Noneism, also known as modal Meinongianism [1] [2] (named after Alexius Meinong), is both a philosophical and theological theory. In a philosophical and metaphysical context, the theory suggests that some things do not exist. that definition was first conceptualized by Richard Sylvan in 1980 and then later expanded on by Graham Priest in 2005. [3] [4] In a theological context, noneism is the practice of spirituality without an affiliation to organized religion.
Noneism, in this context, holds that some things do not exist or have no being. [5] There are a few controversial entities in philosophy that, according to noneism philosophy, do not exist: past and future entities, which entails any entity that no longer exists or will exist in the future; people or living things that are deceased; unactualized possibila, which are objects that have the potential to exist but do not yet exist; universals, being characteristics shared by a multiplicity of entities; numbers and numerical entities; classes, meaning groups of entities that share common characteristics; and Meinongian entities, which include incomplete or inconsistent objects. [6] These entities are considered controversial because philosophers debate their existence, and they are often central to philosophical theorization. [6] Noneism, as defined by Priest and Sylvan, is the idea brought forth by Meinong that there are existent objects, subsistent objects (physically nonexistent) and absistent objects (nonexistent things that lack form or shape), but the theory denies that subsistent and absistent objects exist. [5]
Opposing theories
In opposition to noneism, allism claims that all of the controversial philosophical entities do exist. [6] Although noneism was derived from Quinean philosophy, there are aspects in which noneism diverges from the original theory. [5] Willard Van Olman Quine said that “to be is to be the value of a variable,” which says that the state of something existing lies in quantification. [5] Quinean philosophy says that there is a direct relationship between quantification and existence, which noneism partially rejects. [5] Essentially, noneism holds that objects can only exist if they are not absistent or subsistent, and therefore some things do not exist. [5]
Along with the theory of noneism comes critiques on its validity. Noneism denies the existence of objects that are not real but are quantifiable and are easily talked about as real entities, like fictional characters and mythological beings. [7] Also, there are critiques that say noneists focus heavily on the literality of objects rather than what is implied or interpreted, which creates disagreements about an existence theory. [7] Frederick Kroon, a philosopher at the University of Auckland, mentions that Gandalf, a fictional character from The Lord of the Rings , is honored for his positive character traits, but that noneists would say that these claims of honor are false, because Gandalf is a nonexistent entity. [7]
To add, while Priest also espouses dialetheism, he maintains that his dialetheism is mostly capable of being separated from his noneism.[ citation needed ] The connection between noneism and dialetheism is that impossible objects may exist in impossible worlds, much as nonexistent objects may exist in possible, but not actual, worlds.[ citation needed ]
Sylvan and Priest
Noneism started to gain traction when Richard Sylvan's book, Exploring Meinong's Jungle and Beyond: An Investigation of Noneism and the Theory of Items, was published in 1980, and the theory was further added to in Graham Priest's book entitled Towards Non-Being: The Logic and Metaphysics of Intentionality, which was published in 2005 (second revised edition in 2016).[ citation needed ]
In theological practice, noneism is a religious movement practiced by people who define themselves as either spiritual, atheistic, or agnostic, but are not affiliated with an organized religion. [8] Because spiritual devotion is increasingly separating itself from organized religion, more people are starting to define themselves as not being affiliated with religion in its entirety. [8] Those that define themselves as ‘nones’, or people that practice noneism, are most prominent in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, but the movement appears elsewhere in the United States as a whole. [9]
There is a lack of homogeneity with this group, since people who practice noneism can come from diverse religious backgrounds. [8] Seventy percent of these ‘nones’ were raised in a religious household, and many continue to practice their spiritual beliefs. [8] Many immigrants to the United States typically leave their religious affiliations behind but still may practice religious rites or maintain their beliefs in their faith. [9] Noneism is spread by the lack of a dominant religious institution and generally weaker religious fervor, as demonstrated by the Pacific Northwest’s societal landscape. [9]
Existence is the state of having being or reality in contrast to nonexistence and nonbeing. Existence is often contrasted with essence: the essence of an entity is its essential features or qualities, which can be understood even if one does not know whether the entity exists.
Ontology is the philosophical study of being. It is traditionally understood as the subdiscipline of metaphysics focused on the most general features of reality. As one of the most fundamental concepts, being encompasses all of reality and every entity within it. To articulate the basic structure of being, ontology examines what all things have in common. It also investigates how they can be grouped into basic types, such as the categories of particulars and universals. Particulars are unique, non-repeatable entities, like the person Socrates. Universals are general, repeatable entities, like the color green. Another contrast is between concrete objects existing in space and time, like a tree, and abstract objects existing outside space and time, like the number 7. Systems of categories aim to provide a comprehensive inventory of reality, employing categories such as substance, property, relation, state of affairs, and event.
