Work · Phenomenology & Hermeneutics
On Assumptions
Between idea and judgement lies the assumption: thinking that something is the case without believing it, as in supposing, playing, reading fiction or arguing hypothetically; its object is an “objective”, the bearer of truth and falsity.
Introduction
Meinong published “Über Annahmen” in 1902, with a much expanded second edition in 1910. The book argues that between ideas, which merely present something, and judgements, which affirm or deny with conviction, there is a third class of mental acts: assumptions, in which we think that something is the case without believing it, as in supposing, playing, reading fiction, asking questions or reasoning hypothetically. The object of judgements and assumptions is an “objective”, which is the bearer of truth and falsity. The book influenced the theory of propositions, the philosophy of fiction and later work on supposition and imagination.
Connections
Taken up in
- On the Theory of Objects1904 · Alexius Meinong
More works by Alexius Meinong
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