 The independence principle, first formulated by Ernst Mally in 1903, states that “the so-being of an object is not affected by its non-being” (1904b: 8 [82]), that is to say, an object’s having properties is independent of whether it has being or not. Meinong’s comments on this principle show that it combines several claims; in particular, (1) the characterization principle, which postulates that any object has those properties that it is characterized as having (e.g., “The AB is A and B, respectively”), and (2) the denial of the ontological assumption, which denies that there are no true propositions about what does not have being (cf. Routley 1980).