“I have stated the principle which I believe is entailed by the above analysis: what is real is inexhaustible and conversely. This is a fundamental principle of ontological realism, the basis of a metaphysical position that escapes the criticisms of metaphysics drawn from foundational epistemologies. Minds, universals, physical objects, even dreams and hallucinations are all real (see Dewey 1960, p. 59). The question of unreality is transformed into a question of nature and kind: what are minds, given their reality? What are universals, given their inexhaustibility? In neither case can an exhaustive, unqualified answer be given. Inexhaustibility is a complementarity of determinateness and indeterminateness. The determinateness inherent in every being makes it analyzable and knowable – under qualification – but it transcends any particular qualifications and conditions under which it can be known. Indeterminateness is the openness through inexhaustibility to new contexts, thereby new properties and conditions. INEXHAUSTIBILITY AND ONTOLOGICAL PLURALITY STEPHEN DAVID ROSS, 1984

“I have stated the principle which I believe is entailed by the above analysis: what is real is inexhaustible and conversely. This is a fundamental principle of ontological realism, the basis of a metaphysical position that escapes the criticisms of metaphysics drawn from foundational epistemologies. Minds, universals, physical objects, even dreams and hallucinations are all real (see Dewey 1960, p. 59). The question of unreality is transformed into a question of nature and kind: what are minds, given their reality? What are universals, given their inexhaustibility? In neither case can an exhaustive, unqualified answer be given. Inexhaustibility is a complementarity of determinateness and indeterminateness. The determinateness inherent in every being makes it analyzable and knowable – under qualification – but it transcends any particular qualifications and conditions under which it can be known. Indeterminateness is the openness through inexhaustibility to new contexts, thereby new properties and conditions.

INEXHAUSTIBILITY AND ONTOLOGICAL PLURALITY

STEPHEN DAVID ROSS, 1984