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1、sixcCagainstrevisionaryontologyIMyimpressionisthattheperiodofthelasttwentyyearsorsohasbeenanamazinglybadtimeforcommonsenseontology.ItseemstomethateverythirdphilosopherItalktohasseriousdoubtsaboutwhethertablesexist,andoftheothertwoatleastoneofthemthinksthatiftherearesuchthingsastablesthent
2、herearealsosuchthingsastheobjectcom-posedoftheEiffelTowerandPlato’snose.AsIoverheardaphilosophersayingrecently,“Eithereverythingexistsornothingexists.”The“every-thingexists”peoplearesometimescalled“universalists.”Theyholdthatforanytwothingsthereisathirdthingcomposedofthetwo.Typicallytheya
3、lsoholdthatifathingpersiststhroughaperiodoftimethenthereisasecondthing,a“temporalpart”ofthefirst,whichexistsonlyduringthatperiod.Theworldconsists,then,ofallofthesumsofthesetemporalparts,sothat,asQuineoftenputsit,everymateriallyoccupiedspace-timeportionoftheworld,howeverdiscontinuousorgerr
4、ymandered,isanobjectonanequalfootingwithanyother.1The“nothingexists”peo-ple—perhapsPeterUngeristhemostfamousrecentexample(orwould1.Universalistswhoaccepttemporalpartsareoftencalled“four-dimensionalists.”ExamplesareW.V.Quine,WordandObject(Cambridge,Mass.:MITPress,1960),esp.171;DavidLewis,O
5、nthePluralityofWorlds(Oxford:BasilBlackwell,1986),esp.202–4,211–13;MarkHeller,TheOntologyofPhysicalObjects:Four-DimensionalHunksofMatter(Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,1990);ch.1reprintedinJ.KimandE.Sosa,eds.,Metaphysics:AnAnthology(Oxford:Blackwell,1999);TheodoreSider,Four-Dimensiona
6、lism:AnOntologyofPersistenceandTime(NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress,96againstrevisionaryontology97beifheexisted)—typicallyholdthatnoneofthecomplexentitiesthatpeopleordinarilyseemtobetalkingaboutreallyexist,thoughtheymaypossiblyallowfortheexistenceofmetaphysicalsimples.2Evenmoreamazinginaway
7、thantheanti-commonsensicalstancesoftheuniversal-istsandnihilistsistheviewofpeoplelikeChisholmandvanInwagenwho,whileagreeingwithcommonsensethatthetruthliessomewherebetween“everythingexists”and“nothingexists,”claimtohavesomewayofpickingandchoosingamongstordinarythings
