Eternal Possibilities: A Neutral Ground for Meaning and Existence

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Eternal Possibilities A Neutral Ground for Meaning and Existence David Weissman Eternal Possibilities A Neutral Ground for Meaning and Existence Weissman Southern Illinois University Press Philosophy Eternal Possibilities: A Neutral Ground for Meaning and Existence builds on David Weissman’s earlier Dispositional Proper­ties and makes a signal contribution to the study of metaphysics. Here, broad­ening and enriching the point of view adopted in his earlier work, Weissman cites and criticizes a large number of theories proposed by authors from Plato to Wittgenstein and others exploring lan­guage theory and metaphysics. Students of Wittgenstein will be especially interested in Weissman ’s critical examination of Wittgenstein’s claim in the Tractatus that possibilities are the facts for logic. Weissman proposes a modal theory of properties: they exist in the first instance as possibilities . He argues that a sentence is meaningful if it signifies a property or complex of properties existing as a possible, and true if that possible is instantiated. The status of possibilities and their relation to actual states of affairs are considered in detail. David Weissman is a professor of philosophy at the City College of New York. He is the author of several books, including Dispositional Properties, Styles of Thought, The Cage, Lost Souls, and A Social Ontology. Printed in the United States of America Southern Illinois University Press 1915 University Press Drive Mail Code 6806 Carbondale, IL 62901 www.siu.edu/~siupress ISBN 0-8093-2870-4 ISBN 978-0-8093-2870-3 Weissman-NIP-Eternal-CDDC.indd 1 5/13/08 9:56:56 AM ...