Background
Zalta, Edward Nouri was born on March 16, 1952 in Houston, Texas, United States. Son of Ely M. and Esther R. (Sankary) Zalta.
(In this book, I attempt to lay the axiomatic foundations ...)
In this book, I attempt to lay the axiomatic foundations of metaphysics by developing and applying a (formal) theory of abstract objects. The cornerstones include a principle which presents precise conditions under which there are abstract objects and a principle which says when apparently distinct such objects are in fact identical. The principles are constructed out of a basic set of primitive notions, which are identified at the end of the Introduction, just before the theorizing begins. The main reason for producing a theory which defines a logical space of abstract objects is that it may have a great deal of explanatory power. It is hoped that the data explained by means of the theory will be of interest to pure and applied metaphysicians, logicians and linguists, and pure and applied epistemologists. The ideas upon which the theory is based are not essentially new. They can be traced back to Alexius Meinong and his student, Ernst Mally, the two most influential members of a school of philosophers and psychologists working in Graz in the early part of the twentieth century. They investigated psychological, abstract and non-existent objects - a realm of objects which weren't being taken seriously by Anglo-American philoso phers in the Russell tradition. I first took the views of Meinong and Mally seriously in a course on metaphysics taught by Terence Parsons at the University of Massachusetts/Amherst in the Fall of 1978. Parsons had developed an axiomatic version of Meinong's naive theory of objects.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/9027714746/?tag=2022091-20
( In this book, Edward N. Zalta tackles the issues that a...)
In this book, Edward N. Zalta tackles the issues that arise in connection with intensional logic - a formal system for representing and explaining the apparent failures of certain important principles of inference - and intentional states - mental states such as beliefs, hopes, and desires, that are directed toward the world.His theory not only offers a unified explanation of the various kinds of inferential failures associated with intensional logic, but also unifies the study of intensional contexts and intentional states by grounding the explanation of both phenomena in a single theory.Zalta shows that an axiomatized realm of abstract entities, when added to the metaphysical structure of the world, can be used to identify and individuate the contents of directed mental states. These special abstract entities can be viewed as the objectified contents of mental files and they play a crucial role in the analysis of the truth conditions of the sentences involved in the inference failures.The intentional logic Zalta develops, unlike others, can analyze a wide variety of failures involving the principles of substitutivity, existential generalization, and strong extensionality.Edward N. Zalta is Acting Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, Stanford University. A Bradford Book.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0262519526/?tag=2022091-20
Zalta, Edward Nouri was born on March 16, 1952 in Houston, Texas, United States. Son of Ely M. and Esther R. (Sankary) Zalta.
Bachelor with honors, Rice University, 1975. Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy, University Massachusetts, 1981.
Zalta has taught courses at Stanford University, Rice University, the University of Salzburg, and the University of Auckland. Zalta is also the Principal Editor of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Zalta"s most notable philosophical position is descended from the position of Alexius Meinong and Ernst Mally, who suggested that there are many non-existent objects.
On Zalta"s account, some objects (the ordinary concrete ones around us, like tables and chairs) "exemplify" properties, while others (abstract objects like numbers, and what others would call "non-existent objects", like the round square, and the mountain made entirely of gold) merely "encode" them.
While the objects that exemplify properties are discovered through traditional empirical means, a simple set of axioms allows us to know about objects that encode properties. Foreign every set of properties, there is exactly one object that encodes exactly that set of properties and no others
This allows for a formalized ontology. Metaphysics,
epistemology,
philosophy of logic,
philosophy of language and intensional logic,
philosophy of mathematics, and
philosophy of mind/intentionality.
(In this book, I attempt to lay the axiomatic foundations ...)
( In this book, Edward N. Zalta tackles the issues that a...)
Member American Philosophical Association.