In cases like that, I am perfectly willing to say that we have discovered that the subject matter of “fairies” is a coherent, well-formed concept that turns out to have an empty referent. The closet is there, we opened it up and looked, and there was nothing inside. I know what the world ought to look like if there were fairies, or alternatively no fairies, and the world looks like it has no fairies.
I think that a very large fraction of the time, when a possibility appears to be coherent and well formed, it may turn out not to be upon more careful examination. I would see the subject matter of “fairies” as “that which causes us to talk about fairies”, the subject matter of “dogs” as “that which causes us to talk about dogs”, and the subject matter of “morality” as “that which causes us to talk about morality”. All three are interesting.
In cases like that, I am perfectly willing to say that we have discovered that the subject matter of “fairies” is a coherent, well-formed concept that turns out to have an empty referent. The closet is there, we opened it up and looked, and there was nothing inside. I know what the world ought to look like if there were fairies, or alternatively no fairies, and the world looks like it has no fairies.
I think that a very large fraction of the time, when a possibility appears to be coherent and well formed, it may turn out not to be upon more careful examination. I would see the subject matter of “fairies” as “that which causes us to talk about fairies”, the subject matter of “dogs” as “that which causes us to talk about dogs”, and the subject matter of “morality” as “that which causes us to talk about morality”. All three are interesting.