Truthmakers and Easy Ontology

Sympathy has been growing for the idea that existence questions can be answered by ‘easy’ arguments. But some have suggested that an important project remains for ontology: not determining what exists, but rather what makes true those claims we accept. The question addressed here is: If we accept the easy approach to ontology, can we legitimately take on the truthmaker project? There are two versions of this project: one has the goal of giving a uniquely true statement of what the fundamental entities are, while the other takes it merely as a constraint on metaphysics to give some good account of what the truthmakers are for claims we accept. I will argue that, if we truly take on board some of the basic theses of easy ontology, we should have serious reservations about both of these projects.