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Neo-‐Carnapian Quietism Neo-Carnapian Quietism: A global framework Suki Finn PhD University of York Philosophy June 2015 2 ABSTRACT This thesis explores the highly contested ontological question of what exists, and aims to deflate ontological debates in a quietist fashion, whilst providing an original, positive account of how to proceed by drawing upon ideas from Fictionalism, Meinongianism, and Dialetheism. I follow Rudolf Carnap with respect to the metaontological question of how ontology should be understood and practised, by developing a critique of the traditional realist/antirealist positions and reframing the ontological debate accordingly. Carnap argues that it is not meaningful to question reality in an external sense in order to assess what really exists, rather it is only meaningful to talk in an internal sense within a framework about what exists according to the framework rules. I use the concept of fictions in place of Carnap’s frameworks to argue that we ought to treat much seemingly ontologically committing language as consisting in nothing more than a useful heuristic and as being simply fictional. This reframes ontological debates as being based around the practical advantages of utilizing a way of speaking about existence in a pragmatic fictionalist manner. The aim of my thesis is thus to resurrect Carnap’s metaontology in the form of a unique and global fictionalism, that is divorced from the antirealism usually associated with fictionalism and based on quietism instead. My Neo-Carnapian position is influenced by the Meinongian view of non-existent objects, as I take ontological commitment as distinct from quantificational commitment in order to allow for our quantificational use of language to be ontologically neutral and metaphysically quiet. I further argue that the quietist position results in dialetheism as it finds itself in contradictory realms – in drawing a limit to meaningful metaphysics, it ends up going beyond such limits. My thesis therefore concludes that in redirecting metaphysics towards quietism, metametaphysics is redirected towards dialetheism, in the form of a position I call ‘Neo-Carnapian Quietism’. 3 CONTENTS Abstract . 2 Acknowledgements . 5 Declaration . 7 Introduction . 9 I. What is Metametaphysics? 10 II. Ontology: A philosopher’s job? 12 III. Carnap’s Metaontology. 14 III.i. Clarifying the question. 15 III.ii. Outlining how to answer the question. 18 III.iii. Answering the question. 21 IV. Neo-Carnapian Ontology. 23 IV.i. Realism. 23 IV.ii. Antirealism. 26 V. Quine’s Metaontology. 27 VI. Chapter Summaries. 33 VI.i. Chapter 1: Quiet Relativism. 33 VI.ii. Chapter 2: Quiet Meinongianism. 34 VI.iii. Chapter 3: Quiet Fictionalism. 35 VI.iv. Chapter 4: Quiet Dialetheism. 36 Chapter 1: Quiet Relativism . 37 I. Quine on Carnap. 38 I.i. On pragmatism. 39 I.ii. On truth. 42 I.iii. On the analytic/synthetic distinction. 48 II. I-realism is not Realism. 61 III. Yablo on Quine on Carnap. 67 IV. Quine as a Relativist. 73 IV.i. Relativism from I-realism. 73 IV.ii. Relativism from ‘Ontological Relativity’. 76 V. Quine as a Quietist. 79 VI. Conclusion. 83 Chapter 2: Quiet Meinongianism . 84 I. The existent/non-existent divide. 85 II. The predicament from loaded quantification. 89 III. Quinean loaded quantification. 91 III.i. Domain restrictions from SET, NE, and Tb. 94 III.ii. Rejecting Tb via SET or NE. 99 4 III.iii. Rejecting Tb via quantification. 103 IV. Natural language quantification is neutral. 104 V. Formal language quantification is neutral. 109 VI. Quine’s circular method. 113 VII. Quietist version of Meinongianism. 116 VIII. Conclusion. 126 Chapter 3: Quiet Fictionalism . 127 I. Yablo’s path through fictionalism. 128 II. The priority of ‘meta’. 133 III. Antirealist fictionalism. 136 IV. Quietist version of fictionalism. 138 V. Traditional features of fictionalisms. 140 V.i. Antirealism. 141 V.ii. Predicament. 143 V.iii. Error theory. 144 V.iv. Pragmatism. 147 VI. Truth and Presupposition. 149 VII. belief and Assertion. 153 VIII. Hermeneutic and Revolutionary Fictionalism. 156 VIII.i. Hermeneutic Fictionalism (HF). 156 VIII.ii. Revolutionary Fictionalism (RF). 160 IX. Neo-Carnapian Quietism as fictionalism. 162 IX.i. Comparison to Thomasson’s Simple Realism. 164 IX.ii. Comparison to Price’s Naturalism without Mirrors. 167 X. Conclusion. 172 Chapter 4: Quiet Dialetheism . 173 I. The self-reference problem. 174 I.i. For global meta-theories. 174 I.ii. For Verificationism. 175 I.iii. For Carnap. 177 II. Horn 1 – Internal. 179 II.i. A global framework. 180 II.ii. A heirarchy of meta-languages. 184 II.iii. A global sentence. 188 III. Horn 2 – External. 193 III.i. Verificationist’s recommendation. 193 III.ii. Wittgenstein’s non-assertion. 196 IV. Priest and the Limits of Thought. 198 V. Dialetheism. 203 VI. Conclusion. 208 Conclusion . 209 Glossary . 217 Bibliography . 