Edward N. Zalta
Curriculum Vitæ

Address: Philosophy Department, c/o Cordura Hall, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305
Phone: 650-723-0488 (work)
Marital Status: married (to Susanne Z. Riehemann), no children
Electronic Mail: zalta@csli.stanford.edu
World Wide Web Home Page: https://mally.stanford.edu/zalta.html

Education

Ph.D., Philosophy, University of Massachusetts/Amherst, February 1981
(Thesis Director: Terence Parsons)

B.A., Cum Laude, Ideas and Methods, Rice University, May 1975
(approved by the departments of Philosophy, Biology, Behavioral Science, and Music)

Areas of Specialization

Areas of Competence

Professional Experience

Other Professional Experience

Awards and Fellowships:

Publications

Books:

B2. Intensional Logic and the Metaphysics of Intentionality, Cambridge, MA: Bradford Books/The MIT Press, 1988
B1. Abstract Objects: An Introduction to Axiomatic Metaphysics, Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Co., 1983

Articles:

A56. “In Defense of Relations,” dialectica, special issue (The Metaphysics of Relational States), J.~Plate (ed.), forthcoming.
A55. “Mathematical Pluralism,” Noûs, published online 19 March 2023. doi:10.1111/nous.12451.
A54. “On Anselm's Ontological Argument in Proslogion II,” coauthor: Paul E. Oppenheimer, History of Philosophy and Logical Analysis, 25 (2022): 327–351. doi: 10.30965/26664275-bja10054
A53. “Revisiting the ‘Wrong Kind of Object’ Problem”, coauthor: Merel Semeijn, Organon F, 28(1) (2021): 168–197. doi: 10.31577/orgf.2021.28108
A52. “Typed Object Theory”, in José L. Falguera and Concha Martínez-Vidal (eds.), Abstract Objects: For and Against (Synthese Library: Volume 422), Cham: Springer, 2020, pp. 59–88.
A51. “Mechanizing Principia Logico-Metaphysica in Functional Type Theory”, coauthors: Daniel Kirchner and Christoph Benzmüller; Review of Symbolic Logic, 13(1) (March 2020): 206–18. doi: 10.1017/S1755020319000297
A50. “Computer Science and Metaphysics: A Cross-Fertilization”, coauthors: Daniel Kirchner and Christoph Benzmüller; in Open Philosophy, 2 (2019): 230–251 (Special Topical Issue: Computer Modeling in Philosophy), Patrick Grim, ed.). doi: 10.1515/opphil-2019-0015
A49. ‘Unifying Three Notions of Concepts’, Theoria (Special Issue: Context, Cognition and Communication; Tadeusz Ciecierski and Paweł Grabarczyk, guest eds.), 87(1) (February 2021): 13–30; first online 05 June 2019, doi: 10.1111/theo.12187.
A48. ‘Mathematical Descriptions’, coauthor: Bernard Linsky, Philosophical Studies, 176/2 (2019): 473–481.
A47. ‘Object Theory and Modal Meinongianism’, coauthor: Otávio Bueno, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 95/4 (2017): 761–778.
A46. ‘Automating Leibniz's Theory of Concepts’, coauthors: Jesse Alama and Paul E.~Oppenheimer, in A. Felty and A. Middeldorp (eds.), Automated Deduction – CADE 25: Proceedings of the 25th International Conference on Automated Deduction (Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence: Volume 9195), Berlin: Springer, 2015, pp. 73–97.
A45. ‘Worlds and Propositions Set Free’, coauthors: Otávio Bueno and Christopher Menzel, Erkenntnis, 79 (2014): 797–820.
A44. ‘Foundations for Mathematical Structuralism’, coauthor: Uri Nodelman, Mind, 123/489 (2014): 39–78.
A43. ‘The Fundamental Theorem of World Theory’, coauthor: Christopher Menzel, Journal of Philosophical Logic, 43/2 (2014): 333–363.
A42. ‘The Tarski T-Schema is a Tautology (Literally)’, Analysis, 74/1 (2014): 5–11.
A41. ‘A Defense of Contingent Logical Truths’, coauthor: Michael Nelson, Philosophical Studies, 157/1 (2012): 153–162.
A40. ‘Relations Versus Functions at the Foundations of Logic: Type-Theoretic Considerations’, coauthor: Paul E. Oppenheimer, Journal of Logic and Computation, 21 (2011): 351–374.
A39. ‘A Computationally-Discovered Simplification of the Ontological Argument’, coauthor: Paul E. Oppenheimer, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 89/2 (June 2011): 333–349.
A38. ‘Bennett and “Proxy Actualism” ’, coauthor: Michael Nelson, Philosophical Studies, 142/2 (2009): 277–292.
A37. ‘Reflections on Mathematics’, in Philosophy of Mathematics: Five Questions, V.F. Hendricks and H. Leitgeb (eds.), New York, London: Automatic Press/VIP, 2007, pp. 313–328.
A36. ‘Reflections on the Logic of the Ontological Argument’, coauthor: Paul E. Oppenheimer, Studia Neoartistotelica, 4/1 (2007): 28–35.
A35. ‘Steps Toward a Computational Metaphysics’, coauthor: Branden Fitelson, Journal of Philosophical Logic, 36/2 (April 2007): 227–247.
A34. ‘Deriving and Validating Kripkean Claims Using the Theory of Abstract Objects’, Noûs, 40/4 (December 2006): 591–622.
