Unbearable Lightness of Being
This book defends an undemanding conception of objecthood according to which any acceptable criterion of identity suffices for the existence of objects governed by this criterion. Some even less demanding conceptions have been defended where not even criteria of identity are required. These ultra-thin conceptions are clarified and then criticized on two counts. First, they ascribe reference to terms that are semantically idle in the sense that their reference plays no role in the determination of the reference of more complex expressions. Second, the ultra-thin conceptions result in inexplicable relations of reference where a term is said to refer to an object although it is inexplicable why the term refers to this object rather than some other.