). Meaning and synonymy in natural languages. Philosophical Studies, 6(3), 33–47.
Carnap, R. (1956a). Empiricism, semantics, and ontology. In Meaning and necessity: A study in semantics and modal logic (pp. 205–21). University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL. Appendix A; original publication in Revue Internationale de Philosophie, v.4, 1950, pp. 20-40.
Carnap, R. (1956b). Meaning and necessity: A study in semantics and modal logic. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Cartwright, N. (1983). How the laws of physics lie. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Davidson, D. (1980a). Mental events. In Essays on actions and events (pp. 207–224). Oxford University Press, New York. Originally published in Foster and Swanson, eds., Experience and Theory, University of Massachusets Press, 1970, (pp. 240-260).
Davidson, D. (1980b). Toward a unified theory of meaning and action. Grazer Philosophische Studien, 11, 1–12.
Davidson, D. (1984). Inquiries into truth and interpretation. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Douven, I. (2022). The art of abduction. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Ebbs, G. (2019). Carnap on analyticity and existence: A clarification, defense, and development of Quine’s reading of Carnap’s views on ontology. Journal for the History of Analytical Philosophy, 7(5), 1–31.
Edwards, D. (2014). Properties. Polity Press.
Field, H. (1980). Science without numbers: A defence of nominalism. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Fine, K. (2001). The question of realism. Philosopher’s Imprint, 1(1), 1–30.
Flocke, V. (2020). Carnap’s noncognitivism about ontology. Noûs, 54(3), 527–548.
Flocke, V., & Ritchie, K. (2022). No “easy” answers to ontological category questions. Philosophical Perspectives, 36(1), 78–94.
Forbes, G. (1983). Physicalism, instrumentalism and the semantics of modal logic. Journal of Philosophical Logic, 12(3), 271–298.
Garzón, P. C., & Keijzer, F. (2009). Cognition in plants. In F. Baluška (Ed.), Plant-Environment Interactions: From Sensory Plant Biology to Active Plant Behavior (pp. 247–266). Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer.
Geuss, R. (1981). The idea of a critical theory. Cambridge University Press.
Goodman, N., & Quine, W. V. O. (1947). Steps toward a constructive nominalism. The Journal of Symbolic Logic, 12(4), 105–122.
Hale, B. (2012). Properties and the interpretation of second-order logic. Philosophia Mathematica, 21, 133–156.
Haslanger, S. (2000). Gender and race: (What) are they? (what) do we want them to be? Noûs, 34(1), 31–55.
Hylton, P., & Kemp, G. (2022). Willard Van Orman Quine. In E. N. Zalta, & U. Nodelman (Eds.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, Fall 2022 edition.
Kraut, R. (2016). Three Carnaps on ontology. In S. Blatti & S. Lapointe (Eds.), Ontology after Carnap (pp. 31–58). Oxford University Press.
Lewis, D. (1983). New work for a theory of universals. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 61(4), 343–377.
Nolan, D. P. (2002). Topics in the philosophy of possible worlds. New York and London: Routledge.
Price, H. (2009). Metaphysics after Carnap: The ghost who walks? In D. J. Chalmers, D. Manley, & R. Wasserman (Eds.), Metametaphysics: New Essays on the Foundations of Ontology (pp. 320–346). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Quine, W. V. O. (1948). On what there is. Review of Metaphysics, 2(5), 21–38.
Quine, W. V. O. (1951a). On Carnap’s views on ontology. Philosophical Studies, 2(5), 65–72.
Quine, W. V. O. (1951b). Two dogmas of empiricism. The Journal of Philosophy, 60(1), 20–43.
Quine, W. V. O. (1960). Word and Object. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Quine, W. V. O. (1981). Things and their place in theories. Theories and things (pp. 1–23). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Schaffer, J. (2009). On what grounds what. In D. J. Chalmers, D. Manley, & R. Wasserman (Eds.), Metametaphysics: New essays on the foundations of ontology (pp. 347–383). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Schiffer, S. (1996). Language-created language-independent entities. Philosophical Topics, 24(1), 149–167.
Sider, T. (2006). Bare particulars. Philosophical Perspectives, 20, 387–397.
Sider, T. (2012). Writing the book of the world. Oxford University Pres.
Sider, T. (2022). Dasgupta’s detonation. Philosophical Perspectives 36(1), 292–304.
Stroud, B. (1984). The significance of philosophical scepticism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Thomasson, A. L. (2015). Ontology made easy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Thomasson, A. L. (2016). What can we do, when we do metaphysics? In G. D’Oro, & S. Overgaard, (Eds.), Cambridge Companion to Philosophical Methodology (pp. 101–120). Cambridge University Press. Available at author’s website: https://www.amiethomasson.org/publications
van Fraassen, B. (1980). The scientific image. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
van Inwagen, P. (2004). A theory of properties. In D. Zimmerman (Ed.), Oxford studies in metaphysics (Vol. 1, pp. 107–138). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Williamson, T. (2016). Abductive philosophy. The Philosophical Forum (pp 263–280).
Yablo, S. (1998). Does ontology rest on a mistake? Proceedings of the Aristotelian society - supplementary, 72(1), 229–261.
Acknowledgements
Many thanks for very helpful comments from Vera Flocke, Kirk Ludwig, Caterina Dutilh Novaes, Gary Ebbs and Seyed Mohammad Yarandi, and, especially and particularly, from an anonymous referee for this journal.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The author declares no competing interests.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Dardis, A. Carnap and Quine on Explanationism in Ontology. Acta Anal 39, 19–36 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12136-023-00558-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12136-023-00558-z