Work · Phenomenology & Hermeneutics
On the Theory of Objects
Programmatic essay for a science of all objects, whether they exist or not: an object has its properties independently of its being, so that “the round square” is round and square although there is no such thing.
Introduction
Meinong published “Über Gegenstandstheorie” in 1904 as the opening essay of a volume of studies by his Graz school. It proposes a new science, the theory of objects, which deals with all objects, whether they exist or not; existing things form only a small part of what can be thought. Its key principle is the independence of so-being from being: an object has its properties regardless of whether it exists, so that the golden mountain is golden and the round square is round and square. The essay is the best-known statement of Meinong’s theory and the main target of Russell’s critique in “On Denoting” (1905); since the 1970s it has been read anew by logicians interested in non-existent objects.
Connections
Builds on
- On the Content and Object of Presentations1894 · Kazimierz Twardowski
- On Assumptions1902 · Alexius Meinong
More works by Alexius Meinong
- 1902On Assumptions
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