JoLMA

The Journal for the Philosophy of Language, Mind and the Arts

The Dark Side of Being: On What There is Not

open access | peer reviewed
    edited by
  • Filippo Casati - Lehigh University - email
  • Filippo Costantini - Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia - email
Abstract

In contrast to Quine’s (meta-)ontology and his preference for desert landscapes, recent years have seen a renewed interest in ‘non-being’: non-existent entities, mere possibilia, negative properties, negative facts, absences, nothingness, voids, holes, etc. Interest in the category of non-being is not limited to ontology but has also found applications in the philosophy of mind, particularly regarding the role intentionality plays in relation to non-entities and the problem of perceiving absences. Additionally, it has influenced the philosophy of art, especially in discussions about absence art – i.e., art that features absences as aesthetic objects. This issue of JoLMA highlights the richness of the topic by presenting eight fresh papers that range from metaphysics, ontology, and epistemology, to philosophy of language, aesthetics, and philosophy of mind. 

Keywords Eliminativist error theoriesEmpty stringAbsence CausationOstensive definitionAdornoabsolute nothingness(Modal) noneismVerbs of absenceEmpty quotationRadical perceptualismModerate perceptualismnegative nothingnessMillaresNon-BeingNāgārjunaFictional objectsPictorial abscencesmixed-mediaMixed quotationMetaphysical GroundingCharacterization PrincipleSemanticsMetacognitivismBeingAristotle’s homonymyAbsenceCognitivismKant’s table of nothingabsencePerception of absencesNon-existent objectsLacknonidentityNothingnessBe missingReported speechInformalismNuclear properties

Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/Jolma/2723-9640/2024/02 | Published Dec. 11, 2024 | Language en