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Meinong's Jungle and the Quest for the Married Bachelor
![Demon: "Anyway, there you will find the cave of the philosopher who once was, only from him you can obtain the essence of the impossible thing!"
Frege: "But how-"
Russell: "He's gone."
Frege: "Alright we'll camp until evening, so we can follow the evening star."
Russell: "Nah, i'm pretty sure we can just use the morning star."
Caption: "and so they traveled far until they reached the cave."
[description]: the go past several places, "Great American Novels", "People who understand Hegel", "Ethical Capitalism", and "Live action reboots of animated disney movies that were in any way necessary".
Russell: "Who are you?"
PERSON: "I am the possible bald man in the doorway, to enter the cave you must answer one question!"
Frege: "Ask us the question, we aren't afraid."
Possible bald man: "Do i look fat to you?"
Russell: "No...not really."
Frege: "Maybe a bit chubby?"
Possible bald man: "You may pass!"
Frege: "It's Avicenna! Wise Avicenna, we seek the essence of the thing which cannot be!"](http://static.existentialcomics.com/comics/MeinongsJungle2.png)
"Meinong's Jungle" is the term used to make fun of Alexius Meinong's ontology. He believed that when we make references to objects in language, the meaning of the words is grounded by the existence the object being referred to. So if we say "Pegasuses have wings", in order for that sentence to be true, Pegasuses must in some sense exist, in order to even have properties and be referred to by language. Russell and others thought this was absurd, and coined the term "Meinong's Jungle" as the place where all these non-existant things where said to exist.
The rest of the comic is references various other reference problems and language thought experiments that puzzled philosophers at that time, such as the "morning star / evening star" problem, or "cicero is tully", the "Twin Earth thought experiment", the "possible bald man", Avicenna's distinctions between different types of Existence and Essence, and the discussion of tautolgies in sentences like "unmarried bachelor" or logical impossibilites of "married bachelor".
"Meinong's Jungle" is the term used to make fun of Alexius Meinong's ontology. He believed that when we make references to objects in language, the meaning of the words is grounded by the existence the object being referred to. So if we say "Pegasuses have wings", in order for that sentence to be true, Pegasuses must in some sense exist, in order to even have properties and be referred to by language. Russell and others thought this was absurd, and coined the term "Meinong's Jungle" as the place where all these non-existant things where said to exist.
The rest of the comic is references various other reference problems and language thought experiments that puzzled philosophers at that time, such as the "morning star / evening star" problem, or "cicero is tully", the "Twin Earth thought experiment", the "possible bald man", Avicenna's distinctions between different types of Existence and Essence, and the discussion of tautolgies in sentences like "unmarried bachelor" or logical impossibilites of "married bachelor".
Permanent Link to this Comic: https://existentialcomics.com/comic/287
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