oppenheimer and zalta, in a co-authored paper, argue that the anselm’s ontological argument can be formalized based on free logic and the concept of conceivability. according to their version, there are only two premises in anselm’s argument. we will argue that one can extend their formalization by introducing an argument for one of the two premises based on anselm’s text. we will also show tha...

∗This paper was published in Mind , 115/459 (July 2006): 659–693. Note: In transferring the LTEX in this preprint to the format used for publication in Mind, a couple of symbols were omitted. This preprint can be used to determine what the missing symbols are. †I’d like to thank Adriano Palma and Sacha Bourgeois-Gironde for inviting me to prepare this material and present it at the École Normal...

Many of the above applications can be framed within second-order, quantified modal object theory. However, others require typed object theory, in which object theory is formulated within a background of relational type theory. Typed object theory was developed in Zalta 1982, 1983 (Chapters V, VI), 1988 (Chapters 9–12, Appendix), and more recently in Zalta 2000a (Section 3) and Nodelman & Zalta ...

Francesco Berto (2013) has recently defended a Meinongian ontology. In preparing the ground for his own view, he criticizes other, similar ontological views. In this paper, we examine some of the objections Berto raises for object theory, i.e., the theory of abstract objects defended in Zalta 1983, 1988, and elsewhere. We respond to these objections and show how to disarm them. ∗Copyright c © 2...

objects are those, that are not possibly concrete; and ordinary objects are those that are possibly concrete. The notion of an ordinary object allows Zalta in other projects to propose a theory of merely possible and also of fictional objects.9 This, however, will be of no concern here. Abstract objects enter OT via a comprehension schema for abstract objects (OC): (OC) ∃x(A!x ∧ ∀F (xF ≡ φ)), w...

§6: The Theory of Meinongian Objects 31 ∗Copyright c © 1999, by Edward N. Zalta. All rights reserved. Please do not copy, reprint, circulate, or cite without permission from the author. This manuscript presents the a priori consequences of the theory of abstract objects. This theory has been developed and explained in print (Zalta [1983], [1988], [1993]) and in unpublished manuscripts (see the ...

The authors investigate the ontological argument computationally. The premises and conclusion of the argument are represented in the syntax understood by the automated reasoning engine prover9. Using the logic of definite descriptions, the authors developed a valid representation of the argument that required three non-logical premises. prover9, however, discovered a simpler valid argument for ...

It is commonly believed that it makes no difference whether one starts with relational types or functional types in formulating type theory, since one can either start with relations as primitive and represent functions as relations or start with functions as primitive and represent relations as functions. It is also commonly believed that the formula-based logic of relational type theory is eq...

Saul Kripke has advanced interesting metaphysical and semantic claims that have strong appeal and engender conviction. In some cases, Kripke suggests that these claims constitute only a ‘picture’ rather than a theory, while in others, it is clear that the claims in question constitute a (formally) precise theory. In the former case, it is important to determine whether one can turn the picture ...

Menzel’s commentary is a tightly focused, extended argument and it may be summarized as follows: (a) though Zalta gathers a range of phenomena under a small set of concepts, unfortunately, the framework is a possibilist one; (b) Zalta justifies possibilism by arguing that it provides the simplest and most natural explanation and analysis of such phenomena as ordinary modal discourse; but (c) by...