Twenty-Five Basic Theorems in Situation and World Theory

Author

Edward N. Zalta

Reference

Journal of Philosophical Logic, 22, 1993, 385-428

This paper is a revised and expanded version of `A Theory of Situations', Situation Theory and Its Applications, J.~Barwise, J.~Gawron, G.~Plotkin, and S.~Tutiya (eds.), Stanford: Center for the Study of Language and Information Publications, 1991, 81-111

Abstract

States of affairs, situations, and worlds are integrated into a single metaphysical foundation and the most basic principles that pretheoretically characterize these entities are derived. The principles are cast as theorems in a precise logical framework and are derived from an independently- motivated axiomatic theory of objects and relations. Situations and worlds are identified as objects that both encode and exemplify properties. They encode properties of the form being such that p (where p is a state of affairs). These encoded properties are distinguished from the other properties that situations and worlds both contingently and necessarily exemplify, and this distinction offers a principled answer to a variety of philosophical questions about these entities.


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