Alexius Meinong Ritter von Handschuchsheim was an Austrian philosopher, a realist known for his unique ontology and theory of objects. He also made contributions to philosophy of mind and theory of value.
Richard Sylvan was a New Zealand–born philosopher, logician, and environmentalist.
In logic and philosophy, a property is a characteristic of an object; a red object is said to have the property of redness. The property may be considered a form of object in its own right, able to possess other properties. A property, however, differs from individual objects in that it may be instantiated, and often in more than one object. It differs from the logical/mathematical concept of class by not having any concept of extensionality, and from the philosophical concept of class in that a property is considered to be distinct from the objects which possess it. Understanding how different individual entities can in some sense have some of the same properties is the basis of the problem of universals.
Dialetheism is the view that there are statements that are both true and false. More precisely, it is the belief that there can be a true statement whose negation is also true. Such statements are called "true contradictions", dialetheia, or nondualisms.
The Graz School, also Meinong's School, of experimental psychology and object theory was headed by Alexius Meinong, who was professor and Chair of Philosophy at the University of Graz where he founded the Graz Psychological Institute in 1894. The Graz School's phenomenological psychology and philosophical semantics achieved important advances in philosophy and psychological science.
In analytic philosophy, actualism is the view that everything there is is actual. Another phrasing of the thesis is that the domain of unrestricted quantification ranges over all and only actual existents.
Philosophical realism—usually not treated as a position of its own but as a stance towards other subject matters— is the view that a certain kind of thing has mind-independent existence, i.e. that it exists even in the absence of any mind perceiving it or that its existence is not just a mere appearance in the eye of the beholder. This includes a number of positions within epistemology and metaphysics which express that a given thing instead exists independently of knowledge, thought, or understanding. This can apply to items such as the physical world, the past and future, other minds, and the self, though may also apply less directly to things such as universals, mathematical truths, moral truths, and thought itself. However, realism may also include various positions which instead reject metaphysical treatments of reality altogether.
A free logic is a logic with fewer existential presuppositions than classical logic. Free logics may allow for terms that do not denote any object. Free logics may also allow models that have an empty domain. A free logic with the latter property is an inclusive logic.
Relationalism is any theoretical position that gives importance to the relational nature of things. For relationalism, things exist and function only as relational entities.
This glossary of philosophy is a list of definitions of terms and concepts relevant to philosophy and related disciplines, including logic, ethics, and theology.
In metaphysics and ontology, nonexistent objects are a concept advanced by Austrian philosopher Alexius Meinong in the 19th and 20th centuries within a "theory of objects". He was interested in intentional states which are directed at nonexistent objects. Starting with the "principle of intentionality", mental phenomena are intentionally directed towards an object. People may imagine, desire or fear something that does not exist. Other philosophers concluded that intentionality is not a real relation and therefore does not require the existence of an object, while Meinong concluded there is an object for every mental state whatsoever—if not an existent then at least a nonexistent one.
William F. Vallicella is an American philosopher.
Metaontology or meta-ontology is the study of the field of inquiry known as ontology. The goal of meta-ontology is to clarify what ontology is about and how to interpret the meaning of ontological claims. Different meta-ontological theories disagree on what the goal of ontology is and whether a given issue or theory lies within the scope of ontology. There is no universal agreement whether meta-ontology is a separate field of inquiry besides ontology or whether it is just one branch of ontology.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to metaphysics:
In metaphysics, Plato's beard is a paradoxical argument dubbed by Willard Van Orman Quine in his 1948 paper "On What There Is". The phrase came to be identified as the philosophy of understanding something based on what does not exist.
Abstract object theory (AOT) is a branch of metaphysics regarding abstract objects. Originally devised by metaphysician Edward Zalta in 1981, the theory was an expansion of mathematical Platonism.
In philosophy, naturalism is the idea that only natural laws and forces operate in the universe. In its primary sense, it is also known as ontological naturalism, metaphysical naturalism, pure naturalism, philosophical naturalism and antisupernaturalism. "Ontological" refers to ontology, the philosophical study of what exists. Philosophers often treat naturalism as equivalent to materialism, but there are important distinctions between the philosophies.
The Meinongian argument is a type of ontological argument or an "a priori argument" that seeks to prove the existence of God. This is through an assertion that there is "a distinction between different categories of existence." The premise of the ontological argument is based on Alexius Meinong's works. Some scholars also associate it with St. Anselm's ontological argument.
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