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States of affairs raise, among others, the following questions: What kind of entity are they (if there are any)? Are they contingent, causally efficacious, spatio-temporal and perceivable entities, or are they abstract objects? What are their constituents and their identity conditions? What are the functions that states of affairs are able to fulfil in a viable theory, and which problems and prima facie counterintuitive consequences arise out of an ontological commitment to them? Are there merely possible (non-actual, non-obtaining) states of affairs? Are there molecular (i.e., negative, conjunctive, disjunctive etc.) states of affairs? Are there modal and tensed states of affairs? In this volume, these and other questions are addressed by David M. Armstrong, Marian David, Herbert Hochberg, Uwe Meixner, L. Nathan Oaklander, Peter Simons, Erwin Tegtmeier and Mark Textor.

About the Editor

MARIA E. REICHER, born 1966, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Aachen. PhD 1998 (University of Graz), Habilitation 2004 (University of Graz). Selected books: Zur Metaphysik der Kunst. Eine logisch-ontologische Untersuchung des Werkbegriffs (Graz 1998); Einführung in die philosophische Ästhetik (Darmstadt 2005); Referenz, Quantifikation und ontologische Festlegung (Frankfurt/Main 2005); (ed.) Fiktion, Wahrheit, Wirklichkeit. Philosophische Grundlagen der Literaturtheorie (Paderborn 2007). Maria Reicher is coeditor of the journal Grazer Philosophische Studien.

Contents

MARIA E. REICHER

Introduction

DAVID M. ARMSTRONG

Questions about States of Affairs

UWE MEIXNER

States of Affairs – The Full Picture

ERWIN TEGTMEIER

Facts and Connectors

HERBERT HOCHBERG

Facts and Things

PETER SIMONS

Why There Are No States of Affairs

MARK TEXTOR

Are Particulars or States of Affairs Given in Perception?

L. NATHAN OAKLANDER

Time and Existence: A Critique of “Degree Presentism”

MARIAN DAVID

Defending Existentialism?

Index

Authors