Logic and Metaphysics - A

The methodology of ontology.

The key question of ontology, i.e., the core of metaphysics, for Quine is: ‘What is there?’. The key question of metaontology is: ‘What do we mean when we ask “What is there?”’. Additionally, metaontology is about the methodology of ontology.  Should we do it via conceptual analysis? Thought experiments? By looking at our best natural science? By systematizing our intuitions? By examining language use?

Having a sound methodology is part of what makes a discipline serious, and ontology and metaphysics are in bad need of seriousness, having probably the worst press among researchers who are nonphilosophers, of all the parts of philosophy.

This course introduces to metaontology, which encompasses a good deal of the most interesting metaphysical research of the XXI Century. In its first part, we will look at the mainstream view, namely Quinean metaontology, and we will discuss two variants: ontological pluralism and neo-Fregeanism. In its second part, we will present  alternative metaontologies, ordering them, roughly, from those that depart less from the mainstream view to those that do it more radically: neo-Carnapianism and deflationism, fictionalism, Meinongianism, grounding theory, naturalized metaphysics. In its third part, we will discuss two applications and case studies: the ontology of possible worlds, which make for the core notion of contemporary modal logic, and that of fictional objects.

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In presence

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Evaluation method: essay.