On the other side are upholders of what i call ameinongianism, who revise meinongs distinctions between existence and nonexistence in terms of being concrete and being abstract and claim that nonexistent objects are. Grouping lets you flip, rotate, move, or resize all shapes or objects at the same time as though they were a single shape or object. A meinongian analysis of fictional objects terence parsons. My intent is to show that talking about nonexistent objects and hence representing them, quantifying over them, and reasoning about themis quite a normal thing to do in natural language.
First, we match objects against the sets of their properties. It has come to be appreciated that, in the debate between russell and meinong, russell was perhaps mistaken in. Recently, tim crane has proposed a weak form of meinongianism, a reductionism, which denies any contribution of nonexistent objects to truthmaking. Parsonss quinean meinongianism and the methodology of nonexistence ii2 are there really nonexistent objects.
Indirect objects have an object id and a generation number and can be referenced by other objects within the pdf file. These studies have contributed to renewed interest in and unprejudiced reappraisal of object theory. Parsonss theory of nonexistent objects parsons1980 and my own theory of abstract objects zalta. Heavily influenced by alexius meinong, he wrote nonexistent objects 1980, which dealt with possible world theory in order to defend the reality of. Because of this, according to these contemporary meinongians, nonexistent objects can be involved in the truthmakers of sentences such as sherlock holmes is possible and so on. Existence assumptions in knowledge representation 203 seemingly nonexistent entities. Terrance parsons 1982 are there nonexistent objects. Objects of thought by tim crane analysis oxford academic. Some of meinongs most important philosophical writings have now been translated or are expected to appear in the near future, and there are several recent commentaries on meinongs work, including richard routleys exploring meinongs jungle and beyond, terence parsons nonexistent objects, and karel lamberts meinong and the principle of. Wiley on behalf of the american society for aesthetics. The problem of the underdetermination of nonexistent objects in the actual world is also broached in nolan 2008 191193. The dangerous implications of nonexistent objects carolyn swanson abstract.
Please see the pdf hello world post for examples of how direct and indirect objects are used. To work faster, you can group texts, shapes, pictures, or other objects. Such distinctions need not concern us in this paper. Sorry, we are unable to provide the full text but you may find it at the following locations.
My intent is to show that talking about nonexistent objectsand hence representing them, quantifying over them, and reasoning about themis quite a normal thing to do in natural language. Terence parsons born 1939 is an american philosopher working in the analytic tradition, specializing in philosophy of language and metaphysics. On the semantics of existence predicates friederike moltmann ihpst paris1 enscnrs, paris abstract the most common philosophical view about the notion of existence is that it is a secondorder property or existential quantification. In rare instances, a publisher has elected to have a zero moving wall, so their current issues are available. Please refer to the following where i motivate my answer. If so, his solution becomes structurally similar to the dual copula strategy. Parsons gives two reasons for believing that there are nonexistent objects.
An introduction to axiomatic metaphysics dordrecht. So this is a great book for anyone who wishes to get a sophisticated overview of the debate about nonexistent objects. Making room for nonexistent objects is a complicated business, and crane covers a lot of ground very clearly. Anyway, what i am really asking is, are there any philosophers who think that talk of nonexistent objects is merely a language game.
Parsons s 1974 article, a prolegomenon to meinongian seman tics parsons, 1974, which was followed by a series of articles in which he extended and elaborated his theory, culminating in his 1980 book, nonexistent objects parsons, 1980. Parsons works on the semantics of natural language to develop theories of truth and meaning for natural language similar to those devised for artificial languages by philosophical logicians. Moreover, kit fine has argued for a somewhat similar claim. If there are nonexistent objects, then b may denote an object that does not exist. Nonexistent objects are just as much titems as existent ones. Events in the semantics of english, mit press, 1990. I have also done some historicalcritical work on frege, and on the early russell, and i remain interested in these topics. Notes to nonexistent objects stanford encyclopedia of. Nonexistent objects terence parsons new haven and london. Full text views reflects the number of pdf downloads, pdfs. Nonexistent objects versus definite descriptions, australasian journal of philosophy 62 1984. Richard routley, exploring meinongs jungle and beyond, australian national university, canberra, 1980, and ii those that distinguish between two modes of predication, often called internal and external e. Parsonss 1974 article, a prolegomenon to meinongian seman tics parsons, 1974, which was followed by a series of articles in which he extended and elaborated his theory, culminating in his 1980 book, nonexistent objects parsons, 1980. A read is counted each time someone views a publication summary such as the title, abstract, and list of authors, clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the fulltext.
