Ontological Commitment - Ontological Innocence

Ontological Innocence

Many philosophers dispute whether we are committed to such entities at all. They argue that all assertions are “ontologically innocent” — that they are committed only to the existence of the entities which they actually assert.

There is a considerable and growing body of literature on so-called plural reference and plural quantification. It seems counter-intuitive that a sentence such as “some people admire only each other” commits us to the existence of anything but people. Advocates of ontological innocence see in the grammatical plural simply another way to refer to exactly the same things that the singular form commits us to.

Interpretations of negative existential statements have proved more difficult. See empty names for an overview of the problem.