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Objects
Edited by Daniel Z. Korman (University of California, Santa Barbara)
Assistant editor: Andrew Higgins (Illinois State University)
About this topic
| Summary | Objects are subjects of predication: anything of which something can be said is an object. So construed, the category of objects covers not only material beings like mountains, baseballs, and electrons, but also abstracta (numbers, properties, relations, set). and even non-existent entities if there be any. The papers contained herein concern the nature and existence of different varieties of objects. Some of the most prominent topics include the relation between an objects and the properties it bears; the relation between an object and its parts (mereology); the identity relation that holds between an object and itself; and the persistence of objects through time. |
| Key works | For work on the nature and existence of abstract objects, see Quine 1953, Bealer 1982, Armstrong 1989, and Dorr 2008. For work on persistence, see Hirsch 1982, Hawley 2001, and Sider 2001. For work on identity, see Black 1952, Kripke 1971, and Adams 1979. |
| Introductions | For an introduction to the notion of a object, see Laycock 2010. For abstract objects, see Rosen 2008. For material objects, see Van Inwagen 1990 and Korman & Barker 2025. |
Show all references
Related
Subcategories
Abstract Objects (654 | 574)
Properties* (3,970 | 206)
Ontology of Music* (620 | 338)
Fictional Characters* (392)
Ontology of Mathematics* (2,994 | 526)
Words* (568)
The Nature of Sets* (342 | 128)
Numbers* (457)
Identity (1,594 | 500)
Composition as Identity* (136)
Contingent Identity (82)
Theories of Personal Identity* (2,318 | 1,043)
Relative Identity* (99)
Vague Identity (148)
Criteria of Identity (117)
Identity, Misc (488)
Material Objects (1,850 | 470)
Artifacts (278)
Coincident Objects (189)
Composition as Identity* (136)
Contingent Identity* (82)
Hylomorphism* (42)
Material Constitution (312)
Mereological Universalism* (144)
Mereological Nihilism* (182)
Monism* (143)
Problem of the Many (71)
Stuff (149)
Vague Objects (117)
Material Objects, Misc (151)
Mereology (1,539 | 646)
Composition as Identity (136)
Mereological Nihilism (182)
Simples and Gunk (131)
Mereology, Misc (195)
Ontology of Mathematics* (2,994 | 526)
Nonexistent Objects (162)
Objects and Properties (457 | 104)
Persistence (1,199 | 168)
Endurance (142)
Perdurance (152)
Relative Identity (99)
Stage Theory (67)
Temporary Intrinsics (43)
Persistence, Misc (99)
Objects, Misc (82)
Contents
7701 found
Order:
| 1 — 50 / 7701 |
Material to categorize
- How Nature Uses Technology to Destroy Planets (Create Stars).Ilexa Yardley - 2025 - Https://Medium.Com/the-Circular-Theory/.
- The Simplicity of Plenitude [Full title redacted for blind review].M. Botti - manuscriptIn this paper, I prove an overlooked incompatibility result: Simplicity of Plenitude (SOP). SOP says that an ontology committed to Plenitude, ie. the claim that, for every object, there is a plenitude of objects that coincide with it, is incompatible with an ontology that includes both atomic and composite objects and so with any account of coincidence in purely mereological terms. I construct SOP as a paradox: there is no way to both (i) interpret the universal quantifier in Plenitude as (...)Remove from this listExport citation
Bookmark - El to ti ēn einai en su acaecerse ontológico.Evans Civit & Jorge Horacio - 2007 - Ciudad de Mendoza [Argentina]: Editorial de la Facultad de Filosofia y Letras de la Universidad Nacional de Cuyo.
- L'esperienza delle cose.Andrea Borsari (ed.) - 1992 - Genova: Marietti 1820.
