Nonexistent Objects: Meinong and Contemporary Philosophy

ISBN-13: 9789048143191 / Angielski / Miękka / 2010 / 308 str.

K. J. Perszyk

Opis

Issues surrounding the status and nature of nonexistent objects' constitute one of philosophy's oldest and densest thickets. In this book Perszyk takes his readers surefootedly through this thicket, informed both historically and at the level of contemporary discussion of relevant themes. His main aim is to develop a bundle' or set of properties' interpretation of Meinong's theory of nonexistent objects (as opposed to a set of properties neo-Meinongian metaphysics), and to defend this nonstandard interpretation against competing views in both the philosophical and scholarly literature on Meinong. The Meinong who emerges is neither the hero nor the villain his friends and foes have commonly led us to believe.
This clearly written book is a valuable addition both to the literature on Meinong and to contemporary metaphysics of modality. It is written for students and professionals interested in these, and related, areas.

Spis treści

Preface. 1: Introductory Considerations. 1.1. The impasse. 1.2. What might the claim that there `are' nonexistent objects mean. 1.3. Methodological concerns. 2: Meinong's Theory of Objects. 2.1. The Independence and Indifference principles. 2.2. The Independence principle: initial reaction. 2.3. The Indifference principle: initial reaction. 2.4. Is there a third mode of being? 2.5. Meinong and his historical precursors. 3: The Nature of Meinong's Objects: Existent and Nonexistent. 3.1. Incomplete objects and the nature of existents. 3.2. Incomplete objects and the nature of nonexistents. 3.3. More on the particular-general and concrete-abstract distinctions. 4: Two Main Arguments for Nonexistents. 4.1. The argument from negative existentials. 4.2. The argument from intentionality. 5: Main Arguments against Nonexistents. 5.1. Definitions of object-possiblity and object-impossibility. 5.2. Theories of nonexistents are inconsistent or apt to infringe the law of non-contradiction. 5.3. Nonexistent aren't objects. 5.4. An existence objection. 5.5. There are no impossible worlds or individuals. Bibliography. List of Meinong's Writings Consulted. General Bibliography.