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Existence is an ontological topic par excellence. In Anglo-American philosophy (this article will have to be augmented with summaries of work in other traditions), probably the most widely-asked question about it is what sort of concept it is, or what function it serves in languages, both natural and formal. Another significant topic, related to the first, but somewhat less discussed, is whether 'existence' or 'exists' can be analyzed or defined or otherwise explicated, and if so, what the explication might be. Perhaps the most common definition/usage of the concept, is to be in the current moment in time, to be in the present, rather than the past or the future. (For further discussion, see the existence of physical objects below.) In philosophy, ontology (from the Greek ον = being and λόγος = word/speech) is the most fundamental branch of metaphysics. ...
Being the best or truest of a kind; quintessential: a diplomat par excellence. ...
The term natural language is used to distinguish languages spoken by humans for general-purpose communication from constructs such as computer-programming languages or the languages used in the study of formal logic, especially mathematical logic. ...
In mathematics, logic and computer science, a formal language is a set of finite-length words (i. ...
Analysis, in philosophy, is principally an account of either the meaning or content of a word, phrase, or concept, and it may be applied to the analysis of an argument that makes use of such an analysis. ...
A definition may be a statement of the essential properties of a certain thing, or a statement of equivalence between a term and that terms meaning. ...
An explication is a type of essay that is part paraphrasing, part interpretation. ...
Frege and Russell, among many others, for similar reasons are well-known for their view that 'exists' is not a (logical) predicate, or more precisely, not a first-order predicate, or that existence is not a property. This has become the dominant but not the universal view in twentieth-century and contemporary Anglo-American philosophy. But, as G. E. Moore pointed out in an early essay, it is a matter of some difficulty to say what exactly this view amounts to. In recent times, Miller re-visited and created a (now widely accepted) formal demonstration of how existence is a predicate, since it individuates its subject by being its bounds. More can be seen on this in the Stanford essay at the bottom. Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege (November 8, 1848 – July 26, 1925) was a German mathematician, logician, and philosopher who is regarded as a founder of both modern mathematical logic and analytic philosophy. ...
Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM (18 May 1872–2 February 1970) was an influential mathematician, philosopher, and logician of the modern age, working mostly in the 20th century. ...
In the jargon of the new mathematics of the 1960s, an open sentence is a sentence in which there are specific numbers which, when used to replace the variables, will allow the resulting expression to evaluate to true. ...
First-order predicate calculus or first-order logic (FOL) permits the formulation of quantified statements such as there exists an x such that. ...
George Edward Moore George Edward Moore, also known as G.E. Moore, (November 4, 1873 - October 24, 1958) was a distinguished and hugely influential English philosopher who was educated and taught at the University of Cambridge. ...
The words (and concepts) 'existence' and 'being' are treated in slightly different ways in Western philosophy. Aristotle pointed out that there are various ways in which a thing can "be" and inaugurated ontology as a field with his notion that there are categories of being, such as substance, attribute, and acting-upon. Similar claims, however, are not as often made on behalf of existence. That is, contemporary philosophers at least are wont to treat existence as a univocal, unambiguous concept, as if the only sense of 'existence', or the only sort of existence worth talking about, were the existence of physical objects. Consequently, some discussions of existence have an unclear bearing on, for example, the sense in which numbers, possibilities, and properties exist (or might be thought to exist). A being, in the most general sense, is anything that is alive. ...
In philosophy, ontology (from the Greek ον = being and λόγος = word/speech) is the most fundamental branch of metaphysics. ...
In metaphysics (in particular, ontology), the different kinds or ways of being are called categories of being or simply According to the Aristotelian tradition, a being is anything that can be said to be in the various senses of this word. ...
A word, phrase, sentence, or other communication is called ambiguous if it can be reasonably interpreted in more than one way. ...
Even if the ambiguity of 'exists' is sometimes overlooked, oddly enough, the ambiguity of 'does not exist' is not. That is, ontologists are fond of pointing out that there are various ways in which things can be nonexistent. Nonexistence is sometimes mentioned in discussions of the meaning, or analyzability, of existence. ...
Though often not discussed under the heading of existence, disputes among realism, phenomenalism, physicalism, and various other metaphysical views concern what might be called the criteria for existence. For example, phenomenalism, generally speaking, is the view that everything that exists is mental. Most phenomenalists would want to deny that this claim is a definition of 'exists'; if phenomenalism were treated as a definition of 'exists', then others might accuse the view of trying to be "true by definition." Accordingly, it might be dismissed as a trivial exercise in redefining the ordinary concept of existence, which is, perhaps, of little interest to anyone. Exactly what relation, however, definitions (or analyses, or explications, etc.) and criteria have is an interesting and vexed question. See definitions vs. criteria. Realism is commonly defined as a concern for fact or reality and rejection of the impractical and visionary. ...
In the philosophy of perception, phenomenalism is the view that physical objects, properties, events (whatever is physical) are reducible to mental objects, properties, events. ...
See also the old text of this article Physicalism/Larrys text. ...
