Bonus question:
Here is a celebrated example of metaphysics based on Plato's beard.
It was invented by St. Anselm, a platonistically oriented
medieval theologian. In particular, it can be formulated in the
platonistic framework Quine attributes to Wyman. How might
Russell and Quine object to the argument? (Hint: try and
fail tocarry out the argument in a Quinean language that
attributes existence only to actual things).
- If two possible things are the same except for actuality, the
actual one is greater (e.g., actual hamburgers taste much better than
possible ones).
- If a possible thing is not actual, then there is a possible thing
that differs from it only by being actual (This is a second-level
Plato's beard!).
- Among possible things, there is a greatest possible thing and by
definition, it is unique.
- If the greatest possible thing were not actual, then the thing
that differs from it only in being actual would be greater.
Contradiction.
- So the greatest possible thing is actual.
- So God exists.