Sosein as Subject Matter

Abstract

(Neo)Meinongians in general, and Routley in particular, subscribe to the principle of the independence of Sosein from Sein (Routley 1980). In this paper, I put forward an interpretation of the independence principle that philosophers working outside the Meinongian tradition can accept. Drawing on recent work by Stephen Yablo and others on the notion of subject matter, I offer a new account of the notion of Sosein (Being-so) as a subject matter (or topic) and argue that in some cases Sosein might be independent from Sein (Being, Existence). The question whether numbers exist, for instance, is not part of the question of how numbers are, which is the topic mathematicians are interested in.