The existence of physical objects
Suppose that 'exists' does have different senses, so that, if it could be defined (analyzed, explicated), one might define it for physical objects, for properties, for relations, for facts, for possibilia, etc. The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ...
Senses are the physiological methods of perception. ...
An analysis is a critical evaluation, usually made by breaking a subject (either material or intellectual) down into its constituent parts, then describing the parts and their relationship to the whole. ...
An explanation is a statement which points to causes, context and consequences of some object (or process, state of affairs etc. ...
In physics, particularly in quantum physics a system observable is a property of the system state that can be determined by some sequence of physical operations. ...
In information processing, properties are transmitted by objects and received by observers. ...
In mathematics, a relation is a generalization of arithmetic relations such as = and < which occur in statements such as 5 < 6 or 2 + 2 = 4. See relation (mathematics), binary relation and relational algebra. ...
In that case, what does it mean to say that a physical object exists? One might try to fill in the blank in the following: "An object exists, if and only if, it ... ." In physics, particularly in quantum physics a system observable is a property of the system state that can be determined by some sequence of physical operations. ...
A common view is that this question cannot be answered. It has been suggested that "exists" simply cannot be defined. That people very well understand what it means to say that an object exists is not necessarily to say one can define it. This is a very influential view, which many very smart people hold. But the initial assumption will be made here that we can define "exists" for physical objects.
George Orwell defined existence in his popular novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. O'Brien explains to Winston that if both of them believed that O'brien had floated away like a soap bubble then he had. George Orwell George Orwell was the pen name of British author Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950). ...
Nineteen Eighty-Four (often 1984) is a darkly satirical political novel written by George Orwell. ...
Here is a starting point for this assumption. What is existence contrasted with? There are different kinds of nonexistence. So it has been proposed that the existence of physical objects is an "excluder" concept, as it were a purely negative concept: an item is actually in the world, it is not fictional; it is real, not imaginary; it is an actual phenomenon, it is not part of a false hypothesis; and it is located at the present time, not just at a past, or a future time. Nonexistence is sometimes mentioned in discussions of the meaning, or analyzability, of existence. ...
Common sense would seem to have it, however, that there is one basic sense in which physical objects actually do exist, and that is as an object that belongs to the space-time system that is the world with which people are in direct contact. If one can bump into it, it exists. So one might boldly give this following definition:
- Physical object O exists if, and only if, O is, at present, spatially located in the universe with which we are in contact.
This definition would seem to express a common sense notion of existence. Interestingly enough, though, only a few philosophers have given such definitions (unless one would wish to construe materialism as a theory of the meaning of 'existence' which it normally is not). But Bruce Aune, for example, in an introductory philosophy textbook, gives a definition much like this one. Materialism is the philosophical view that the only thing that can truly be said to exist is matter; that fundamentally, all things are comprised of material. The view is perhaps best understood in its opposition to the doctrines of immaterial substance applied to the mind historically, and most famously by...
The term philosophy derives from a combination of the Greek words philos meaning love and sophia meaning wisdom. ...
This sort of definition encounters some serious objections. Consider the following objection, probably the most widespread.
There are many philosophers today, following Hume, Kant, Frege, and Russell, who claim that existence is not a property, or that 'exists' is not a predicate. Sometimes they say that 'exists' is a second-order predicate (or "second-level" predicate); or they make other sorts of claims about it, such as that it is a unique sort of predicate. Typically, the discussions in which this claim arises are discussions of the existence of physical objects. So, for example, the Eiffel Tower exists. This is a true claim; what makes it true? One would like to be able to say that it is the fact that the Eiffel Tower has the property of existence. It seems that the claim asserts that existence is a property of the Eiffel Tower. Yet the philosophers listed--with qualifications the philosophical Wikipedian is encouraged to elaborate--deny that existence is a property. In fact, this is the common view among philosophers today. David Hume David Hume (April 26, 1711 – August 25, 1776) was a Scottish philosopher and historian and, with Adam Smith and Thomas Reid among others, one of the most important figures in the Scottish Enlightenment. ...
A painting of Immanuel Kant in his middle age Immanuel Kant (April 22, 1724 in Königsberg – February 12, 1804) was a German philosopher from Prussia, generally regarded as one of Europes most influential thinkers and the last major philosopher of the Enlightenment. ...
Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege (November 8, 1848 – July 26, 1925) was a German mathematician, logician, and philosopher who is regarded as a founder of both modern mathematical logic and analytic philosophy. ...
Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM (18 May 1872–2 February 1970) was an influential mathematician, philosopher, and logician of the modern age, working mostly in the 20th century. ...
A second-order predicate is a predicate that takes a first-order predicate as an argument. ...
The Eiffel Tower from the Pont de la Concorde The Eiffel Tower (French: la Tour Eiffel) is a metallic tower built on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France, and is nowadays the most famous landmark and symbol of Paris. ...
One might wonder why it matters at all whether or not existence is a property. Consider: if existence is not a property, then the concept of existence cannot be defined, or at least, not as it has been defined here. The foregoing definition of 'exists' is incorrect, many philosophers would say, just because the definition does treat existence as a property.
