# Absolute generality

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In [philosophical logic](/source/philosophical_logic), [metaphysics](/source/metaphysics), and the [philosophy of language](/source/philosophy_of_language), the '''problem of absolute generality''' is the problem of referring to absolutely everything.<ref name="IntroductionToAbsoluteGenerality">{{cite book |author1=Augustín Rayo |author2=Gabriel Uzquiano |authorlink1=Introduction to Absolute Generality |editor1-last=Rayo |editor1-first=Augustín |editor2-last=Uzquiano |editor2-first=Gabriel |title=Absolute Generality |date=2006 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |citeseerx=10.1.1.365.3334 }}</ref> Historically, philosophers have assumed that some of their statements are absolutely general, referring to truly everything.<ref name="IntroductionToAbsoluteGenerality" /> In recent years, logicians working in the logic of [quantification](/source/Quantifier_(logic)) and [paradox](/source/logical_paradox) have challenged this view, arguing that it is impossible for the logical quantifiers to range over an absolutely unrestricted domain.<ref name="GlanzbergRealism">{{cite journal |last1=Glanzberg |first1=Michael |title=Quantification and Realism* |journal=Philosophy and Phenomenological Research |date=2004 |volume=69 |issue=3|pages=541–572|doi=10.1111/j.1933-1592.2004.tb00518.x |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1933-1592.2004.tb00518.x | accessdate=6 September 2020|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Philosophers who deny the possibility of absolutely unrestricted quantification (often called ''generality relativists'') argue that attempting to speak absolutely generally generates paradoxes such as [Russell's](/source/Russell's_Paradox) or [Grelling's](/source/Grelling-Nelson_paradox), that absolute generality leads to indeterminacy due to the [Löwenheim–Skolem theorem](/source/L%C3%B6wenheim%E2%80%93Skolem_theorem), or that absolute generality fails because the notion of "object" is relative.<ref name="PriestReview">{{cite journal |last1=Priest |first1=Graham |title=Absolute Generality |url=https://ndpr.nd.edu/news/absolute-generality/ |website=Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews |date=17 September 2007 |publisher=University of Notre Dame |accessdate=6 September 2020}}</ref>

Philosophers who believe that we can indeed quantify over absolutely everything (known as ''generality absolutists''), such as [Timothy Williamson](/source/Timothy_Williamson), may respond by noting that it is difficult to see how a skeptic of absolute generality can frame this view without invoking the concept of absolute generality.<ref name="WilliamsonEverything">{{cite journal |last1=Williamson |first1=Timothy |title=Everything |journal=Philosophical Perspectives |date=2003 |volume=17 |issue=1 |pages=415–465 |doi=10.1111/j.1520-8583.2003.00017.x |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1520-8583.2003.00017.x |accessdate=6 September 2020|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

A 2006 book, ''Absolute Generality'', published by [Oxford University Press](/source/Oxford_University_Press), contains essays on the subject written by both the leading proponents and opponents of absolutely unrestricted quantification.<ref>{{cite book |title=Absolute Generality |date=2003 |publisher=Oxford University Press |editor1-last=Rayo |editor1-first=Augustín |location=Oxford |editor2-last=Uzquiano |editor2-first=Gabriel}}</ref>

==See also==
*[Domain of discourse](/source/Domain_of_discourse)
*[Metametaphysics](/source/Metametaphysics)
*[Quantifier variance](/source/Quantifier_variance)

==References==
{{reflist}}

Category:Paradoxes
Category:Philosophical problems
Category:Concepts in metaphysics

{{logic-stub}}

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