A33. ‘Essence and Modality’, Mind, 115/459 (July 2006): 659–693.
A32. ‘What is Neologicism?’, coauthor: Bernard Linsky, The Bulletin of Symbolic Logic, 12/1 (2006): 60–99.
A31. ‘A Nominalist's Dilemma and its Solution’, coauthor: Otávio Bueno, Philosophia Mathematica, 13 (2005): 297–307.
A30. ‘In Defense of the Law of Noncontradiction’, in The Law of Noncontradiction: New Philosophical Essays, G. Priest, J.C. Beall, and B. Armour-Garb, eds., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004, pp. 418–436.
A29. ‘Frege, Boolos, and Logical Objects’, coauthor: David J. Anderson, Journal of Philosophical Logic, 33/1 (February 2004): 1–26
A28. ‘Referring to Fictional Characters’, Dialectica, 57/2 (2003): 243–254
A27. ‘A Common Ground and Some Surprising Connections’, Southern Journal of Philosophy, Volume XL, Supplement 2002, 1–25. (Keynote lecture delivered at the Spindel Conference entitled Origins: The Common Sources of the Analytic and Phenomenological Traditions, September 2001, U. Memphis Philosophy Department)
A26. ‘Fregean Senses, Modes of Presentation, and Concepts’, Philosophical Perspectives (Nous Supplement), 15 (2001): 335–359
A25. ‘Neo-Logicism? An Ontological Reduction of Mathematics to Metaphysics’, Erkenntnis, 53/1–2 (2000), 219–265
A24. ‘The Road Between Pretense Theory and Object Theory’, in Empty Names, Fiction, and the Puzzles of Non-Existence, A.~Everett and T.~Hofweber (eds.), Stanford: CSLI Publications, 2000, pp. 117–147
A23. ‘How to Say Goodbye to the Third Man’, coauthor: Francis Jeffry Pelletier, Nous, 34/2 (2000): 165–202
A22. ‘A (Leibnizian) Theory of Concepts’, Logical Analysis and History of Philosophy / Philosophiegeschichte und logische Analyse, 3 (2000): 137–183
A21. ‘Natural Numbers and Natural Cardinals as Abstract Objects: A Partial Reconstruction of Frege's Grundgesetze in Object Theory’, Journal of Philosophical Logic, 28/6 (1999): 619–660
A20. ‘Mally's Determinates and Husserl's Noemata’, in Ernst Mally – Versuch einer Neubewertung, A.~Hieke (ed.), St. Augustin: Academia-Verlag, 1998, pp. 9–28
A19. ‘A Classically-Based Theory of Impossible Worlds’, Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic, 38/4 (Fall 1997): 640–660 (Special Issue, Graham Priest, Guest Editor)
A18. ‘The Modal Object Calculus and its Interpretation’, in Advances in Intensional Logic, M. de Rijke (ed.), Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1997, pp. 249–279
A17. ‘In Defense of the Contingently Non-Concrete’, coauthor: Bernard Linsky, Philosophical Studies (Special Issue entitled ‘Possibilism and Actualism’), 84/2–3 (December 1996): 283–294
A16. ‘Naturalized Platonism vs. Platonized Naturalism’, coauthor: Bernard Linsky, The Journal of Philosophy, XCII/10 (October 1995): 525–555
A15. ‘Two (Related) World Views’, Noûs, 29/2 (1995): 189–211
A14. ‘In Defense of the Simplest Quantified Modal Logic’, coauthor: Bernard Linsky, Philosophical Perspectives 8 (1994): 431–58
A13. ‘Twenty-Five Basic Theorems in Situation and World Theory’, Journal of Philosophical Logic, 22 (1993): 385–428; revised and expanded from ‘A Theory of Situations’, in 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, pp. 81–111
A12. ‘A Philosophical Conception of Propositional Modal Logic’, Philosophical Topics 21/2 (Fall 1993): 263–281
A11. ‘Replies to the Critics’, Philosophical Studies, 69/2–3, (March 1993): 231–242
A10. ‘On Mally's Alleged Heresy: A Reply’, History and Philosophy of Logic, 13/1 (1992): 59–68
A9. ‘On the Logic of the Ontological Argument’, coauthor: Paul E. Oppenheimer, Philosophical Perspectives 5 (1991): 509–529; selected for republication in The Philosopher's Annual: 1991, Volume XIV (1993): 255–275
A8. ‘Is Lewis a Meinongian?’, coauthor: Bernard Linsky, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 69/4 (December 1991): 438–453
A7. ‘Singular Propositions, Abstract Constituents, and Propositional Attitudes’, Themes from Kaplan, J. Almog, J. Perry, and H. Wettstein (eds.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989, pp. 455–78
A6. ‘Logical and Analytic Truths That Are Not Necessary’, The Journal of Philosophy, 85/2 (February 1988): 57–74
A5. ‘A Comparison of Two Intensional Logics’, Linguistics and Philosophy, 11 (February 1988): 59–89
A4. ‘On the Structural Similarities Between Worlds and Times’, Philosophical Studies, 51/2 (March 1987): 213–239
A3. ‘Lambert, Mally, and the Principle of Independence’, Grazer Philosophische Studien, 25/26 (1985/1986): 447–459
A2. ‘Meinongian Type Theory and Its Applications’, Studia Logica, 41/2–3 (1982): 297–307
A1. ‘An Alternative Theory of Nonexistent Objects’, coauthor: Alan McMichael, Journal of Philosophical Logic, 9 (1980): 297–313

