Abstract Objects

This volume examines the question "Do abstract objects exist?", presenting new work from contributing authors across different branches of philosophy. The introduction overviews philosophical debate which considers: what objects qualify as abstract, what do we mean by the word "exist" and indeed, what evidence should count in favor or against the thesis that abstract objects exist. Through subsequent chapters readers will discover the ubiquity of abstract objects as each philosophical field is considered.
Given the ubiquitous use of expressions that purportedly refer to abstract objects, we think that it is relevant to attend to the controversy between those who want to advocate the existence of abstract objects and those who stand against them. Contributions to this volume depict positions and debates that directly or indirectly involve taking one position or other about abstract objects of different kinds and categories. The volume provides a variety ofsamples of how positions for or against abstract objects can be used in different areas of philosophy in relation to different matters.

Preface (José L. Falguera and Concha Martinez-Vidal). - 1. Introduction: Recent disputes on the existence on abstract objects: an overview (Matteo Plebani). - Part I. Enhanced Indispensability and Type Theories. 2. Purely Physical Explananda: Bistability in Perception (Sam Baron). - 3. Description, Explanation and Ontological Commitment (Concha Martinez-Vidal and Navia Rivas-de-Castro). - 4. Typed Object Theory (Edward Zalta). - Part II. Fictionalism or Realism in Philosophy of Mathematics. 5. Contingent Abstract Objects (Otávio Bueno). - 6. Is There a Fact of the Matter about the Existence of Abstract Objects? (Mary Leng). - Part III. Fictionalism or Realism in Philosophy of Empirical Sciences. 7. An ensemble-plus-standing-for account of scientific representation: no need for (unnecessary) abstract objects (José A. Diez). - 8. The Nature of Scientific Models: Abstract Artifacts that Determine Fictional Systems (Xavier de Donato-Rodriguez and José L. Falguera). - 9. The Scope and Power of Abstraction in Science (Stathis Psillos). - 10. Models and Denotation (Fiora Salis, Roman Frigg, and James Nguyen). - Part IV. Fictionalism or Realism in Philosophy of Language. 11. Fictional Co-identification: The Explanatory Lightweight of Realism (Manuel Garcia-Carpintero). - 12. What is the difference between Hamlet and me? Fiction, metaphysics and the nature of our moral thinking (Sofía Miguens). - 13. Abstract Objects and the Core-Periphery Distinction in the Ontological and Conceptual Domain of Natural Language (Friederike Moltmann). - 14. How to Vindicate (Fictional) Creationism (Alberto Voltolini). - Part V. Fictionalism or Realism in Moral Philosophy and Philosophy of Arts. 15. Moral Folkism and the Deflation of (Lots of) Normative and Metaethics (Mark Balaguer). - 16. Methodology in the ontology of artworks: exploring hermeneutic fictionalism (Elisa Caldarolo). - 17. A Realist-Friendly Argument for Moral Fictionalism: Perhaps You d Better Not Believe It (Christopher Jay).