I have learned so much from Nelson Goodman over the years, and I have so much respect for his work, that our disagreement about worldmaking comes as something of a surprise to us both. Yet this disagreement has survived our various exchanges of the past 14 years and so must, I suspect, indicate some deep-seated misunderstanding or conflict of visions. I here respond to his most recent paper on the issue, “On Some Worldly Worries” and say why worldmaking does indeed cause me to worry.

A PRELIMINARY REGRET

Goodman begins by saying he is going to consider arguments raised in my book Inquiries, which I had not raised in my earlier paper, “The Wonderful Worlds of Goodman.” There are indeed such additional arguments in my book, but I regret to say that Goodman does not address these at all, considering only points found in my earlier paper. Had he addressed these new arguments, might he have found them persuasive?

THE QUESTION OF ORDER

In my paper, I offer some ancillary considerations to illustrate Goodman's treatment of “worlds” as sometimes versional, sometimes objectual. Since this variable treatment is explicitly affirmed by Goodman, the disposition of my ancillary illustrations does not bear on the main point, that is, the variable treatment, which is not in contention. Nevertheless, let us consider the two particular illustrations I offered, both related to the individuation of worlds by ordering.