logo

The Metaphysics Research Lab

Philosophy Department
Cordura Hall 202
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-4115

Search These Pages

Welcome to the web pages of the Metaphysics Research Lab. Whereas physics is the attempt to discover the laws that govern fundamental concrete objects, metaphysics is the attempt to discover the laws that systematize the fundamental abstract objects presupposed by physical science, such as mathematical objects and relations, possible states and events, types (as opposed to tokens), possible and future objects, complex properties, etc. Abstract objects are even needed to understand what may turn out to be scientific fictions (e.g., causality, models) as well as clearcut cases of scientific fictions (e.g., absolute simultaneity, the aether, and phlogiston). The goal of metaphysics, therefore, is to develop a formal ontology, i.e., a formally precise systematization of these abstract objects. Such a theory will be compatible with the world view of natural science if the abstract objects postulated by the theory are conceived as patterns of the natural world.

In our research lab, we have developed such a theory: the axiomatic theory of abstract objects and relations. In many ways, this theory is like a machine for detecting abstract objects (hence the name ‘research lab’), for among the recursively enumerable theorems, there are statements which assert the existence of the abstract objects mentioned above. Moreover, the properties of these abstracta can be formally derived as consequences of the axioms. The theory systematizes ideas of philosophers such as Plato, Leibniz, Frege, Meinong, and Mally. Our results are collated in the document Principia Logico-Metaphysica, which is authored by Edward N. Zalta (Ph.D./Philosophy), a Senior Research Scholar at CSLI. An online version of Principia Logico-Metaphysica can be found by following the link to The Theory of Abstract Objects (see below). 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.

Media Presentations

Historical Foundations

Metaphysics Research Lab Personnel and Collaborators

(Former) Visitors to the Lab (reverse chronological order)

Phil Department logo

unix logoTools and Procedures Used To Create This Web Site


Copyright © 2004, by Edward N. Zalta. All rights reserved.
Send comments, suggestions, and/or problems to: email address image.