 And each role suggests, in turn, a theory of what objects are: (i) to be an object just is to be a referent, (ii) to be an object just is to be quantified over, and (iii) to be an object just is to be an object of  thought.[21]  van Inwagen offers a version of (i) here (note the use of “can”, indicating that it is a modal role that objects play, namely being possible referents; we here presuppose the already mentioned tight connection between ‘object’ and ‘thing’):