Critical Studies and Reviews:

C3. ‘Reply to P. Ebert and M. Rossberg’s Friendly Letter of Complaint’, in Reduction – Abstraction – Analysis (Proceedings of the 31st International Ludwig Wittgenstein-Symposium in Kirchberg, 2008), H. Leitgeb and A. Hieke (eds.), Kirchberg am Wechsel: Austrian Ludwig Wittgenstein Society, 2009, pp. 311–319.
C2. ‘Mathematics: Truth and Fiction?’, coauthor: Mark Colyvan, (Critical Study of Mark Balaguer's Platonism and Anti-Platonism in Mathematics), Philosophia Mathematica, 7/3 (1999): 336–349.
C1. ‘Review of Daniel Dennett's The Intentional Stance’, Review of Metaphysics, XLIII/2 (December 1989): 397–400

Entries in Reference Works:

R5. ‘Logic and Metaphysics’, Journal of Indian Council of Philosophical Research, XXVII/2 (April--June 2010): 155–184; reprinted in A. Gupta and J. van Benthem (eds.), Logic and Philosophy Today: Volume 2 (Studies in Logic: Volume 30), London: College Publications, pp. 153--182.
R4. ‘Frege's Theorem and Foundations for Arithmetic’, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/frege-logic/>. [First published: June 10, 1998]
R3. ‘Gottlob Frege’, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/frege/>. [First published: September 14, 1995]
R2. ‘Fictional Truth, Objects, and Characters’, Blackwell Companion to Metaphysics, Jaegwon Kim and Ernest Sosa (eds.), Oxford: Blackwell, 1992
R1. ‘Systematic Metaphysics’, Handbook on Metaphysics and Ontology, Hans Burkhardt and Barry Smith (eds.), Philosophia Verlag, 1991

Online Monographs:

