Questions tagged [existence]
Ontological and metaphysical questions about the study of existence, being and the structure of reality.
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Does Kant implicitly commit the paralogism of pure reason when saying that to have a representation it is necessary to accompany it with 'I think'?
In Caygill's Kant Dictionary entry of 'I Think' there is this part:
Kant further claims that 'I think' is the necessary vehicle/form/accompaniment of experience: to have a representation it is ...
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What is the lack of anything (including nothing)? [closed]
To clarify my question, I am not asking what is nothing, I am asking a more complex question, what is the lack of anything, which includes the absence of nothing (not anything), while assuming that ...
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Why do some philosphers including Russell paraphrase this sentence?
To say “Pegasus doesn’t exist” is to say “it is not the case that there is exactly one
x
which is a flying horse of Greek mythology”.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nonexistent-objects/
“Pegasus ...
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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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Existence as a Predicate
In Predicate logic if I wanna say, Atoms exist, I don't/*can't (?) use Ex = x exists (make existence a predicate) and state Ea, where a = