Non-conservative responses to Benacerraf's dilemma

pp. 112-148

in: Marco Panza, Andrea Sereni, Plato's problem, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013

Abstract

In the present chapter we discuss some of the major responses to Benacerraf's dilemma. In particular, we will discuss some of those that in § 3.3 have been classified, following Hale and Wright (2000), as non-conservative. We will consider four of these: Field's nominalism; fic-tionalism, both in Field's and in Yablo's version; Hellman's eliminative modal structuralism; and the version of platonism advanced by Maddy on cognitive grounds.