This is exactly right: "the attempt to define what 'exists' within a given system is usually a conservative, essentialist move. It's often concerned with retro-fitting new things into the current status quo, a kind of Kuhnian attempt to save what might be termed 'normal science'." What follows this promising start is an interesting and useful discussion of Richard Rorty and "dead metaphors". I agree with Belshaw's scepticism of ontologies. And as Douglas Rushkoff says, "It's this automatic acceptance of how things are that leads to a sense of helplessness about changing any of them."
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