My work also touches on metaphysical matters, where i have investigated the topics of nonexistent objects, and of indeterminate identity. Nonexistent objects notes stanford encyclopedia of. Apr 02, 20 indirect objects have an object id and a generation number and can be referenced by other objects within the pdf file. It aims to bring the clarifying power of analytic philosophy to the luxuriant variety in one part of meinongs ontology. A meinongian analysis of fictional objects terence. Intensional verbs and quantifiers friederike moltmann.
If a singular term b denotes something, then b does not exist is false. Zeus, pegasus, sherlock holmes, vulcan the hypothetical planet postulated by the 19th century astronomer le verrier, the perpetual motion machine, the golden mountain, the fountain of youth, the round square, etc. Publication date 1980 topics nonexistent objects philosophy. On the other side are upholders of what i call ameinongianism, who revise meinongs distinctions between existence and nonexistence in terms of being concrete and being abstract and claim that nonexistent objects are abstract entities cf. Parsons 1980, natural language may, in principle, use intensional verbs and. Parsons characterization of structuralism makes it, roughly, the view that i mathematical objects come in structures, and ii the only properties we may attribute to mathematical objects are those pertaining to their places in their structures.
More recently i have been working on the question of meaning for natural language, inspired by work of frege and russell. You must complete three 1page papers by the end of the year 20% of your grade, two of which must be handed in before spring break. This paper explores the view that there are such things as nonexistent fictional objects, and that we refer to such objects when we say things like sherlock holmes is a fictional detective, or conan doyle wrote about sherlock holmes. While the theory has merit in interpreting sentences and solving puzzles, it unfortunately paves the way for. So this is a great book for anyone who wishes to get a sophisticated overview of. Priest claims that nonactual worlds themselves are nonexistent objects. For pegasus, for instance, exists in those worlds which are such as described in greek mythology. Existence assumptions in knowledge representation sciencedirect.
The present essay is a critical and comparative study of par. Against a defense of fictional realism by ben caplan and cathleen muller according to. Parsons textbook of ophthalmology pdf free download. According to zalta, there is a nonexistent object that corresponds to every set of properties, which encodes the properties in the set. On parsons theory, the round square is asserted to be an impossible. Terence parsons emeritus ucla department of philosophy. For example, some nonexistent objects instantiate such properties as being incomplete, being possible, being thought of by someone, and so on.
Objects are identical just in case 1 they are both existent and. Available formats pdf please select a format to send. The key is contents and 2 0 r is an indirect reference to a contents stream or a contents array. I24 6 real things in fiction, logical completeness, and other forms of represent ation 129 are stories about real things. Find all the books, read about the author, and more. Some of meinongs most important philosophical writings have now been translated or are expected to appear in the near future, and there are several recent commentaries on meinongs work, including richard routleys exploring meinongs jungle and beyond, terence parsons nonexistent objects, and karel lamberts meinong and the principle of independence. Grouping lets you flip, rotate, move, or resize all shapes or objects at the same time as though they were a. The objects of thought is a rich book, full of ideas and arguments.
I38 objects in myths, dreams, and nonrealistic fiction i48. The appeal to nonexistent objects, on the other hand, provides a very simple solution to this problem. The sixteenth edition of parsons appears with a new. A less common view is that existence is a firstorder. Parsons s quinean meinongianism and the methodology of nonexistence ii2 are there really nonexistent objects. The word titem is used instead of objects to indicate the ontic neutrality of. His reductionism claims that, even though we can truly talk about nonexistent objects by. Nonexistent objects stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. Nolan argues that this problem is particularly pressing for. Meinongs reference to a golden mountain discussed previously by hume and berkeley is developed as an analogy for meinongs object theory reference domain of existent and nonexistent objects alike, without regard for their ontic status, in accord with meinongs doctrine of the au.
Publication date 1980 topics nonexistent objects philosophy publisher new haven. The claim that if god possibly exists, then he necessarily exists is irrelevant to proslogion 2. A logic for disorderly domains gwynne taraska a dissertation. Talk of nonexistent objects is much more than merely a language game. The moving wall represents the time period between the last issue available in jstor and the most recently published issue of a journal. Alexius meinong advocated a bold new theory of nonexistent objects, where we could gain knowledge and assert true claims of things that did not exist. To explain the two realms, parsons distinguishes two kinds of properties nuclear and extranuclear, and zalta distinguishes two kinds of predication exemplifying and encoding. In against fictional realism, anthony everett argues against. Nolan argues that this problem is particularly pressing for objects of mathematics.