http://mally.stanford.edu/ (World Wide Web Directory, ~04/1995)

The Metaphysics Research Lab

Welcome to the Metaphysics Research Lab at the Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI) on the Stanford University campus. In our lab, we study abstract objects: mathematical objects (numbers, sets, etc.), mathematical relations (set membership, successor, etc.), concepts (general and individual concepts), possibilities (possible events, possible worlds, possible objects, etc.), forms, fictions (Sherlock Holmes, phlogiston, Vulcan, etc.), relations, properties, propositions, states of affairs, situations, senses, monads, etc., to name just a few. Metaphysics is the search for a unified theory of the logical space these abstract objects define.

In our research lab, we have developed such a theory: the axiomatic theory of abstract objects. It is proposed by Edward N. Zalta (Ph.D./Philosophy), a Senior Researcher at CSLI working in the lab. The theory is based on an idea of Ernst Mally (b. 1879, d. 1944), an Austrian philosopher who worked at the University of Graz (the computer serving these documents, mally.stanford.edu, is named in honor of this philosopher). In 1912, Mally informally introduced an interesting logical distinction and this distinction is formalized in the axiomatic theory of abstract objects. The abstract objects mentioned above can be precisely defined in terms of the theory and their properties can be derived as consequences of the theory. A compendium of our results may be found in the document Principia Metaphysica, which is linked into the button The Theory of Abstract Objects. By examining the other buttons, you may find that the theory unifies some of the ideas of Plato, Meinong, Frege, and Leibniz, as well as other philosophers. In published work, the theory has been applied to problems in the philosophy of language, intensional logic, the philosophy of mathematics, and the history of philosophy.

Welcome Message (260K sound file)

The Theory of Abstract Objects (Summary and Tutorial)

Ernst Mally Plato and Meinong

Gottlob Frege Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

Center for the Study of Language and Information

Edward N. Zalta

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