Immanuel Kant wrote: A painting of Immanuel Kant in his middle age Immanuel Kant (April 22, 1724 in Königsberg – February 12, 1804) was a German philosopher from Prussia, generally regarded as one of Europes most influential thinkers and the last major philosopher of the Enlightenment. ...
- By whatever and by however many predicates we may think a thing--even if we completely determine it--we do not make the least addition to the thing when we further declare that this thing is. Otherwise, it would not be exactly the same thing that exists, but something more than we had thought in the concept; and we could not, therefore, say that the exact object of my concept exists. If we think in a thing every feature of reality except one, the missing reality is not added by my saying that this defective thing exists. On the contrary, it exists with the same defect with which I have thought it, since otherwise what exists would be something different from what I thought. (Critique of Pure Reason, B627-8)
Suppose one listed out all the properties and relations of an apple sitting on a table. It is red, it has a stem, it is four inches wide, it is juicy, it is on the table, it is in a room, and so on. Kant says, then, once one has listed out all the properties and relations of the apple, one could try claiming that the apple exists (or "is," as he says). But that, Kant says, does not add any new property to the thing. Therefore, existence is not another property over and above all these. So in other words, Kant argues as follows: a complete list of an apple's properties would not be expanded by adding another property, namely existence; therefore, existence is not another property over and above all the other properties. The Critique of Pure Reason is widely regarded as the philosopher Immanuel Kants major work, first published in 1781, with a second edition in 1787. ...
Of this view, one might ask: does this entail that existence is not a property at all? It seems not. If one lists out all the properties of the apple, the list would include 'being located in the universe with which we are in contact'. An advocate of the definability of 'existence' for physical objects might claim that that particular property just is what constitutes the apple's existence. That property would, of course, be included in a list of all of the apple's properties; so Kant's claim, that existence is not another property over and above all its other properties, seems true enough, but that by itself does not mean that existence is not a property at all.
The dialectic definitely does not end there; in fact, we have barely scratched the surface. Much more can be said on both sides. (And we invite ontologists to dive in and supply the missing details.)
See also The Bible says very little about cosmology, such as the position of the earth in the universe, the nature of the fixed stars and planets, seeing as its main emphasis was on the history of God’s dealings with man. ...
René Descartes (1596-1650) The Latin phrase cogito, ergo sum (I think, therefore I am) is possibly the single best-known philosophical statement and is attributed to René Descartes. ...
Consciousness is a quality of the mind generally regarded to comprise qualities such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, sapience, and the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and ones environment. ...
Cosmogony [Gr. ...
The cosmological argument is an argument for the existence of God. ...
Wiktionary has a definition of: Cosmology For the jazz band, see: Cosmology (band) Cosmology, from the Greek: κοσμολογία (κόσμος world + λογια discourse) is the study of the universe in its totality and by extension mans place in it. ...
In its widest sense, creationism (from the Latin creatio) refers to the theological doctrine that all material in the universe was created by a divine agency, such as God, out of nothingness (ex nihilo). ...
Creation beliefs and stories describe how the universe, the Earth, life, and/or humanity came into being. ...
Christianity, Islam and Judaism hold the belief that the universe was created by a Supreme Being. ...
The creator god is the divine being that created the omniverse, according to various traditions and faiths. ...
Many cultures have held traditional beliefs that the Earth, or indeed the entire Universe, was brought into being in a grand Creation event by one or more gods. ...
Historical and modern Deism are defined by the view that reason, rather than revelation or tradition, should be the basis of belief in God. ...
In mathematics, a nonconstructive proof, is a mathematical proof that purports to demonstrate the existence of something, but which does not say how to construct it. ...
In predicate logic, existential quantification is an attempt to formalize the notion that something (a logical predicate) is true for something, or at least one relevant thing. ...
Gödels ontological proof is a formalization of Saint Anselms ontological argument for Gods existence by the mathematician Kurt Gödel. ...
Intelligent Design (or ID) is a highly controversial claim holding that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent designer, rather than an undirected process such as natural selection. ...
Metaphysics (Greek words meta = after/beyond and physics = nature) is a branch of philosophy concerned with the study of first principles and being (ontology). ...
Nonexistence is sometimes mentioned in discussions of the meaning, or analyzability, of existence. ...
In philosophy, ontology (from the Greek ον = being and λόγος = word/speech) is the most fundamental branch of metaphysics. ...
The term philosophy derives from a combination of the Greek words philos meaning love and sophia meaning wisdom. ...
Solipsism (from the Latin ipse = self and solus = alone) is the metaphysical belief that only oneself exists, and that existence just means being a part of ones own mental states — all objects, people, etc, that one experiences are merely parts of ones own mind. ...
Theism is the belief in one or more gods or goddesses. ...
Many religions have postulated an end to the Universe. ...
Viktor Frankl Mans search for meaning Viktor Emil Frankl, M.D., Ph. ...
External links - Existence (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/existence/) on the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Existence. Definitions from leading philosophers (http://www.formalontology.it/existence.htm)
- Why Does Anything Exist? (http://www.hedweb.com/nihilism/nihilfil.htm)
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