Organon F
Volume 28, February 2021, Issue 1, Pages 168–197
ISSN 2585-7150 (online) ISSN 1335-0668 (print)
Research Article | Special issue on Names and Fictions
Revisiting the ‘Wrong Kind of Object’ Problem
Merel Semeijn – Edward N. Zalta
Any uniform semantic treatment of fictional names (e.g., ‘Frodo’) across parafictional statements (e.g., ‘In The Lord of the Rings, Frodo was born in the Shire’) and metafictional statements (e.g., ‘Frodo was invented by Tolkien’) runs into a variation of the ‘wrong kind of object’ problem. The problem arises when an analysis of one of these statements inappropriately attributes a property to an object. For example, it would be problematic if an analysis implied that flesh and blood individuals are invented by someone, and similarly problematic if an analysis implied that abstract objects are born in a certain region. Abstract object theory has provided a solution to this conundrum by distinguishing two modes of predication: encoding and exemplifying. Recently Klauk has argued that the problem reappears for the analysis of explicit parafictional statements in this theory. In this paper we formalize the objection and show that one can distinguish three issues in connection with the ‘wrong kind of object’ problem. We then address them in turn.
Abstract object theory; story operator; hyperintensionality; mixed discourse; parafictional statements.
Author
Merel Semeijn 
Affiliation
University of Groningen
Address
Faculty of Philosophy, University of Groningen, Oude Boteringestraat 52, 9712 GL Groningen, The Netherlands
Author
Edward N. Zalta
Affiliation
Stanford University
Address
Center for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford University, Cordura Hall, 210 Panama Street, Stanford, CA 94305-4115, U.S.A.
Received
13 April 2020
Accepted
9 September 2020
Published online
28 February 2021
Publishers
Institute of Philosophy of the Slovak Academy of Sciences
Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences
APA
Semeijn, M. and Zalta, E.N. (2021). Revisiting the ‘Wrong Kind of Object’ Problem. Organon F, 28(1), 168–197. https://doi.org/10.31577/orgf.2021.28108
Chicago
Semeijn, Merel and Zalta, Edward N. 2021. "Revisiting the ‘Wrong Kind of Object’ Problem." Organon F 28 (1): 168–197. https://doi.org/10.31577/orgf.2021.28108
Harvard
Semeijn, M. and Zalta, E.N. (2021). Revisiting the ‘Wrong Kind of Object’ Problem. Organon F, 28(1), pp. 168–197. https://doi.org/10.31577/orgf.2021.28108
© Merel Semeijn and Edward N. Zalta
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