O2. Basic Concepts in Modal Logic
    (an intermediate text in modal logic)
    <https://mally.stanford.edu/notes.pdf>
O1. Principia Logico-Metaphysica
    (a cumulative list of theorems in object theory)
    <https://mally.stanford.edu/principia.pdf>

Extracurricular Refereed Publications:

[DOI]
E9. "The Funding Experience of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy," coauthor: Uri Nodelman, Information Standards Quarterly, 22/4 (Fall 2010): 15–16.
E8. "The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: A University-Library Partnership in Support of Scholarly Communications and Open Access," College & Research Libraries News, 67/8 (September 2006): 502–-504, 507.
E7. "The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: A Developed Dynamic Reference Work", coauthors: Colin Allen and Uri Nodelman, Metaphilosophy, 33/1–2 (January 2002): 210–228; reprinted in Cyberphilosophy: The Intersection of Philosophy and Computing, James H. Moor and Terrell Ward Bynum, (eds.), Walden, MA: Blackwell, 2002, pp. 201–218. [Preprint available online] [DOI]
E6. "Lookupd Problems in Apple's Mac OS X Server", coauthor: Colin Allen, Stepwise Information Server (May 20, 1999) (now available only through the Internet Archive/Wayback Machine).
E5. "A Solution to the Problem of Updating Encyclopedias" (coauthor: Eric Hammer), Computers and the Humanities, 31/1 (1997): 47–60.
E4. "Philosophy and the World Wide Web", American Philosophical Association Newsletter on Computer Use in Philosophy, 94/2 (Spring 1995): 29–33.
E3. "A Soft Touch", Piano and Keyboard (formerly: The Piano Quarterly), 165 (November/December 1993): 13.
E2. "Are Algorithms Patentable?", Notices of the American Mathematical Society, 35/6 (July/August 1988): 796–799.
E1. "Two Estrogen Receptors in Reproductive Tissue" (coauthors: Roy Smith, Sharon Clarke, and Robert Taylor), Journal of Steroid Biochemistry, 10 (1979): 31–35.

Translations

T6. Chinese translation of [A33], ‘’, Minjing Li (trans.), in Values and Culture, 6 (2009): 168--198, Beijing: Beijing Normal University Publishing Group.
T5. Czech translation of A9, ‘O Logice Ontologického Dukazu’, Petr Hromek (trans.), in Studia Neoaristotelica, 4/1 (2007): 5–27.
T4. French translation of A27, ‘Une base commune et quelques liens surprenants’, Jimmy Plourde (trans.), in Action, Rationalité & Décision/Actions, Rationality and Decisions, D. Vanderveken and D. Fisette (eds.), London: College Publications, 2008.
T3. Romanian translation of A22, ‘O Teorie Leibniziana a Conceptelor’, Delia-Ana Serbescu (trans.), in Analysis and Metaphysics, 4/2 (Supplement) (December 2005): 7–75.
T2. Chinese translation of A14, ‘missing text, please inform’, Xing Tao Tao (trans.), in Zhexue Yicong [Philosophical Translations], 1 (1994): 45–53, Beijing: Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
T1. German translation of A28, ‘Erzählung als Taufe des Helden: Wie man auf fiktionale Objekte Bezug nimmt’, Arnold Günther (trans.), in Zeitschrift für Semiotik 9/1–2 (1987): 85–95. [Note: This translation appeared 16 years prior to the publication in English.]

Works in Progress

Courses:

Lecture Series on The Axiomatic Theory of Abstract Objects, Institute for Logic, Language and Cognition (ILLC), May 22–24, 2017 (5 lectures)

Logic Summer School, Australian National University
Axiomatic Object Theory, December 12–16, 2016 (5 lectures)

Ludwig Maximilian Universität München, Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy

Götenborgs Universitet, Department of Philosophy

Stockholms Universitet, Department of Philosophy

Lunds Universitet, Department of Philosophy

Stanford University, Department of Philosophy (n/m = Qtr/Yr)

Universität Salzburg, Institut für Philosophie

University of Auckland (New Zealand), Department of Philosophy

Rice University, Department of Philosophy

University of Massachusetts/Amherst, Department of Philosophy

Invited Lectures:

Invited Conference Lectures

Invited Department Lectures

Lectures in Graduate Seminars and Classes

Contributed Conference Papers and Commentaries:

Other Professional Activities