States of affairs (facts) involving non-symmetric or asymmetric relations such as loving or fatherhood exhibit something like an “order” in accordance with which the relata are related. But what precisely is, from an ontological point of view, the order of a relational fact? Different views of relations and relational facts have been devised in an attempt to answer this question, notably by Russell in The Prin-ciples of Mathematics and in Theory of Knowledge and by the later Bergmann in New Foundations of Ontology. After discussing the shortcomings of some of the extant approaches, the Russellian ones in particular, this paper presents an alternative inspired by Leibniz, which takes advantage of ontological counterparts of the Leibnizian Latin connective quatenus and of thematic roles, such as “agent” and “patient”, often invoked by linguists.
The problem of order in relational states of affairs: a Leibnizian view.
ORILIA, Francesco
2008-01-01
Abstract
States of affairs (facts) involving non-symmetric or asymmetric relations such as loving or fatherhood exhibit something like an “order” in accordance with which the relata are related. But what precisely is, from an ontological point of view, the order of a relational fact? Different views of relations and relational facts have been devised in an attempt to answer this question, notably by Russell in The Prin-ciples of Mathematics and in Theory of Knowledge and by the later Bergmann in New Foundations of Ontology. After discussing the shortcomings of some of the extant approaches, the Russellian ones in particular, this paper presents an alternative inspired by Leibniz, which takes advantage of ontological counterparts of the Leibnizian Latin connective quatenus and of thematic roles, such as “agent” and “patient”, often invoked by linguists.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
