and sensible - that is, the lowest and least real level of reality - to the abstract and super-sensible - that is, the highest and most real level of reality).Any such stratifications of reality are moot according to Hägerström’s ontology; for reality is a binary concept, hence an object is either real or not (a corollary of the fact that Hägerström’s ontology takes the fundamental laws of thought, especially the law of contradictions, as its point of departure).The touchstone of reality is the logical consistency of the object in question, which implies that all physically existing things necessarily are real, since all existing things are self-identical, while not all real objects necessarily exist, since the category of real objects primarily appears to encompass non-contradictory concepts, which need not have a counterpart in the physical world - for example, geometrical concepts such as triangles. In essence, Hägerström’s theory turns the traditional metaphysical hierarchy of ontology on its head, for while Plato (427-347 BC) argues that the triangle’s idea or concept, on account of its abstract nature and universal applicability, has a higher level of reality than its physical world counterpart, Hägerström argues that, either or both, the concept and the object is real, but that only the physical triangle has objective existence, which in no way degrades its ontological status, while the concept “triangle” has only formal reality.396 One can thus argue that Hägerström’s ontology is an application of the principle of parsimony, insofar as his ontology reduces ontological speculations to its bare essentials - that is, the separation of the real from the unreal; the separation of the existing from the non-existing; the denial of alternate as well as competing contexts of reality; and finally, the denial of alternate metaphysics.And by way of implication, Hägerström’s ontology implies that valid knowledge of reality must have a corresponding character. p a r t i 1 , c h a p t e r 7 166 396 See Cassirer’s analysis of Hägerström’s conceptual theory, in Cassirer, Hägerström, pp. 43-48.
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