As I am very interested in Edward Zalta's research in Axiomatic Metaphysics, I wanted to read up on Formal Metaphysics. Would there be some introductory material that would help?
Thank you in advance for your help!
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1You can start by reading SEP summary of Zalta's theory. But it is not really a version of what would be called "formal metaphysics" generically, but rather a formalized theory of abstract objects. So if you are looking for background that would be the area to look for it.– ConifoldCommented Oct 24, 2021 at 5:16
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1 Answer
I would direct your attention to property theory, which is a class of formal theories that try to formalize the notions of property and instantiation. For an overview of these I recommend Nino Cochiarella's entry on property theory in the Routledge Encyclopedia as well as Uwe Mönnich's and George Bealer's survey article on the same topic.
https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/thematic/property-theory/v-1/bibliography/property-theory-bib
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-94-009-1171-0_2
Relevant approaches include Peter Aczel's work on Frege structures, Raymond Turner's property formalisms as well as George Bealer's theory of hyper fine-grained intensional entities. There is also a somewhat dated but still highly readable collection of articles on the topic: 'Properties, Types and Meaning', Vol. I.
