ABSTRACT
Since the beginnings of the modern analytic movement in philosophy, with the work of Russell, Moore and Wittgenstein, analytic philosophers have tended to regard mathematics and the physical sciences as paradigms of progress in human knowledge, and as a consequence have tended to favour ontologies which are hospitable only to physical entities and such abstract entities as may be required to make sense of mathematical truths. But these are only tendencies, not requirements, of analytic philosophy. The central ideals of analytic philosophy – clarity, logical rigour, and the unbiased pursuit of truth – are consistent with richer ontological commitments, provided that such commitments can be rationally justified. In this paper, I shall try to justify belief in a richer ontology where mind and action are concerned.
