Ontology and Existence
Ontology is the study of what there is and of the most general structure of being. It asks which kinds of things exist, what existence itself amounts to, and how the entities we accept are organized into fundamental categories.
Definition
Ontology is the philosophical inquiry into being as such: the enumeration and classification of what exists and the analysis of the concept of existence.
Scope
This area covers the central questions of general metaphysics: the meaning of 'exists', criteria for ontological commitment, the inventory of fundamental categories, the status of abstract objects such as numbers and properties, and puzzles about entities that seem to be talked about yet do not exist. It treats existence as a topic in its own right rather than as a settled background assumption.
Sub-topics
Core questions
- What does it mean to say that something exists?
- Is existence a property of individuals, or expressed by the quantifier?
- What are the most general categories into which everything falls?
- Do abstract objects such as numbers, sets, and properties exist?
- How can we meaningfully refer to or talk about things that do not exist?
Key concepts
- Existence
- Ontological commitment
- Quantification
- Being
- Category
- Particular and universal
- Abstract and concrete
Key theories
- Quinean ontological commitment
- On Quine's view, a theory is committed to whatever its bound variables must range over for the theory to be true: 'to be is to be the value of a variable.' Ontology is read off the existential quantifications of our best regimented theories.
- Category ontology
- Following Aristotle, many ontologists hold that being divides into a small set of irreducible highest categories (such as substance, property, relation, and event). The four-category ontology of Lowe organizes reality into substantial and non-substantial particulars and universals.
- Quantificational vs. ontologically loaded existence
- Debate persists over whether 'exists' is univocal and captured by the logical quantifier, or whether there are lightweight versus heavyweight, or thin versus thick, senses of being that a metaontology must distinguish.
History
Ontology traces to Aristotle's Metaphysics, which framed the science of being qua being and proposed the categories. Medieval philosophers debated the analogy of being and the distinction between essence and existence. In the twentieth century Quine reframed ontology around quantification and commitment, while Carnap distinguished internal from external existence questions. Contemporary metaontology revisits whether existence questions are substantive or merely verbal.
Debates
- Is existence a genuine first-order property?
- Frege and Russell argued existence is expressed by the quantifier and is not a property of individuals, against the Kantian and Meinongian traditions; some contemporary philosophers defend existence as a real property.
- Are ontological disputes substantive or verbal?
- Carnap-inspired deflationists hold that many existence debates are merely about choice of framework, while ontological realists insist there are objective answers about what fundamentally exists.
Key figures
- Aristotle
- W. V. O. Quine
- Alexius Meinong
- Rudolf Carnap
- Peter van Inwagen
- E. J. Lowe
Related topics
Seminal works
- quine1948
- aristotleMetaphysics
- lowe2006
Frequently asked questions
- What is the difference between ontology and metaphysics?
- Metaphysics is the broad inquiry into the fundamental nature of reality; ontology is the part of metaphysics concerned specifically with what exists and the categories of being. In some traditions ontology is called general metaphysics.
- Why is the meaning of 'exists' philosophically contested?
- Because saying something exists seems different from describing it, and puzzles arise about denying existence ('Pegasus does not exist'). Philosophers disagree over whether existence is a property of objects, a logical quantifier, or admits of several senses.