218 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I dedicate this PhD thesis to my grandparents: John Lobetta – for all of your continued love and words of wisdom; Greta Finn, David Finn, and Golda Lobetta – whom I miss very much. This thesis is a product of the excellent supervision I received at the University of York from Mary Leng and Keith Allen, who I cannot thank enough. They have both been so supportive throughout my time at York and I am extremely grateful to have been able to work with them. As my supervisors they have gone far above and beyond the call of duty, and I could not have wished for better. I want to thank them for all of the stimulating and interesting discussions, the thoughtful and thorough feedback on drafts, and for their patience, kindness and encouragement. I also had the great honor of being able to work with Graham Priest at the City University of New York Graduate Centre as a Visiting Research Scholar in the Fall semester of 2014. Graham is an absolute inspiration. I thank him for taking the time to look through each of my chapters, which were all improved significantly from his insight and clarity. My time in New York was very special, and I thank Graham for inviting me. I would like to thank the faculty at York, in particular Tom Stoneham, Barry Lee, Chris Jay, Paul Noordhof, Louise Richardson, Mike beaney, and Greg Currie, for all of their helpful comments and feedback. And I would like to thank my fellow postgraduates at York, in particular Ema Sullivan-bissett and Helen bradley (the mighty SHE), Dave Price, blaine Kenneally, Dom Shaw, Dan Molto, Conny Rhode, and Kimi Long Chen, for their friendship and philosophical excellence. I thank Jody Azzouni and Amie Thomasson who have discussed ideas with me from which my work has benefited considerably. I especially thank Dave Ingram 6 and Stephen Ingram for their careful comments on drafts of my thesis and for being so reassuring. It is a privilege to philosophise with you all. I owe special thanks to the department at York for being so encouraging and supportive. York has been a haven for my philosophical work and I feel that I have flourished as a result of being there. I thank York for providing a safe and nurturing environment, for which I am so grateful. Also a big thank you to the excellent administrative team at York: Julie Kay, Janet Eldred, Carol Dixon, Karen Norris, and Barbara Cockburn. The philosophical community in both York and New York were a pleasure to be a part of. I thank the Mind & Reason and Work in Progress research groups at York where I presented much of my work, and the Priest Club in New York where I developed some exciting ideas. I have also presented earlier drafts of the ideas from this thesis at conferences and workshops in Aberdeen, Vienna, Hamburg, Leeds, and Helsinki, the audiences of which I am grateful for the useful discussion. I also thank the University of Nottingham where I completed my bA and MA, and first became interested in many topics addressed in this thesis. I take this opportunity to thank the Society for Women in Philosophy, especially Jenny Saul, for all of their efforts in improving the climate for women in philosophy and for being a huge support in my career so far. My family and boyfriend have been a constant source of love and support throughout the writing of this thesis, so very special thanks to Susan Finn, Laurence Finn, Rachel Finn, Rob Claxton and co... I love you! Finally, I gratefully acknowledge financial support from the University of York – I received a Graduate Teaching Assistant Scholarship, which fully funded the three years of my doctoral studies and provided me with invaluable teaching experience, and a Global Programmes Award from Santander, which funded my semester in New York at CUNY GC. 7 DECLARATION I declare that this thesis is a presentation of original work and that I am the sole author. This work has not previously been presented for an award at this, or any other, University. All sources are acknowledged in the bibliography and due credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. 8 “Metaontology is the new black” Cameron (2008) p1 9 INTRODUCTION Ontology is the study of existence; metaontology is the study of ontology. And as Cameron notes above, metaontology is, or at least was, highly fashionable. I follow that fashion in this thesis on metaontology, yet in a supposedly unfashionable (although I prefer to say ‘unique and interesting’) way, by basing my metaontological position on Carnap’s quietism whilst incorporating elements of Meinongianism, Fictionalism, and Dialetheism. Despite the importance of Carnap’s contribution in metaontology, it is standardly assumed that his critique of ontology failed, following Quine’s criticism concerning his dependence on the analytic/synthetic distinction. Quine is considered to be the reviver of ontology, arguing against Carnap who states that ontology cannot be done.
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