Alexius Meinong

Alexius Meinong (July 17, 1853 - November 27, 1920) was an Austrian philosopher. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... July 17 is the 198th day (199th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 167 days remaining. ... 1853 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... November 27 is the 331st day (332nd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1920 (MCMXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ... A philosopher is a person who thinks deeply regarding people, society, the world, and/or the universe. ...

Life

Meinong was born in Lemberg, Austria (now L'viv in Ukraine) and died in Graz, Austria. He studied at the Academic Gymnasium, Vienna and later the University of Vienna, where he read history and philosophy as a pupil of Franz Brentano. He was professor and Chair of Philosophy at the University of Graz, where he founded the Graz psychological institute (in 1894) and the Graz School of experimental psychology. Lviv coat of arms Motto: Semper fidelis Municipal government City council (Львівська міська рада) Mayor City chairman Lyubomyr Bunyak Area 171,01 km² Population    total 2000    density 808,900 4786/km² Founded city rights... The Grazer Schloßberg Clock Tower Graz [graːts] (Slovenian: Gradec IPA: /gra. ... Vienna (German: , see also other names) is the capital of Austria, and also one of the nine States of Austria. ... The University of Vienna (German: Universität Wien) in Vienna, Austria is the oldest university in the current Austro-Hungarian domain; it formally opened in 1365. ... History studies the past in human terms. ... · Franz Brentano Franz Clemens Honoratus Hermann Brentano (January 16, 1838 Marienberg am Rhein (near Boppard) - March 17, 1917 Zürich) was an influential figure in both philosophy and psychology. ... University of Graz The University of Graz (German, Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz), a university located in Graz, Austria, is the second-largest university in Austria. ... The Graz School of experimental psychology and object-theory was headed by Alexius Meinong, who was professor and Chair of Philosophy at the University of Graz where he founded the Graz psychological institute (in 1894). ...

Meinong supervised the promotion of Christian von Ehrenfels (founder of Gestalt psychology), as well as the habilitation of Alois Höfler and Anton Oelzelt-Newin. Christian Freiherr von Ehrenfels (June 2, 1859 in Rodaun near Vienna - September 8, 1932 in Lichtenau), Austrian philosopher, is known as one of the founders and precursors of Gestalt psychology. ... This does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

Work

Meinong wrote two books on David Hume, the first dealing with his theory of abstraction, the second with his theory of relations; Meinong was relatively strongly influenced by British empiricism. David Hume (April 26, 1711 – August 25, 1776)[1] was a Scottish philosopher, economist, and historian. ... In philosophy generally, empiricism is a theory of knowledge emphasizing the role of experience in the formation of ideas, while discounting the notion of innate ideas. ...

He is most noted, however, for his Theory of Objects (Über Gegenstandstheorie, 1904), which grew out of his work on intentionality and his belief in the possibility of intending nonexistent objects. The theory is based around the purported empirical observation that it is possible to think about something, such as a golden mountain, even though that object does not exist. Since we can refer to such things that do not exist, they must have some sort of being; the "place" that such things exist has been nicknamed Meinong's jungle. 1904 (MCMIV) was a leap year starting on a Friday (see link for calendar). ...

Historically, Meinong has been treated as an eccentric who was dealt a well-deserved death blow in Bertrand Russell's famous essay On Denoting, especially by Gilbert Ryle. However, Russell himself spoke (and wrote) highly of the vast majority of Meinong's work. Further, Meinongians such as Terence Parsons and Roderick Chisholm established the consistency of a Meinongian theory of objects, while others (e.g., Karel Lambert) have defended the usefulness of such a theory. Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell OM FRS (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970), was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician and advocate for social reform. ... On Denoting is one of the most significant and influential philosophical essays of the 20th century. ... Gilbert Ryle (1900–1976), was a philosopher, and a representative of the generation of British ordinary language philosophers influenced by Wittgensteins insights into language, and is principally known for his critique of Cartesian dualism, for which he coined the phrase the ghost in the machine. He referred to some... Contemporary philosopher of the Analytic tradition. ... Roderick M Chisholm (Seekonk, Massachusetts, 1916 -- Providence, Rhode Island, 1999) was an American philosopher, known for his work on epistemology, metaphysics, free will, and the philosophy of perception. ...

Meinong is also controversial in the field of Philosophy of Language for his views on existence. Meinong posits that "existence" is merely a property of an object, just as color or mass might be a property. Thus, according to Meinong, a figure such as Sherlock Holmes would lack the property of existence, just as Sherlock Holmes lacks the property of being a female. Philosophy of language is the reasoned inquiry into the nature, origins, and usage of language. ... There is no universally accepted theory of what the word existence means. ... A portrait of Sherlock Holmes by Sidney Paget from the Strand Magazine, 1891 Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who first appeared in publication in 1887. ...

Theory

Modalities of Being

Meinong distinguishes three modalities of being:

• Existence (Existenz, verb: existieren), or actual reality (Wirklichkeit), which denotes the material being of an object
• Subsistence (Bestand, verb: bestehen)
• Being-given (Gegebenheit, as in the German use es gibt, i.e. "there are", "it is given").

Certain objects can exist (mountains, birds, etc.); others cannot in principle ever exist, such as the objects of mathematics (numbers, theorems, etc.): such objects simply subsist. Finally, a third class of objects cannot even subsist, such as impossible objects (e.g. square circle, wooden iron, etc.). Being-given is the minimal mode of being; all objects are at the very least "given" and this mode of being does not have a negation. Indeed, if somebody were to negate the being of an object or affirm the non-being (Nichtsein) of the object, we would have the paradox that it would have to "be-given" in order to negate it.

