Abstract

Ian Hacking's [6] is a spirited romp though a broad field of metaphysics, touching on a variety of important questions, and appealing to deep results in mathematical logic while remaining free of logical pedantry. Philosophical journals might be more fun to read if others could write in his style. It is an essay in applying the theory of logic expounded in more detail in his very interesting [7]. Unfortunately, despite my sympathy for his project, I have a number of criticisms to make of his argument. Some of them are picky logical points, but the major conclusions of [6] are affected.