ABSTRACT
Ontological questions are concerned with what exists, or rather, with what general kinds of thing exist. So, for example, ‘Are there ghosts?’ is an ontological question which both philosophers and non-philosophers might ask. The question is of interest to the philosopher because the existence of ghosts would imply the existence of disembodied beings, and this in turn might imply something interesting about our relationship to our own bodies. Most ontological questions posed by philosophers, however, would not occur to someone with no interest in philosophy. ‘Are there physical objects?‘, for example, would seem a strange question to most people, but is of intense interest to philosophers, who might answer: ‘No. Objects are nothing more than ideas.’ And there are yet stranger ontological questions, such as ‘Are there numbers?‘, and ‘Would there be such a thing as redness if no red object existed?