The object and the acts of the subject

Meinong distinguishes four classes of "objects":

• "Object" (Objekt), which can be real (like notes in a melody) or ideal (like the concepts of difference, identity, etc.)
• "Objective" (Objectiv), e.g. the affirmation of the being (Sein) or non-being (Nichtsein), of a being-such (Sosein), or a being-with (Mitsein) - parallel to existential, categorical and hypothetical judgements
• "Dignitative", e.g. the true, the good, the beautiful
• "Desiderative", e.g. duties, ends, etc.

To these four classes of objects correspond four classes of psychological acts:

• (re)presentation (das Vorstellen), for objects
• thought (das Denken), for the objectives
• feeling (das Fühlen), for dignitatives
• desire (das Begehren), for the desideratives.

Literature

Primary

Books

• Meinong, A. (1885). Über philosophische Wissenschaft und ihre Propädeutik
• Meinong, A. (1894). Psychologisch-ethische Untersuchung zur Werttheorie
• Meinong, A., ed. (1904). Untersuchung zur Gegenstandstheorie und Psychologie
• Meinong, A. (1910). Über Annahmen, 2nd ed.
• Meinong, A. (1915). Über Möglichkeit und Wahrscheinlichkeit
• Meinong, A. (1917). Über emotionale Präsentation

Articles

• Meinong, A. (1877). "Hume Studien I. Zur Geschichte und Kritik des modernen Nominalismus" in Sitzungsbereiche der phil.-hist. Classe der kais. Akademie der Wissenschaften, 78:185-260.
• Meinong, A. (1882). "Hume Studien II. Zur Relationstheorie" in Sitzungsbereiche der phil.-hist. Classe der kais. Akademie der Wissenschaften, 101:573–752.
• Meinong, A. (1891). "Zur psychologie der Komplexionen und Relationen" in Zeitschrift für Psychologie und Physiologie der Sinnesorgane, II:245–265.
• Meinong, A. (1899). "Über Gegenstände höherer Ordnung und deren Verhältniss zur inneren Wahrnehmung" in Zeitschrift für Psychologie und Physiologie der Sinnesorgane, 21, pp. 187-272.

Books together with other authors

• Höfler, A. and Meinong, A. (1890). Philosophische Propädeutik. Erster Theil: Logik. F. Tempsky / G. Freytag, Vienna.

Posthumously edited works

• Haller, R., Kindinger, R., and Chisholm, R., editors, (1968-78.) Gesamtausgabe, 7 vols., Akademische Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft, Graz.
• Meinong, A. (1965). Philosophenbriefe, ed. Kindinger, R., Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, Graz.

Secondary

Books

• Albertazzi, L., Jacquette, D., and Poli, R., editors (2001). The School of Alexius Meinong. Ashgate, Aldershot. ISBN 1-84014-374-6
• Chisholm, R. (1982). Brentano and Meinong Studies. Rodopi, Amsterdam.
• Dölling, E. (1999). Wahrheit Suchen und Wahrheit Bekennen. Alexius Meinong: Skizze seines Lebens. Rodopi, Amsterdam - Atlanta. ISBN 90-420-0774-5
• Findlay, J. N. (1963). Meinong's Theory of Objects and Values, 2nd ed. Oxford, Clarendon Press.
• Grossman, R. (1974). Meinong. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London - Boston. ISBN 0-7100-7831-5
• Haller, R., editor (1972). Jenseits von Sein und Nichtsein. Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, Graz.
• Lindenfeld, D. F. (1980). The Transformation of Positivism: Alexius Meinong and European Thought, 1880-1920. University of California Press, Berkeley/Los Angeles/London. ISBN 0-520-03994-7
• Rollinger, R. D. (1993). Meinong and Husserl on Abstraction and Universals. Number XX in Studien zur Österreichischen Philosophie. Rodopi, Amsterdam – Atlanta. ISBN 90-5183-573-6
• Routley, R. (1982). Exploring Meinong's Jungle and Beyond. Ridgeview Pub Co. ISBN 978-0685056363. (Also published as Routley, R. (1979) by the Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra.)
• Schubert Kalsi, Marie-Luise (1978). Alexius Meinong: On Objects of Higher Order and Husserl's Phenomenology. Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands. ISBN 90-247-2033-8

Articles

• Chrudzimski, A. (2005). "Abstraktion und Relationen beim jungen Meinong". In [Schramm, 2005], pages 7–62.
• Dölling, E. (2005). "Eine semiotische Sicht auf Meinongs Annahmenlehre". In [Schramm, 2005], pages 129–158.
• Kenneth, B. (1970). "Meinong’s Hume Studies. Part I: Meinong’s Nominalism". in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 30:550–567.
• Kenneth, B. (1971). "Meinong’s Hume Studies. Part II: Meinong’s Analysis of Relations". in PPR, 31:564–584.
• Rollinger, R. D. (2005). "Meinong and Brentano". In [Schramm, 2005], pages 159–197.
• Schermann, H. (1972). "Husserls II. Logische Untersuchung und Meinongs Hume-Studien I. In [Haller, 1972], pages 103–116.

Journals

• Schramm, A., editor (2005). Meinong Studies - Meinong Studien, Vol. I, Ontos Verlag. (yearly periodical)

See also

• Ontology
• Philosophical realism
• Metaphysics

In philosophy, ontology (from the Greek , genitive : of being (part. ... Contemporary philosophical realism is the belief in and allegiance to a reality that exists independently of observers. ... Plato and Aristotle (right), by Raphael (Stanza della Segnatura, Rome). ...

External links

• Alexius Meinong's Theory of Objects