Metaontology

Metaontologyis the study of ontology, asking what exactly it is that so-called ontologists are doing when they do ontology. Contemporary debates harken back to one between Quine and Carnap; this article begins by surveying their debate and outlining how various contemporary authors line up with the positions they staked out. The remainder of the article focuses on a contemporary, neo-Carnapian metaontological position inspired by considerations frommetasemantics, or the study of how words get their meanings. The contemporary position insists that any decent theory of how words get their meanings will have the result that many contemporary ontological debates are, in some important sense, without substance. After outlining the position, the article considers several ways a contemporary ontologist might resist this neo-Carnapian position.