Abstract Objects
- Is there a plausible realist theory of fictional characters?Andrew Wynn Owen - 2024 - Contributions of the Austrian Ludwig Wittgenstein Society 30:850-858.The debate between realists and anti-realists about fictional entities is important partly because it connects with debates about the nature of reference. According to the descriptivist model held by Fregeans, a name has reference to an object due to the connection of that name with a description, which is met by the relevant object. According to the causal-communicative model held by Millians, a name refers in virtue of a chain of reference linking that name to a referent. In the case (...)
- There are no uninstantiated words.J. T. M. Miller - 2025 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 68 (2):209-214.Kaplan ([1990]. “Words.” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 64: 93–119; [2011]. “Words on Words.” The Journal of Philosophy 108 (9): 504–529) argues that there are no unspoken words. Hawthorne and Lepore ([2011]. “On Words.” The Journal of Philosophy 108 (9): 447–485) put forward examples that purport to show that there can be such words. Here, I argue that Kaplan is correct, if we grant him a minor variation. While Hawthorne and Lepore might be right that there can be unspoken words, (...)
- (1 other version)objects are (not) ...Friedrich Wilhelm Grafe - manuscriptnote: this is a by Cambridge Open Engage (C.O.E.) fixed version of my research paper 'objects are (not) ....', which I first posted February 17th, 2024 at researchgate and subsequently host at philarchive, academia and the internet archive. -/- Abstract: My goal in this paper is, to tentatively sketch and try defend some observations regarding the ontological dignity of object references, as they may be used from within in a formalized language. Hence I try to explore, what properties objects are (...)
- Truth Without Truths.David Liggins - 2024 - Oxford: Oxford University Press.In the context of debates about truth, nihilism is the view that nothing is true. This is a very striking and (at first) implausible thesis, which is perhaps why it is seldom discussed. _Truth Without Truths_ applies nihilism to the philosophical debates on truth and paradox, and explores how a nihilist approach to truth is a serious contender. -/- ¶ -/- David Liggins demonstrates that a strong case for nihilism about truth is available. The main grounds for taking nihilism on (...)
- Kandinsky on colors and the objectless vibrations.Dragos Grusea - 2024 - The Annals of the University of Bucharest - Philosophy Series (1):51-66.If we accept that Kandinsky developed a systematic theory of the fundamentals of painting, we must ask what is the central concept underlying this attempt. This paper argues for the thesis that objectless vibration plays a central role in the reconstruction proposed Kandinsky’s first book, ”Concerning the Spiritual in Art”. This kind of vibration includes as a virtual field both shapes, sounds and colors. All these “fall” in an organized way from the virtual vibrations, and the purpose of abstract painting (...)
- The Problem of Primordial Black Holes (and Force Carriers).Ilexa Yardley - 2024 - Https://Medium.Com/the-Circular-Theory/.Science depends upon the decimal system, and, for technological ‘calculations,’ science also depends upon the binary system. Where neither the decimal system nor the binary system is known at all by Nature. -/- .
- Immanence in Abundance.Chad Carmichael - 2022 - Erkenntnis 89 (4):1535-1553.In this paper, I develop a theory on which each of a thing’s abundant properties is immanent in that thing. On the version of the theory I will propose, universals are abundant, each instantiated universal is immanent, and each uninstantiated universal is such that it could have been instantiated, in which case it would have been immanent. After setting out the theory, I will defend it from David Lewis’s argument that such a combination of immanence and abundance is absurd. I (...)
- (1 other version)Objects are (not) ...Friedrich Wilhelm Grafe - 2024 - Archive.Org.My goal in this paper is, to tentatively sketch and try defend some observations regarding the ontological dignity of object references, as they may be used from within in a formalized language. -/- Hence I try to explore, what properties objects are presupposed to have, in order to enter the universe of discourse of an interpreted formalized language. -/- First I review Frege′s analysis of the logical structure of truth value definite sentences of scientific colloquial language, to draw suggestions from (...)
