The criterion of ontological commitment

pp. 15-33

in: Paul Gochet, Outline of a nominalist theory of propositions, Berlin, Springer, 1980

Abstract

In "Ontological Commitment" (1958), A. Church maintains that a precise formulation of a criterion of ontological commitment is a prior condition of any fruitful and rigorous discussion of the problem of universals: "…no discussion of an ontological question, in particular of the issue between nominalism and realism, can be regarded as intelligible unless it obeys a definite criterion of ontological commitment".¹