Questions tagged [existence]
Ontological and metaphysical questions about the study of existence, being and the structure of reality.
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Can a person exist that isn't labelled with any "isms"? [closed]
I've seen people complain about "isms" as if they are above isms. But people don't get to choose their labels. If they believe that everything that isn't the norm counts as an ism and should ...
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What is Eternity’s Springboard?
From Camus’ Myth of Sissyphus; Philosophical Suicide. Here’s the paragraph [format edited]:
Now, if it is admitted that the absurd is the contrary of hope, it is seen that existential thought for ...
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An object exist means what? And what is the relation of it with space and time?
If something exist mentally & physically, in both forms it is understandable that we have a Idea of it in mind as well as in reality or physically but , what about things which exists in the form ...
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Would "piles" of existence-tropes allow for degrees of existence?
The SEP article on tropes discusses this notion of "piles" of tropes. The PI stands for primitivist individuation of tropes, meaning their individuation admits of no informative analysis or ...
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The set-or-class of things that don't exist
If it could be determinate, how many things don't exist, i.e. if there could be a set of nonexistent things, would the existence of other things follow "mechanically"?
If it's not ...
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Does Russell's objection to Meinongianism apply whenever we take the meta-version of an existence-predicate distinction?
The point of departure:
A third problem, one of Russell’s objections to Meinongianism (see [Russell 1905a, 1907]), turns on the fact that existence is, on Meinongianism, a property and hence figures ...
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If existence-tropes would be absurd, does this count against trope theory or the theory of existence-as-a-property?
I advert to the word "trope" as used in philosophy and not as used in narrative analysis (although I can see a reflection of either sense of the word, in the other use). The argument goes:
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Would a distinction between existenceₜᵣᵢᵥᵢₐₗ and existenceₙₒₙₜᵣᵢᵥᵢₐₗ diffuse Meinongianism and ontological arguments?
Or, really, any line of reasoning that seems to ideologically commit us to some sort of ontology that we have no clear-and-substantive relation with? This book from the Cambridge University Press ...
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Looking for a specific joke about arguments for Meinongianism
I remember reading a book (or a paper) some time ago, that had a line somewhat like this:
There are good arguments for Meinongianism. They just don't exist.
Now, I find this very funny and find ...
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Did Peirce hold that, when stripped to its absolute core, Descartes’ cogito could be summarized as: ‘There is an Idea’?
In ‘The Simplest Mathematics’ (1933), C.S. peirce elaborated:
It is a fundamental mistake to suppose that an idea which stands
isolated can be otherwise than perfectly blind. He professes to doubt
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Should X, if there’s no evidence for X, be given a non zero probability?
There may be no evidence that a fairy is sitting on a table. Many argue that one cannot prove a fairy doesn’t exist. Thus, many decide to attach an (infinitesimal) probability to it existing, as many ...
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Does time exist/is fundamental in such a scenario?
Suppose you have nothing, but only a thing X which doesn't change at all, is there time? How would you say how many seconds/units of time have passed when there is only the thing X i.e. static too, ...
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Is space fundamental?
Let's start with a definition of space, like
"Space is a three-dimensional continuum containing positions and
directions"
If we delve deeper into such definitions, we come across terms ...
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Is it better to exist than not to exist?
Once we already exist we want to continue existing, but before we existed we did not care if we existed or not. So what is better? Is it better to bring new life into existence? And the more we bring, ...
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What would a possible solution to the hard problem of consciousness look like?
The hard problem of consciousness is stated as-
'why objective, mechanical processing can give rise to subjective experiences.'
The reason I ask this question is that if we do not even know what a ...
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Can omnipotent beings exist? [duplicate]
Through an omnipotent being, all things are possible. Can such beings exist? For example, can the Flying Spaghetti Monster be omnipotent?
Prior discussion:
This question is supposedly relevant, but ...
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Is the hard problem of consciousness a question about why a person, as an entity which can experience, exists?
The hard problem of consciousness is stated as-
'why objective, mechanical processing can give rise to subjective experiences.'
If we assume the universe to be a Turing machine, it appears to me that ...
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Is there a philosophical concept that describes the notion that all permutations of human experience must exist simultaneously?
It's the idea that, basically, if we each have our own paths to walk, so to speak, and if they are all unique to each individual person, then that must mean every possible permutation of a "life&...
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Can existence be justified as ‘better’ than non-existence?
I’m relatively new to philosophy. Been doing some soul-searching, and asked myself ‘is good empirically better than evil’. Found a thread on here, where people pointed out that science cannot really ...
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Could deities/multiverses be the empty/trivial solutions to, "How and why does our universe exist in the way it does?"
Note: I am loosely following Nicholas Rescher (Axiogenesis) here, by qualifying "the existence of this world" as "the existence of this specific world," where, "Why is there ...
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Can we know that we are breathing analytically/a priori?
P1: I exist (perhaps from the cogito, or just some intuition) as a human being
P2: Human beings must respirate to exist
C1: I am respirating
Surely C1 is synthetic? Or, at least, something that we ...
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An Eternal Reward for Our Actions - Are There Strong Incentives to do Anything
I'm wondering:
Humans are mortal. Death seems to nullify any gains made by the self to the self.
Humans are subject to natural impulses towards actions (for example, we are compelled by natural ...
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What does existence correspond to outside of human consciousness? [closed]
The existence of something is a purely human concept. What does it correspond to outside of human consciousness?
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If Something Exists Does Everything Exist?
Has anyone argued this? I haven't formulated a coherent argument so I'm just throwing this out there to see if anyone has thought about this already. Intuitively I think it makes sense that everything ...
