Table Of ContentEssence and Existence
Essence and Existence
Selected Essays
Bob Hale
editedby
Jessica Leech
withanintroductionby
Kit Fine
1
3
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Editorialmaterial©JessicaLeech2020
Introduction©KitFine2020
Chapters3,4,7,8,10,13,and14©theEstateofBobHale2020
Chapters1,2,and6©BobHale2018
Chapter5©theEstateofBobHaleandØysteinLinnebo2020
Chapter9©BobHaleandJessicaLeech2016
Chapter11©SpringerNatureB.V.2015
Chapter12©SpringerScienceB.V.2011
Chapter15©BobHaleandCrispinWright2015
Themoralrightsoftheauthorshavebeenasserted
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Contents
ArtistBio ix
Acknowledgements xi
IntroductionbyKitFine 1
1. EssenceandDefinitionbyAbstraction 9
2. EssenceandExistence 24
3. TheProblemofDeReModality 46
4. OntologyDeflated 59
5. OntologicalCategoriesandtheProblemofExpressibility
withØysteinLinnebo 73
6. WhatMakesTrueUniversalStatementsTrue? 104
7. ExactTruthmakers,Modality,andEssence 124
8. S5astheLogicofMetaphysicalModality:TwoArgumentsfor
andTwoArgumentsagainst 141
9. RelativeNecessityReformulated
withJessicaLeech 149
10. Definition,Abstraction,Postulation,andMagic 173
11. Second-order Logic: Properties, Semantics, and Existential
Commitments 187
12. TheProblemofMathematicalObjects 213
13. Properties,Predication,andArbitrarySets 225
14. OrdinalsbyAbstraction 240
15. Bolzano’sDefinitionofAnalyticPropositions
withCrispinWright 256
BibliographyoftheWritingsofBobHale 285
BibliographyofWorksCited 290
Index 297
Preface
BobHale’slastbook,Necessary Beings,waspublishedin2013.Thisvolumeiscom-
posedalmostentirelyofworkcarriedoutbetweenthepublicationofthatbookandhis
deathinDecember2017.Hisintentionwasalwaystocollectthesepaperstogetherinto
afinalvolumeofhisphilosophy.Bobhadbeenill,onandoff,foralongtime.During
onerecurrenceofhisillness,hetoldmeabouthisbookplans,anddidmethegreat
honourofaskingme,shouldhebeunabletodoso,ifIwouldcompletetheproject.
ThatafternoonwesharedhisDropboxfoldercontainingallhisbookwork.Ihoped
Iwouldn’tneedtouseit,butunfortunatelyhediedbeforethebookwascomplete.The
planofthebookcloselyfollowstheplannedTableofContentsfromBob’sDropbox,
withafewchanges.OnenotableadditionisafullbibliographyofBob’sworks.
This volume contains a mixture of new work and papers already published or
forthcoming elsewhere. Chapters 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, and 13 are new, previously unpub-
lished material, exclusive to this volume. In some cases some editorial correction
wasrequired,especiallywhereworkwasn’tquitecomplete,butcompleteenoughto
warrantinclusioninthevolume.Significanteditorialchangesareaccompaniedbyan
editor’snote.
Chapter 1 first appeared as Bob Hale, ‘Essence and definition by abstraction’,
Synthese (Special Issue: New Directions in the Epistemology of Modality),
pp.1–17, © 2018, doi: 10.1007/s11229-018-1726-7. Reproduced under the terms
of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY-4.0),
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Chapter 2 was previously published as Bob Hale, ‘Essence and existence’, Revista
deFilosofíadelaUniversidaddeCostaRica,volume57,number147(January–April
2018),pp.137–55,©2018.ReprintedwithpermissionfromthePublisher.
Chapter3alsoappearsasBobHale,‘Theproblemofderemodality’inMetaphysics,
Meaning, and Modality: Themes from Kit Fine, edited by Mircea Dumitru,
©2020.ReproducedbypermissionofOxfordUniversityPress:https://global.oup.com/
academic.