- Fictional Names Revisited.Panu Raatikainen - 2023 - In _Essays in the Philosophy of Language._ Acta Philosophica Fennica Vol. 100. Helsinki: Societas Philosophica Fennica. pp. 227–246.Several philosophers including Kripke have contended that fictional entities do exist as abstract objects, and fictional names refer to such abstract entities. Kripke and Thomasson compare fictional entities to existing social entities. Kripke also reflects on fictions inside fictions to support his view. Many philosophers appeal to the apparent fact that we quantify over fictional entities. Such arguments in favor of the existence of fictional entities are critically scrutinized. It is argued that they are much less compelling than their proponents (...)
- How to Change an Artwork.David Friedell - forthcoming - In Alex King, Philosophy and Art: New Essays at the Intersection. Oxford University Press.The question of how people change artworks is important for the metaphysics of art. It’s relatively easy for anyone to change a painting or sculpture, but who may change a literary or musical work is restricted and varies with context. Authors of novels and composers of symphonies often have a special power to change their artworks. Mary Shelley revised Frankenstein, and Tchaikovsky revised his Second Symphony. I cannot change these artworks. In other cases, such as those involving jazz standards and (...)
- Solstice-Equinox.Ilexa Yardley - 2023 - Https://Medium.Com/the-Circular-Theory/.The explanation for everything in Nature, everything in human history, future, and-or, past, is the conservation of a circle, proven by, the circular-linear relationship between, the solstice and the equinox.
- Pragmatic accounts of justification, epistemic analyticity, and other routes to easy knowledge of abstracta.Brett Topey - forthcoming - In Xavier de Donato-Rodríguez, José Falguera & Concha Martínez-Vidal, Deflationist Conceptions of Abstract Objects. Springer.One common attitude toward abstract objects is a kind of platonism: a view on which those objects are mind-independent and causally inert. But there's an epistemological problem here: given any naturalistically respectable understanding of how our minds work, we can't be in any sort of contact with mind-independent, causally inert objects. So platonists, in order to avoid skepticism, tend to endorse epistemological theories on which knowledge is easy, in the sense that it requires no such contact—appeals to Boghossian’s notion of (...)
- Physik der Medien: Materialien, Apparate, Präsentierungen.Walter Seitter - 2002 - Weimar: VDG, Verlag und Datenbank für Geisteswissenschaften.
- There are no abstract objects.Cian Dorr - 2008 - In Theodore Sider, John P. Hawthorne & Dean W. Zimmerman, Contemporary debates in metaphysics. Malden, MA: Blackwell.I explicate and defend the claim that, fundamentally speaking, there are no numbers, sets, properties or relations. The clarification consists in some remarks on the relevant sense of ‘fundamentally speaking’ and the contrasting sense of ‘superficially speaking’. The defence consists in an attempt to rebut two arguments for the existence of such entities. The first is a version of the indispensability argument, which purports to show that certain mathematical entities are required for good scientific explanations. The second is a speculative (...)
- Ontology and Arbitrariness.David Builes - 2022 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 100 (3):485-495.In many different ontological debates, anti-arbitrariness considerations push one towards two opposing extremes. For example, in debates about mereology, one may be pushed towards a maximal ontology (mereological universalism) or a minimal ontology (mereological nihilism), because any intermediate view seems objectionably arbitrary. However, it is usually thought that anti-arbitrariness considerations on their own cannot decide between these maximal or minimal views. I will argue that this is a mistake. Anti-arbitrariness arguments may be used to motivate a certain popular thesis in (...)
- Stairway to Heaven.Ilexa Yardley - 2021 - Https://Medium.Com/the-Circular-Theory/.The metaphor proves reality, and observation, all of it (the human mind) (and, therefore, a universal mind), is unified, made possible, and controlled, by the conservation of a circle. Metaphorically 'speaking'…pi in mathematics is the technical term for the word 'mind' (any context): the stairway to heaven (and-or hell)… (See, Also: Magical Thinking).
