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Beyond Russell and Meinong

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

V. Warren Bourgeois*
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia

Extract

In 1972 Gilbert Ryle published a eulogy to Meinong's theory of objects:

Let us frankly concede that Geganstandstheorie itself is dead, buried and not going to be resurrected. Nobody is going to argue again that, for example, “there are objects concerning which it is the case that there are no such objects.”

Since that time, the firm of Routley, Routley, Chisholm and Parsons has vigoruously defended Meinong's theory. Are they advocates for a dead client?

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 1981

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References

1 Ryle, GilbertIntentionality and the nature of thinking,’ Revue Internationale de Philosophie, 27 (1973) 255.Google Scholar

2 Richard Routley and Valerie Routley, ‘Rehabilitating Meinong's Theory of Objects,’ Revue Internationale de Philosophie, 27 (1973) 224-54. Chisholm, Roderick M.Homeless objects,’ Revue lnternationale de Philosophie, 27 (1973) 206-23.Google Scholar Parsons, TerenceA prolegomenon to Meinongian semantics,’ Journal of Philosophy, 71 (1974) 561-80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 Hector-Neri Castañeda, ‘Thinking and the structure of the world,’ Critica, 6 (1972) 43-81.

4 For references and discussion of Scott and Grandy see Lambert, KarelImpossible objects,’ Inquiry, 17 (1974) 303-14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar cf. Leblanc, H. and Thomason, R.H.Completeness theorems for some presupposition-free logics,’ Fundamenta Mathematicae, 52 (1968) 125-63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 For details write Karel Lambert, Dept. of Philosophy, University of California, Irvine.

6 Quine, Willard Van OrmanOn What There Is,’ in from a Logical Point of View (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard U.P. 1953) 1.Google Scholar

7 Alexius Meinong, The Theory of Objects, in R. Chisholm, ed., Realism and the Background of Phenomenology (Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press 1960) 82.Google Scholar

8 Ibid.

9 See Findlay, J.N. Meinong's Theory of Objects and Values, (Oxford: Oxford U.P. 1963) Ch. VI.Google Scholar

10 Russell, Bertrand The Principles of Mathematics (London: George, Allen & Unwin 1903) 449.Google Scholar

11 Russell, BertrandOn Denoting,’ in Logic and Knowledge, ed. Marsh, R.C. (London: George, Allen & Unwin 1956) 47.Google Scholar

12 Ibid.

13 Lambert, Karel and Fraassen, Bas C. Van Derivation and Counterexample (Encino, Cal.: Dickenson 1972) 160ff.Google Scholar

14 Russell, On Denoting,45.Google Scholar

15 Ibid.

16 Ibid.

17 Leonard Linsky, Meinong's Theory of Objects, Solomon, R.C. ed., in Phenomenology and Existentialism, (New York: Harper and Row 1972) 192.Google Scholar

18 Where M is a well-formed formula in which x is free and t is a singular term, lambda conversion allows us to replace any part ((ƛxM)t) of a formula by , provided that the bound variables of M are distinct both from x and the free variables of t, and stands for the formula which results by substitution of t for x throughout M. See Alonzo Church, The Calculi of Lambda Conversion (1941; rpt. New York: Kraus Reprint, 1965) 9, 12.

19 ‘On Denoting,’ 45.

20 Bertrand Russell, Review of: Meinong, A. Untersuchungen zur Gegenstandstheorie und Psycholgie, Mind, (1905) 530; p. 533.Google Scholar

21 Roderick Chisholm, ‘Meinong,’ Encyclopaedia of Philosophy.

22 Bertrand Russell, Review of: Meinong, A. Uber die Stellung der Gegenstandstheorie im System der Wissenschaften, Mind, (1907) 439.Google Scholar

23 Russell, On Denoting,45.Google Scholar

24 Routley, ‘Rehabilitating Meinong's Theory of Objects.’

25 Russell, Review, Mind (1907), 439.Google Scholar

26 Meinong, Alexius Uber die Stellung der Gegenstandstheorie im System der Wissenschaften, in Gesamtausgabe, V. S. Hailer, R. Kindinger, R. and Chisholm, R.M. (eds.) (Graz, Austria: Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt 1973) 223.Google Scholar

27 See Findlay, Meinong's Theory of Objects and Values, 152-3 and Ch. VI passim.

28 Meinong, über die Stellung der Gegenstandstheorie, 223.Google Scholar

29 Ibid., 224.

30 Russell, Review, Mind (1907), 439.Google Scholar

31 Meinong, über Möglichkeit und Wahrscheinlichkeit in Gesamtausgabe v. 6, 266.Google Scholar

32 Findlay, 107.