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Where does this concept of existence fall?
In exploring the questions of existence, I came to this concept. I am curious if anyone has any feedback or can point me to any other materials or ideas that relate to this? I am sure I am not the ...
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How is the term "existence" even defined for things other than your subjective experience?
Lots of philosophies talk about an objective world that exists outside of one's mind. Some philosophies even say that this objective world is the only thing that exists, and that subjective qualia are ...
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Traditionally in philosophy, anything that can be said to be is a being
True or false? Does this mean that tables and chairs, rivers and rocks, by virtue of the fact that they exist, can be called 'beings'?
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How can we denote objects that no longer exist?
This is a question more about how we can discuss about objects which no longer exist. For example, let's say that Socrates no longer exists (ignore any religious side of this and consider Socrates as ...
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Are various concepts of divine creation based on more basic/simpler/integrated concepts, or are they indefinitely diverse?
For example, take these four notions:
Creation by rearranging/ordering prime matter (AKA from preexisting substance).
By emanation.𓆉
"From nothing."
Modal "toggling": ...
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What is the point of Human Existence?
I have no experience in formal philosophy, so I apologise for the crudeness and generalism of everything I say here.
The Issue-:
Every time I try to motivate myself by logically connecting the ...
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Does Kant's scheme for the analytic/synthetic distinction have room for a (degenerate?) further distinction, for "hyperanalytical" knowledge?
Kant can be easily misread (or: I myself easily misread him, for a long time) as claiming that no "existence claims" are analytically knowable. Technically, though, his system has it that (...
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What is existence?
If I wanted to define "existence" as "that which we encounter but cannot will", what philosophical tradition would that put me in? What authors took up that position or a similar ...
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What does it mean to exist and not exist? Is it possible to be both and/or neither?
Is it possible for something to exist and at the same time not exist?
Also, is it possible for something to neither exist and not exist?
Or am I simply asking the same question, but wording it ...
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Understanding the concept of "Entity"
I was reading the concept for an entity, it says:
An entity is something that exists as itself, as a subject or as an object, real or potentially, concretely or abstractly, physically or not. It need ...
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Does the notion of creation-from-nothingness presuppose the notion of existence-as-a-predicate?
Presupposition of the question. The question, "Does X exist?" is either trivial or empty. On the one hand, as Hume said one time, it seems as if in thinking of something, I always think of ...
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How does a thought imply there is a thinker in "I think therefore I am"?
How does Descartes say a thought necessarily means there is a thinker?
In my opinion, "I think therefore I am" is egocentric because could really stem from an illusion of the thoughts ...
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Proving God and believing only provable things
This question has two, related, parts.
Part 1.
I recently have been on some discussions regarding proving God exists and proving that Jesus is really the son of God; intertwined with that, there was a ...
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Is there an infinite amount of things that are not present?
Sitting here at my desk, there is not a bottle of meth. There is not an elephant. There is not a car. There is not a unicorn. There is not a salad. There is not a cat. There is not a dog. There is not ...
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Are we all in a state of existence and nonexistence?
Why?
Because if something exists it needs something that observes it otherwise it doesn't exist or...?
If this is true then at some point in this universe we all will very likely vanish (Big Freeze or ...
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Any modern context for Boethius' two types of now?
1,500 years ago the Roman senator & philosopher Boethius wrote of two types of 'the now':
“Nunc fluens facit tempus, nunc stans facit aeternitatum."
The now that passes produces time, the ...
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Are all nonexistent things the same?
Is every nonexistent thing identical to every other nonexistent thing? For instance, both the property of being Santa Claus and the property of being a unicorn have empty extension, so does that mean ...
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Does anything exist that doesn't cause effects?
In trying to understand the meaning of the word 'exist', I'm asking if there is anything exists that doesn't cause effects. Or is there anything that causes effects that doesn't exist?
If not then it ...
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Could I (or something like my mind) exist because more complicated (mental) products than me exist?
Starting with a Cartesian-type 'cogito' argument, we might be sceptical that an 'I' exists, but rather suppose that we're embedded in a kind of perceptive process allowing us to experience thoughts, ...
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Is there something that exists by pure logic alone?
Is there something such that its existence is necessary, through pure logic alone? I know that Anselm famously suggested God as such a being, but his argument is widely thought to be fallacious. But ...
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Is being non existent the same as being zero in quantity
For instance,
There does not exist unicorn on earth. There are zero unicorns on earth.
How are these two different?
One could argue being zero in quantity is a temporal property. The number may change ...
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What is "Nothing"? [closed]
What is "nothing" and how can a Universe be entirely created out of "nothing"? The moment we give "nothing" a description or definition, it becomes something. The ...
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Is there any way for me to know if I exist, as such, do I exist?
Is there any way for me to truly know I exist? I mean, I think I exist, but I recently came across skepticism, which says to doubt everything, even one's own existence, so now I don't know if I exist. ...
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Is time fundamental like space or only a tool for measurement? [closed]
Time is to distance or acceleration what progression is to space. Time “exists” like distance as a measurement but is not ‘real’ like me, you or the earth that we stand. Time is a measurement of ...
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Has any philosophy in history coherently disambiguated the state of being “real” from being “existent”? Such that it’s broadly applicable to thoughts?
I suspect that things which simply exist are not bound by limits and are hence unlimited. According to economic thinking, real things are those which are scarce or limited by constraints of physical ...
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Is it possible to define a term that has no extension, without presupposing the existence of members?
For example 'unicorn' has no extension, but we can still provide a definition of one as long as we assume that they do exist. So is it possible to define a term that really has no extension, without ...
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