Paraphrase, categories, and ontology

Abstract

The method of paraphrasing away apparent ontological commitments is a familiar tool for trimming one's ontology. Even so, I argue that aiming to avoid commitment via paraphrase is unjustified. The reason is the standard motivations for paraphrase rest on implicit yet faulty principles regarding ontological categories and categorization‐ or so I argue. These results also provide indirect support for a permissivist approach to ontology.