Modes of Existence : : Papers in Ontology and Philosophical Logic / / ed. by Andrea Bottani, Richard Davies.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter DGBA Backlist Complete English Language 2000-2014 PART1
• MitwirkendeR: Barbero, Carola,; Inwagen, Peter van,; Kroon, Frederick,; Mulligan, Kevin,; Orilia, Francesco,; Raspa, Venanzio,; Reicher, Maria E.,; Spolaore, Giuseppe,; Varzi, Achille C.,
• HerausgeberIn: Bottani, Andrea,; Davies, Richard,
• Place / Publishing House: Berlin ;, Boston : : De Gruyter, , [2013]; ©2006
• Year of Publication: 2013
• Language: English
• Series: Philosophische Forschung / Philosophical Research , 5
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (240 p.)

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.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction -- Facts, Formal Objects and Ontology -- Fictional and Aesthetic Objects: Meinong’s Point of View -- Russell’s Descriptions and Meinong’s Assumptions -- McGinn on Existence -- The Talk I Was Supposed to Give -- Two Interpretations of “According to a Story” -- Madame Bovary as a Higher-Order Object -- Identity across Time and Stories -- A Problem about Reference in Fiction -- Backmatter