- Object-Oriented 'Reality'.Ilexa Yardley - 2022 - Https://Medium.Com/the-Circular-Theory.It’s all about ‘The Singularity’… (Self-Referential Recursion)….
- Negation.Ilexa Yardley - 2022 - Https://Medium.Com/the-Circular-Theory.Negation is a sophisticated form of duplication. Proving (and demonstrating) 'The Singularity.' Eliminating the need for proof.
- Words on Kripke’s Puzzle.Maciej Tarnowski & Maciej Głowacki - 2022 - Synthese 200 (4):1-21.In this paper we present a solution to Saul Kripke’s Puzzle About Belief Meaning and use, Dordrecht, 1979) based on Kaplan’s metaphysical picture of words. Although it is widely accepted that providing such a solution was one of the main incentives for the development of Kaplan’s theory, it was never presented by Kaplan in a systematic manner and was regarded by many as unsatisfactory. We agree with these critiques, and develop an extension of Kaplan’s theory by introducing the notion of (...)
- The Information Economy.Ilexa Yardley - 2022 - Https://Medium.Com/the-Circular-Theory.Everything in a human 'universe' (a human mind) depends upon finance. This is because finance is the tokenization, and, therefore, the conservation (the representation) of an uber-basic circle. One zero and (or) one one produces an unlimited number (variation) (combination) of zeroes and ones. Which is exactly what is happening in all disciplines (philosophy, physics, psychology, biology, technology, media).
- Mereology and The 'Singularity'.Ilexa Yardley - 2022 - Https://Medium.Com/the-Circular-Theory/.There is a conserved circular-linear relationship between an individual and a group (a part and a whole) (half and whole) (whole and half). Explaining mereology and producing the 'singularity' (a universal theory of everything, all disciplines) (which may be impossible for humans to accept).
- Memetics.Ilexa Yardley - 2022 - Https://Medium.Com/the-Circular-Theory/.Meme means ‘copy.’ Bio means ‘two.’ Biomemetics is (the study of) (the belief that) the tokenization of reality is a (continual) (and perpetual) copy of the number ‘two.’ Explaining, fundamentality, universals, abstraction, representation, tokenization, the 'self' in any discipline. Identity, Complementarity, Reality.
- Musical works, types and modal flexibility reconsidered.Nemesio García-Carril Puy - 2022 - Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 80 (3):295–308.Guy Rohrbaugh and Allan Hazlett have provided two arguments against the thesis that musical works are types. In short, they assume that, according to our modal talk and intuitions, musical works are modally flexible entities; since types are modally inflexible entities, musical works are not types. I argue that Rohrbaugh’s and Hazlett’s arguments fail and that the type/token theorist can preserve the truth of our modal claims and intuitions even if types are modally inflexible entities. First, I consider two alternatives (...)
- Circular Thinking.Ilexa Yardley - 2020 - Https://Medium.Com/the-Circular-Theory.Circular Thinking is essential (required) in order to understand ‘reality’ (Nature in general)… including the relationship between mind and matter (abstraction and representation).
- What the Metaverse has to do with Physics.Ilexa Yardley - 2021 - Https://Medium.Com/the-Circular-Theory/.Why the metaverse is taking over technology. And, physics. (And, therefore, philosophy.) It’s all about the meme.
- Man-Made Systems vs. Mind-Made Systems.Ilexa Yardley - 2022 - Https://Medium.Com/the-Circular-Theory.Mind does not operate using sequence (also known, to ‘man,’ as ‘time’). Think: philosophical, and physical, fusion.
- Neutrality and Force in Field's Epistemological Objection to Platonism.Ylwa Sjölin Wirling - 2024 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 67 (9):3461-3480.Field’s challenge to platonists is the challenge to explain the reliable match between mathematical truth and belief. The challenge grounds an objection claiming that platonists cannot provide such an explanation. This objection is often taken to be both neutral with respect to controversial epistemological assumptions, and a comparatively forceful objection against platonists. I argue that these two characteristics are in tension: no construal of the objection in the current literature realises both, and there are strong reasons to think that no (...)
