Can we repudiate ontology altogether?

Abstract Ontological nihilists repudiate ontology altogether, maintaining that ontological structure is an unnecessary addition to our theorizing. Recent defenses of the view involve a sophisticated combination of highly expressive but ontologically innocent languages combined with a metaphysics of features—non‐objectual, complete but modifiable states of affairs invoked in natural language feature‐placing sentences like “It is raining.” Nihilists argue that they are able to preserve the core of our ordinary claims without appealing to any ontology. In this paper, I argue that by repudiating ontology, the nihilist is unable to make their nihilist‐friendly language intelligible in terms of a nihilist metaphysics that preserves an undemanding notion of explanatory unity exhibited by our ordinary claims. This puts significant pressure on the nihilist's claim that ontology is an unnecessary addition to our theorizing.

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Publication Details

Journal
Noûs
Published
2025-07-13
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/nous.70006
Citations
1
Primary Topic
Philosophy and History of Science
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
18.02

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article

Can we repudiate ontology altogether?

Christopher James Masterman
1 citations
Noûs
Philosophy and History of Science
18.02
article

Can we repudiate ontology altogether?

Christopher James Masterman
article en
1 citations

Abstract

Abstract Ontological nihilists repudiate ontology altogether, maintaining that ontological structure is an unnecessary addition to our theorizing. Recent defenses of the view involve a sophisticated combination of highly expressive but ontologically innocent languages combined with a metaphysics of features—non‐objectual, complete but modifiable states of affairs invoked in natural language feature‐placing sentences like “It is raining.” Nihilists argue that they are able to preserve the core of our ordinary claims without appealing to any ontology. In this paper, I argue that by repudiating ontology, the nihilist is unable to make their nihilist‐friendly language intelligible in terms of a nihilist metaphysics that preserves an undemanding notion of explanatory unity exhibited by our ordinary claims. This puts significant pressure on the nihilist's claim that ontology is an unnecessary addition to our theorizing.

Noûs
University of St Andrews (GB)
UK Research and Innovation
Openalex Percentile: Top 2%
Philosophy and History of Science
18.02
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