What Can we Take Away from Easy Arguments?

Australasian Philosophical Review 1 (2):153-162 (2017)
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Abstract

ABSTRACTA ‘sceptical’ approach to easy arguments involves reducing our confidence in the supposedly uncontroversial premise with which the arguments begin. Here I address the question: if we accept Yablo's new version of a sceptical proposal, what difference might that make for the relevant meta-ontological debates? I argue that serious difficulties remain for even this ‘best’ version of a sceptical approach. Noting these difficulties might motivate us to look again at the alternative strategy—of reading the uncontroversial premise straightforwardly and thinking that doubts about the conclusion were based on artificial inflation or confusion.

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Amie Thomasson
Dartmouth College

Citations of this work

Dissolving Yablo’s Hostage Crisis: In Defence of Defiance.Suki Finn - 2017 - Australasian Philosophical Review 1 (2):184-188.
If-Thenism—A Nominalistic Account of Talk About Abstracta?Katharina Felka - 2017 - Australasian Philosophical Review 1 (2):179-183.
The Problem of (Fully) Empty Predicates.Bradley Armour-Garb & Frederick Kroon - 2017 - Australasian Philosophical Review 1 (2):163-167.

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References found in this work

The origin of concepts.Susan Carey - 2009 - New York: Oxford University Press.
Aboutness.Stephen Yablo - 2014 - Oxford: Princeton University Press.
Ontology Made Easy.Amie Lynn Thomasson - 2014 - New York: Oup Usa.
Objects and Persons.Trenton Merricks - 2001 - New York: Oxford University Press.
Ordinary Objects.Amie L. Thomasson (ed.) - 2007 - New York: Oxford University Press.

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