In philosophy, an object is a thing, an entity, or a being. This may be taken in several senses. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... An entity is something that has a distinct, separate existence, though it need not be a material existence. ... A being, in the most general sense, is anything that is alive. ...

In its weakest sense, the word object is the most all-purpose of nouns, and can replace a noun in any sentence at all. (In ordinary usage, the word has something like this effect, but not as extreme.) Thus objects are things as diverse as the pyramids, Alpha Centauri, the number seven, my belief in predestination, and your mother's fear of dogs. Charles S. Peirce succinctly defines the broad notion of an object as follows: This is about the polyhedron. ... Alpha Centauri (α Cen / α Centauri) is the brightest star system (a triple star system) in the southern constellation of Centaurus, and contains the fourth brightest star in the night sky, with an apparent visual magnitude of −0. ... 7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. ... Charles Sanders Peirce Charles Sanders Santiago Peirce (pronounced purse), (September 10, 1839, Cambridge, Massachusetts – April 19, 1914, Milford, Pennsylvania) was an American polymath. ...

"By an object, I mean anything that we can think, i.e. anything we can talk about." [1]

In a more restricted sense, an object is something that can have properties and bear relations to other objects. On this account, properties and relations (as well as propositions) are not included among objects, but are explicitly contrasted with them, as falling into a different logical category. Sets and universals are also perhaps not objects on this account. // Use of the term The concept of property or ownership has no single or universally accepted definition. ... In mathematics, a relation is a generalization of arithmetic relations, such as = and <, which occur in statements, such as 5 < 6 or 2 + 2 = 4. See relation (mathematics), binary relation and relational algebra. ... Look up category in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In mathematics, a set can be thought of as any collection of distinct things considered as a whole. ... Universals (used as a noun) are either properties, relations, or types, but not classes. ...

In a further restricted sense, objects do not include anything abstract, but only things located somehow in space and time — minds and bodies, for instance. Numbers, ideas, and the like are out. To meet Wikipedias quality standards and appeal to a wider international audience, this article may require cleanup. ...

In further restricted senses, objects are often just the material objects (excluding minds), or even just the inanimate material objects (the protons and electrons we are made of, but not we ourselves).-1... Properties The electron is a fundamental subatomic particle that carries a negative electric charge. ...

Objects are often treated as types of particulars, but occasionally, philosophers see fit to speak of abstract objects — Platonic forms would be an example. An abstract object is normally referred to something that does not exist physically. It is rational to say that abstract objects exist psychically, as opposed to physically. In metaphysics, particulars are, one might say, identified by what they are not: they are not abstract, not multiply instantiated. ... According to Platonic realism, universals exist in a realm (often so called) that is separate from space and time; one might say that universals have a sort of ghostly or heavenly mode of existence, but, at least in more modern versions of Platonism, such a description is probably more misleading... Psychical is the antonym of physical. ... Antonym of psychical. ...

Semantics

Symbols represent objects; how they do so, the map-territory relation, is the basic problem of semantics. WordNet gives four main senses for the English noun object: a physical entity; something that is within the grasp of the senses; an aim, target or objective — see Object (task); a grammatical Object — either a direct object or an indirect object the focus of cognitions or feelings. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... In the main, semantics (from the Greek and in greek letters σημαντικός or in latin letters semantikos, or significant meaning, derived from sema, sign) is the study of meaning, in some sense of that term. ...

See also

// An abstraction is an idea, concept, or word which defines the phenomena which make up the concrete events or things which the abstraction refers to, the referents. ... Category theory is a mathematical theory that deals in an abstract way with mathematical structures and relationships between them. ... Charles Sanders Peirce Charles Sanders Santiago Peirce (pronounced purse), (September 10, 1839, Cambridge, Massachusetts – April 19, 1914, Milford, Pennsylvania) was an American polymath. ... Continuous predicate is a term coined by Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914) to describe a special type of relational predicate that results as the limit of a recursive process of hypostatic abstraction. ... Hypostatic abstraction, also known as hypostasis or subjectal abstraction, is the process or the product of a formal operation that takes an element of information, such as might be expressed in a proposition of the form X is Y, and conceives its information to consist in the relation between a... A hypostatic object, also known in certain senses as an abstract object or a formal object, is an object of discussion or thought that results as the normal product of a process of hypostatic abstraction. ... See: Hypostasis (linguistics) Hypostasis (religion) Hypostasis (organization) This is a disambiguation page — a list of articles associated with the same title. ... WordNet gives four main senses for the English noun object: a physical entity; something that is within the grasp of the senses; an aim, target or objective — see Object (task); a grammatical Object — either a direct object or an indirect object the focus of cognitions or feelings. ... One of the more vexed topics of metaphysics and ontology concerns what might be called objects, or objecthood: what general claims can we make about the meaning of talk of objects--bodies such as rocks, trees, as well as (arguably) minds? The leading theories on this admittedly vague question have... Prescisive abstraction or prescision, variously spelled as precisive abstraction or prescission, is a formal operation that marks, selects, or singles out one feature of a concrete experience to the disregard of others. ... Reification, also called hypostatization, is treating a concept, an abstraction, as if it were a real, concrete thing. ... A sign relation is the basic construct in the theory of signs, or semiotic theory, as developed by Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914). ... The subject of a sentence is one of the two main parts of a sentence, the other being the predicate. ... Subject (philosophy) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ...

External links

• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
  • Object
  • Abstract Objects