I don’t particularly. Think this could be a case of taking a /facon de parler/ as an ontological commitment, cf PWs.
It’s true that some people treat ‘possible worlds’ and/or ‘propositions’ as mere eliminable manners of speech. But a lot of prominent philosophers also treat one or the other as metaphysically deep and important, as a base for reducing other things to a unified foundation rather than as a thing to be reduced in its own right. Philosophy as a whole deserves at least some criticism for taking such views seriously, for the same reason mathematics deserves criticism for taking mathematical platonism seriously.
And to clarify, the target of my criticism isn’t modal realism; modal realism is a straw-man almost everywhere outside the pages of a David Lewis article. Modal realism is the doctrine that possibilia are concrete and real; I’m criticizing the doctrine that possibilia (or propositions, or mathematical entities...) are abstract and real.
I believe Platinga has tried to revive it, but that is considered a novelty.
Lots of people, from Descartes onward, have given variations on ‘ontological’ arguments. But that Anselm’s original argument is fallacious (specifically, equivocal) is beyond reasonable doubt.
It’s true that some people treat ‘possible worlds’ and/or ‘propositions’ as mere eliminable manners of speech. But a lot of prominent philosophers also treat one or the other as metaphysically deep and important, as a base for reducing other things to a unified foundation rather than as a thing to be reduced in its own right. Philosophy as a whole deserves at least some criticism for taking such views seriously, for the same reason mathematics deserves criticism for taking mathematical platonism seriously.
And to clarify, the target of my criticism isn’t modal realism; modal realism is a straw-man almost everywhere outside the pages of a David Lewis article. Modal realism is the doctrine that possibilia are concrete and real; I’m criticizing the doctrine that possibilia (or propositions, or mathematical entities...) are abstract and real.
Lots of people, from Descartes onward, have given variations on ‘ontological’ arguments. But that Anselm’s original argument is fallacious (specifically, equivocal) is beyond reasonable doubt.