- Diane, I am Now Upside Down.Kristopher G. Phillips & Veronica McMullen - 2018 - In Richard Greene & Rachel Robison-Greene, Twin Peaks and Philosophy: That's Damn Fine Philosophy! Popular Culture and Philosophy. pp. 165-178.Using Twin Peaks' Agent Dale Cooper as an example, we explore the paradox of fiction. Employing resources from Aimee Thomasson's account of fictional characters in conjunction with some research on parasocial interaction, we make offer a potential solution for the paradox.Remove from this listExport citation Bookmark
- Contemporary Art: Ontology.Sherri Irvin - 2014 - In Michael Kelly, Encyclopedia of Aesthetics. 2nd edition (Oxford University Press). Oxford University Press. pp. 170-172.The ontology of visual artworks might be thought comparable to the ontology of other sorts of artifacts: a work of painting seems to be materially constituted by a particular canvas with paint on it, just as a spoon is constituted by a particular piece of metal. But recent developments have complicated the situation, requiring a new account of the ontology of contemporary art. These developments also shed light on the ontology of works from earlier historical eras. This article discusses Artworks (...)
- The Ontological Diversity of Visual Artworks.Sherri Irvin - 2008 - In Kathleen Stock & Katherine Thomson-Jones, New waves in aesthetics. New York: Palgrave-Macmillan. pp. 1-19.Virtually everyone who has advanced an ontology of art has accepted a constraint to the effect that claims about ontology should cohere with the sort of appreciative claims made about artworks within a mature and reflective version of critical practice. I argue that such a constraint, which I agree is appropriate, rules out a one-size-fits-all ontology of contemporary visual art (and thus of visual art in general). Mature critical practice with respect to contemporary art accords artists a significant degree of (...)
- Words, Species, and Kinds.J. T. M. Miller - 2021 - Metaphysics 4 (1):18–31.It has been widely argued that words are analogous to species such that words, like species, are natural kinds. In this paper, I consider the metaphysics of word-kinds. After arguing against an essentialist approach, I argue that word-kinds are homeostatic property clusters, in line with the dominant approach to other biological and psychological kinds.
- Norm and Object: A Normative Hylomorphic Theory of Social Objects.Asya Passinsky - 2021 - Philosophers' Imprint 21 (25):1-21.This paper is an investigation into the metaphysics of social objects such as political borders, states, and organizations. I articulate a metaphysical puzzle concerning such objects and then propose a novel account of social objects that provides a solution to the puzzle. The basic idea behind the puzzle is that under appropriate circumstances, seemingly concrete social objects can apparently be created by acts of agreement, decree, declaration, or the like. Yet there is reason to believe that no concrete object can (...)
- Uploads, Faxes, and You: Can Personal Identity Be Transmitted?Jonah Goldwater - 2021 - American Philosophical Quarterly 58 (3):233–250.Abstract. Could a person or mind be uploaded—transmitted to a computer or network—and thereby survive bodily death? I argue ‘mind uploading’ is possible only if a mind is an abstract object rather than a concrete particular. Two implications are notable. One, if someone can be uploaded someone can be multiply-instantiated, such that there could be as many instances of a person as copies of a book. Second, mind uploading’s possibility is incompatible with the leading theories of personal identity, insofar as (...)
- Abstract objects and semantics: An essay on prospects and problems with abstraction principles as a means of justifying reference to abstract objects.Gnatek Zuzanna - 2020 - Dissertation, Trinity College, Dublin
- Dwojaka natura ontologiczna znaków językowych i problem ich wzajemnych relacji.Urszula Wybraniec-Skardowska - 2021 - Ruch Filozoficzny 77 (1):7-24.The subject matter of this work covers the issues or problems listed below: * The problem of the ontological status of language signs and a more general philosophical problem connected with it: * What is language as a system of signs, which – on the one hand – serves to: 1) represent our knowledge about the reality which is being recognized, and, on the other one to: 2) a. explore and better cognize or discover it, b. describe it in an (...)
