Philosophical Studies

, Volume 141, Issue 1, pp 7–19 | Cite as

Truthmaker commitments

Article
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Abstract

On the truthmaker view of ontological commitment [Heil (From an ontological point of view, 2003); Armstrong (Truth and truthmakers, 2004); Cameron (Philosophical Studies, 2008)], a theory is committed to the entities needed in the world for the theory to be made true. I argue that this view puts truthmaking to the wrong task. None of the leading accounts of truthmaking—via necessitation, supervenience, or grounding—can provide a viable measure of ontological commitment. But the grounding account does provide a needed constraint on what is fundamental. So I conclude that truthmaker commitments are not a rival to quantifier commitments, but a needed complement. The quantifier commitments are what a theory says exists, while the truthmaker commitments are what a theory says is fundamental.

Keywords

Truthmaker Commitment Grounding Fundamental 
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Notes

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Ross Cameron, Matti Eklund, and the audience at Ontological Commitment in Sydney.

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2008

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Philosophy RSSSAustralian National UniversityCanberraAustralia

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