James F. Miller Professor of Humanities & Professor of Philosophy, Department of Philosophy, Lewis & Clark College

Yablo, Metaphor, and Metaphysics

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Stephen Yablo

Stephen Yablo

According to W. V. Quine, "to be is to be the value of a bound variable." This is his account of ontological commitment. MIT philosopher Stephen Yablo claims that the difficult of drawing a distinction between literal and figurative language is a problem for Quine's account of ontological commitment. Explain why figurative language like metaphor is problematic for Quine's account.