ABSTRACT
The discovery of objectives leads Meinong gradually away from a psychological characterization of modalities.1 Or rather, to certain mental characteristics, Meinong gradually adds non-mental counterparts, and the latter become more and more important. Instead of evidence, necessity becomes the center of discussion; instead of truth, factuality is now being considered; and instead of probability, Meinong now is talking about possibility. These objective modalities are not characteristics of mental acts, but are characteristics of objectives. Meinong’s analysis of these characteristics is one of his greatest ontological achievements. But this very analysis brings also a number of problems into sharp focus, problems which have accumulated in Meinong’s ontology and which still await some kind of a solution.
