Dresden University of Technology
Quantifiers, Grounds, and Ontological Commitment
According to the quantifier approach to ontological commitment, ontological commitment is a function of the existential quantifier: what entities a theory is committed to depends on which true existentially quantified claims are true, and ultimately which entities are in the domain of quantification. The main competitor to this approach is the truthmaker account of ontological commitment. On this account, the ontological commitments of some statement “p” are given by the truthmaker for “p.” Proponents of truthmaker accounts argue that their view overcomes the challenges faced by Quinean orthodoxy, which ties ontological commitment to the existential quantifier. They contend that their Quinean rival fails to account for cases in which ontological commitment and true existential quantification come apart. In this paper, I articulate and argue for a version of the quantifier approach to ontological commitment that escapes the main objections critics have leveled against it.