- Why Crypto-Everything is Here to Stay.Ilexa Yardley - 2021 - Https://Medium.Com/the-Circular-Theory/.Cryptocurrency is just the tip of a never-melting iceberg…because everything in Nature is connected to everything else by an always-conserved (and uber-simple) circle. Giving us, finally, an explanation (and, technically, a use-case, and proof) for a 'self.'.
- Technology and the Realization of ‘Self’.Ilexa Yardley - 2021 - Https://Medium.Com/the-Circular-Theory.Everything in Nature is, technically, a non-fungible token for 'self.' Explaining the meaning of the word 'self' across all disciplines. Introduces and explains Biomemetics (neologism for the technological realization of 'self').
- Abstraction: How to Understand It.Ilexa Yardley - 2021 - Https://Medium.Com/the-Circular-Theory/.Abstract is a noun. Abstract is, also, a verb. Thus, abstraction. Explaining nouns. And verbs.
- A Theory of Properties.Peter van Inwagen - 2004 - In Dean W. Zimmerman, Oxford Studies in Metaphysics Volume 1. Oxford University Press. pp. 107-138.
- Euclid's Error: The Mathematics behind Foucault, Deleuze, and Nietzsche.Ilexa Yardley - 2021 - Intelligent Design Center.We have to go all the way back to Euclid, and, actually, before, to figure out the basis for representation, and therefore, interpretation. Which is, pure and simple, the conservation of a circle. As articulated by Foucault, Deleuze, and Nietzsche. 'Pi' (in mathematics) is the background state for everything (a.k.a. 'mind').Providing the explanation for (and the current popularity, and, thus, the 'genius' behind) NFT (non fungible tokens). 'Reality' has, finally, caught up with the 'truth.'.
- What Is Metascientific Ontology?François Maurice - 2022 - Mεtascience: Scientific General Discourse 2:22-44.Metascientific ontology differs from philosophical ontologies in its objectives, objects and methods. By an examination of the ontological theories of Mario Bunge, we will show their main objective is a unified representation of the world as known through the sciences, that their objects of study are scientific concepts, and that their methods do not differ from those that one expects to find in any rational activity. Metascientific ontology is therefore not transcendent because it does not seek to represent non-concrete objects (...)
- The Most Advanced Thinking on the Planet (In the Universe).Ilexa Yardley - 2020 - Https://Medium.Com/the-Circular-Theory/.Whether you know it or not…Whether you believe it or not….
- The Proportionality Argument and the Problem of Widespread Causal Overdetermination.Alexey Aliyev - 2020 - Disputatio 12 (59):331-355.The consensus is that repeatable artworks cannot be identified with particular material individuals. A perennial temptation is to identify them with types, broadly construed. Such identification, however, faces the so-called “Creation Problem.” This problem stems from the fact that, on the one hand, it seems reasonable to accept the claims that (1) repeatable artworks are types, (2) types cannot be created, and (3) repeatable artworks are created, but, on the other hand, these claims are mutually inconsistent. A possible solution to (...)
- Configuration Symmetry.Ilexa Yardley - 2018 - Https://Medium.Com/the-Circular-Theory/.Noether's Theorem produces the configuration (and symmetry) for everything in Nature.
- The Billionaire.Ilexa Yardley - 2021 - Https://Medium.Com/the-Circular-Theory/.Zero and one. Circumference and diameter. Intelligent anarchy. Explanation for abstraction (as a noun) (as a verb).
- Philosophy: Origination and Destination.Ilexa Yardley - 2021 - Https://Medium.Com/the-Circular-Theory.An uber-simple circle is the basis for (and explains) everything in philosophy.
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