Pegasus is a flying horse of ancient mythology.
Quine thinks that when we say "Pegasus doesn't exist" we must be talking about something -- namely Pegasus; so Pegasus must in some sense exist.
Pegasus is a flying horse of ancient mythology.
Quine thinks that when we say "Pegasus doesn't exist" we must be talking about something -- namely Pegasus; so Pegasus must in some sense exist.
Quine rejects this argument as confused. It wrongly takes "Pegasus doesn't exist" to be ascribing a property (of nonexistence) to an object (Pegasus).
We can more clearly express "Pegasus doesn't exist" as "It is false that there is something that is Pegasus" -- which clearly doesn't assume that Pegasus exists.
Pegasus is a flying horse of ancient mythology.
Quine thinks that when we say "Pegasus doesn't exist" we must be talking about something -- namely Pegasus; so Pegasus must in some sense exist.
Quine rejects this argument as confused. It wrongly takes "Pegasus doesn't exist" to be ascribing a property (of nonexistence) to an object (Pegasus).
We can more clearly express "Pegasus doesn't exist" as "It is false that there is something that is Pegasus" -- which clearly doesn't assume that Pegasus exists.