Modes of Existence: Papers in Ontology and Philosophical Logic (Philosophische Forschung / Philosophical Research) (Philosophische Forschung / Philosophical Research, 5)

The volume collects essays by an international team of philosophers aimed at elucidating three fundamental and interconnected themes in ontology. In the first instance, there is the issue of the kind of thing that, in the primary sense, is or exists: must the primitive terms be particular or universal? Any reply will itself raise the question of how to treat discourse that appears to refer to things that cannot be met with in time and space: what difference is there between saying that someone is not sad and saying that something does not exist? If we can speak meaningfully about fictions, what makes those statements true (or false) and how can the entities in question be identified? Assessment of the options that have been opened up in these fields since the work of Bertrand Russell and Alexius Meinong at the beginning of the twentieth century remains an important testing-ground for metaphysical principles and intuitions. Main description: The volume collects essays by an international team of philosophers aimed at elucidating three fundamental and interconnected themes in ontology. In the first instance, there is the issue of the kind of thing that, in the primary sense, is or exists: must the primitive terms be particular or universal? Any reply will itself raise the question of how to treat discourse that appears to refer to things that cannot be met with in time and space: what difference is there between saying that someone is not sad and saying that something does not exist? If we can speak meaningfully about fictions, what makes those statements true (or false) and how can the entities in question be identified? Assessment of the options that have been opened up in these fields since the work of Bertrand Russell and Alexius Meinong at the beginning of the twentieth century remains an important testing-ground for metaphysical principles and intuitions Contents Introduction Facts, Formal Objects and OntologyKevin Mulligan Fictional and Aesthetic Objects:Meinong’s Point of ViewVenanzio Raspa Russell’s Descriptions andMeinong’s Assumptions1Frederick Kroon McGinn on ExistencePeter van Inwagen The Talk I Was Supposed to Give...Achille C. Varzi Two Interpretations of “According to a Story”Maria E. Reicher Madame Bovary as a Higher-Order Object*Carola Barbero Identity across Time and StoriesFrancesco Orilia A Problem about Reference in Fiction*Giuseppe Spolaore Diese Reihe präsentiert die Arbeiten von Autoren, für die Philosophie ein kooperatives wissenschaftliches Unternehmen darstellt. In dieser Hinsicht weiß sie sich dem methodologischen Ideal der analytischen Philosophie verpflichtet, steht aber auch historisch oder systematisch ausgerichteten Arbeiten aus anderen Gebieten der Philosophie offen.