 In the end, though, Carnap doesn’t seem to be either a realist or nominalist about objects (abstract or concrete). Carnap rejects the question whether these objects are real in a metaphysical sense. But, contrary to the nominalist, he rejects the idea that we can truly deny the real existence of abstract objects (i.e., a denial that is external to a linguistic framework). This attitude, which settles the question of which framework to adopt on pragmatic grounds (e.g., which framework best helps us to make sense of the data to be explained), is the reason why we’ve labeled his view as a way of weakening existence. See the entry on  Carnap  for further details.