Form and Philosophy

Possibility and reference have been central topics in metaphysicsand the philosophy of language in the past decades.WolfgangFreitag's Form and Philosophy provides a novel approach tothese notions and their interrelations, based on the concept ofform as the key modal concept: form is the possibility space ofobjects. In its historic dimension, the book analyses the role ofform in Ludwig Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus andImmanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. In its systematic dimension,the book offers an alternative ontological basis to DavidArmstrong's combinatorial theory of possibility and rejects DavidLewis' analysis of possibility in terms of possible worlds. Representationis shown to rest on the idea of direct reference asproposed by David Kaplan and Saul Kripke. It is argued that theproblem of reference links up with Wittgenstein's rule-followingproblem, the nature of which is extensively discussed. Itemerges that form and reference are complementary withrespect to the notion of representation. Once their individualroles are seen, many metaphysical puzzles appear in a new lightor disappear altogether.WOLFGANG FREITAG is Assistant Professor in the Department ofPhilosophy at the University of Konstanz.