Why golden mountains and square circles must exist in some sense to be thought.
In short: Austrian philosopher Alexius Meinong argued that because we can think about nonexistent things like golden mountains, they must possess a form of being. He categorized these entities into a vast, exotic realm often called Meinong's jungle, challenging traditional views on what it means for something to exist or subsist.
Alexius Meinong, an Austrian philosopher active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, developed a unique ontology that remains a subject of intense debate. His central insight, detailed in his 1904 work 'Theory of Objects', is that the mind can intend objects that do not exist in reality. Because we can refer to a 'golden mountain' or a 'square circle', Meinong argued these objects must have some status that allows them to be the target of our thoughts.
To manage this, Meinong created a hierarchy of ontological status. He distinguished between 'existence', which applies to material things like horses; 'subsistence', which applies to non-temporal entities like mathematical theorems; and 'absistence' or 'being-given'. While existence and subsistence are modes of being, absistence is not a mode of being at all, but rather the state of being an object of thought. Everything absists, allowing us to affirm the non-being of impossible objects like a wooden iron.
Meinong’s work was famously criticized by Bertrand Russell, whose 1905 essay 'On Denoting' was long thought to have dealt a fatal blow to Meinongian theory. However, modern scholars like Terence Parsons and Roderick Chisholm have defended the consistency of his framework. Meinong himself insisted that objects are 'indifferent to being', meaning their real essence depends on their properties rather than their existence. This distinction remains a cornerstone for those exploring the philosophy of language and the nature of intentionality.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: Alexius Meinong
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