ABSTRACT
Traditional philosophical problems in ontology, that is, problems concerning what kinds of things there are, and how to classify certain individual things, rarely hold more than academic interest. The outcomes of debates over the ontological status of bare particulars, for example, will not make headline news or affect the lives of nonphilosophers very much. Of course, a decision to make an ontological commitment often does affect how we do science, as when the conjecture that more than 90 percent of the universe is composed of unobserved “dark” matter prompts lengthy and risky experiments to capture a fleeting glimpse of a neutrino. Still, although the outcomes of these experiments hold enormous implications for cosmology, they will not affect the day-to-day lives of ordinary people whose work involves business, finance, trade, or technology.
