“Freedom implies uncertainty in the behavior of oneself and of others.”

– Hofstede, G. (2001), ‘Culture’s Consequences’, p. 146.

By Willard van Orman Quine

[Published in Review of Metaphysics (1948). Reprinted in From a Logical Point of View (1953).]

A curious thing about the ontological problem is its simplicity. It can be put in three Anglo-Saxon monosyllables: ‘What is there?’ It can be answered, moreover, in a word—‘Everything’—and everyone will accept this answer as true. However, this is merely to say that there is what there is. There remains room for disagreement over cases; and so the issue has stayed alive down the centuries.

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