16 Facts About Alexius Meinong

1.

Alexius Meinong Ritter von Handschuchsheim was an Austrian philosopher, a realist known for his unique ontology.

2.

Alexius Meinong made contributions to philosophy of mind and theory of value.

3.

Alexius Meinong's father was officer Anton von Meinong, who was granted the hereditary title of Ritter in 1851 and reached the rank of Major General in 1858 before retiring in 1859.

4.

From 1868 to 1870, Meinong studied at the Akademisches Gymnasium, Vienna.

5.

Alexius Meinong became a pupil of Franz Brentano, who was then a recent addition to the philosophical faculty.

6.

Alexius Meinong studied under Brentano with Edmund Husserl, who would become a notable and influential philosopher.

7.

In 1882, Alexius Meinong became a professor at the University of Graz and was later promoted as Chair of its Philosophy department.

8.

Alexius Meinong supervised the doctorates of Christian von Ehrenfels and Adalbert Meingast, as well as the habilitation of Alois Hofler and Anton Oelzelt-Newin.

9.

Alexius Meinong wrote two early essays on David Hume, the first dealing with his theory of abstraction, the second with his theory of relations, and was relatively strongly influenced by British empiricism.

10.

Alexius Meinong is most noted for his edited book Theory of Objects, which grew out of his work on intentionality and his belief in the possibility of intending nonexistent objects.

11.

Alexius Meinong called such nonexistent objects "homeless"; others have nicknamed their place of residence "Alexius Meinong's jungle" because of their great number and exotic nature.

12.

Historically, Alexius Meinong has been treated, especially by Gilbert Ryle, as an eccentric whose theory of objects was allegedly dealt a severe blow in Bertrand Russell's essay "On Denoting".

13.

Alexius Meinong is seen to be controversial in the field of philosophy of language for holding the view that "existence" is merely a property of an object, just as color or mass might be a property.

14.

Closer readers of his work accept that Alexius Meinong held the view that objects are "indifferent to being" and that they stand "beyond being and non-being".

15.

On this view Alexius Meinong is expressly denying that existence is a property of an object.

16.

Alexius Meinong holds that objects can be divided into three categories on the basis of their ontological status.