To analyze the distinction between fact and fiction and systematize the various relationships between stories, characters, and other fictional objects. To account for the deviant logic of propositional attitude reports, explain the informativeness of identity statements, and give a general account of the objective and cognitive content of natural language. The theory is based on Ernst Mally's distinction between exemplifying and encoding a property. Mally's ideas can be extended to other abstract objects, such as numbers, sets, possible worlds, etc. Whereas we can identify and individuate concrete objects in terms of their spatiotemporal location, we must identify and individuate abstract objects in some other way, for abstract objects are not the kind of thing that could have a location in spacetime.
Encoding provides the means of identifying and individuating abstract objects.
These are the two principles expressed by the formulas in the icon at the top of the page, respectively. To see how the formal notation captures these principles, we must turn to a more detailed presentation of the theory. However, there is one important source to which the author retains the copyright. This is the copyrighted manuscript entitled Principia Metaphysica . It contains just the formal machinery, axioms, and theorems of the theory with very little accompanying explanation.