Timeline for Does anything exist that doesn't cause effects?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
8 events
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| Nov 2, 2022 at 12:51 | comment | added | Paul Ross | @WokeBloke, setting aside the possibility of Squircles, I think this is where we encounter questions about whether you want to use the purely logical Exists verb or whether you mean something like “Actually Exists” or “Really Exists”. But here there is some use in drawing out that maybe the point of contention at work is the implicit reference to Reality or Actuality - a logical “exists” verb separates the functioning of model building and reference without assuming that e.g. conditionally, hypothetically, even fictionally existing things all have to follow their own logics. | |
| Nov 2, 2022 at 10:43 | comment | added | J.G. | @WokeBloke Statements of the form "there exists an x such that P(x)". | |
| Nov 2, 2022 at 10:42 | comment | added | WokeBloke | @J.G. Not sure what you are trying to show with that link. | |
| Nov 2, 2022 at 10:34 | comment | added | J.G. |
@WokeBloke At the risk of this turning into a debate over whether "things" have to exist, those are the things I had in mind, as when we determine the truth-values of statements of the form https://latex.codecogs.com/svg.image?\exists%20x(P(x)) Edit: sorry, that URL breaks. I don't care what people say, this SE needs MathJax.
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| Nov 2, 2022 at 10:29 | comment | added | WokeBloke | @J.G. When we say one thing is X we are equating two things. Just because one thing is a circular square (specifically a circular square) doesn't mean it exists right? | |
| Nov 2, 2022 at 10:04 | comment | added | J.G. | @WokeBloke "A circular square is a circular square" is ambiguous, meaning either "nothing that's a circular square isn't a circular square" or "at least one circular square is a circular square"; the former is vacuously true, the latter false. The latter meaning is equivalent to "a circular square exists". So "X exists" is equivalent to "something is X" as long as the latter is short for "at least one thing is X". | |
| Nov 2, 2022 at 9:06 | comment | added | WokeBloke | I'm not convinced "snow exists" and "something is snow" are equivalent statements. "Something is snow" is a claim of equivalence like 1 = 1. Is existing just about being equivalent to something? If so then don't circular squares exist because a circular square is a circular square? As far as I can tell though circular squares don't exist. | |
| Nov 2, 2022 at 8:43 | history | answered | Paul Ross | CC BY-SA 4.0 |