Metaontological Skepticism
Metaontological Skepticism Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades der Philosophie an der Ludwigs-Maximilians-Universität München vorgelegt von Walter Swetly Referent: Prof. Godehard Link Korreferent: Professor Karl-Georg Niebergall Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 20.07.2009 Edward Hopper, Gas, Museum of Modern Art, New York Den Eltern zum Dank Acknowledgments This will be short and sweet. For their help by some means or other, I thank Anthony Everett, Andreas Foldenauer, Stasys Hiob, Thomas Hofweber, Herbert Huber, Hannes Leitgeb, Carlos-Ullisses Moulines, Odin Mühlenbein, Jakob Steinbrenner (and, of course, his wife), Brian Weatherson, André Wenzel and Tobias Wilsch. Special thanks go to Karl-Georg Niebergall, influence and nominalist extraordinaire, and Alexander Soutschek, who ran the long course, reading late drafts and participating in whole day meetings. I owe, however, the most and deepest depts to Godehard Link, ∅ystein Linnebo, and Alexander Oldemeier. Especially ∅ystein, and Alex had so much patience and guidance. They were there when work got difficult. Thanks, to my parents, my two sisters, my grandma and my grandpa, who sadly passed too early to see this, and my uncle Rainer and his wife, my aunt Gundi, for their support and love. Finally, thanks to my lovely girlfriend Anna for enduring me for 5 years. Keep on fighting, cinnamon! Contents ________________________________________________________ Chapter 1 Introduction S. 1 1.1 Worrying Questions S. 1 1.2 Metaontology S. 2 1.3 Skepticism S. 3 1.4 Metaontological Skepticism S. 7 1.5 Overview S. 9 Chapter 2 Quantifier Variance S. 11 2.1 Overview S. 11 2.2 An Attempt to Specify the Theory S.
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