Chapter 6 was originally published as Bob Hale, ‘What makes true universal
statements true?’ in: The Logica Yearbook 2017, edited by Pavel Arazim and Tomáš
Lávicˇka,publishedbyCollegePublications,©2018.
Chapter 9 first appeared as Bob Hale and Jessica Leech, ‘Relative neces-
sity reformulated’, Journal of Philosophical Logic, volume 46, issue 1, pp.1–26,
© 2016, doi: 10.1007/s10992-015-9391-5. Reproduced under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY-4.0), http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Chapter11waspreviouslypublishedasBobHale,‘Second-orderlogic:properties,
semantics,andexistentialcommitments’,Synthese,volume196,issue7,pp.2643–69,
©SpringerNatureB.V.2015,doi:10.1007/s11229-015-0764-7.Reproducedbypermis-
sionfromSpringerNature:SpringerNetherlands.
vi preface
Chapter 12 originally appeared as Bob Hale, ‘The problem of mathematical
objects’ (2011c), in: Foundational Theories of Classical and Constructive Math-
ematics (The Western Ontario Series in Philosophy of Science, volume 76),
edited by Giovanni Sommaruga, © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011,
doi: 10.1007/978-94-007-0431-2. Reprinted by permission from Springer Nature:
SpringerNetherlands.
Chapter14isalsoforthcominginOriginsandVarietiesofLogicism:AFoundational
JourneyinthePhilosophyofMathematics,editedbyFrancescaBoccuniandAndrea
Sereni,Oxford:Routledge.
Chapter 15 was first published as Bob Hale and Crispin Wright, ‘Bolzano’s
Definition of Analytic Propositions’, Grazer Philosophische Studien—International
Journal for Analytic Philosophy, volume 91, issue 1, pp.323–64, © 2015,
doi: 10.1163/9789004302273_014. Reprinted with permission from Koninklijke
BrillNV.
Warmthankstoallofthoseinvolvedinpermittingthereprintofthesepapers.
JessicaLeech
Coverart:RedBridgec.1975,byWalterSteggles.
Artist Bio
WalterJamesSteggles.15/08/1908to05/03/1997
Wally,ashewasgenerallyknown,wasborninHighburynorthLondon:hewas
the eldest of five children born to Annie Elizabeth and Walter Steggles. His early
years were spent at various addresses in London but during WW1 the family lived
forawhileinBathwhilstWalterseniorwasservingwiththeRoyalFlyingCorpsin
NorthernFrance.Around1920thefamilymovedbacktoIlfordwhereWallyfinished
hisschooling.AgedfourteenhesuccessfullyappliedforajobwithFurnessWithy&
Coandheworkedforthemuntilheretired.
In May 1925 Wally joined the art classes at the Bethnal Green Men’s Institute
at Wolverley Street along with his younger brother Harold, later transferring their
allegiancestotheBowandBromleyEveningInstitutewhentheirtutor,JohnCooper
moved there from Bethnal Green in 1926. Wally exhibited in the East London Art
Club’sexhibitionattheWhitechapelGalleryin1928.TheEastLondonGroup,asit
becameknownthentransferredtotheAlex.ReidandLefevregalleryinNovember
1929 and Wally went on to exhibit at all eight shows that the Group held there up
until1936.
LikeseveralothermembersoftheGroupWallyexhibitedwidelyinmixedshows
from as early as 1929 and continued to do so up to and into World War Two. His
crowningglorycamein1936whenheandfellowGroupmemberElwinHawthorne
wereselectedtorepresentGreatBritainattheVeniceBiennalethatyear.Itwasagreat
recognitionofhistalentinsuchaprestigiousinternationalarenabutonewhich,in
laterlife,hechosenottomention!Wallycontinuedtopaintalmostupuntilhisdeath
in1997:byhisownadmission,hecouldn’tstop!
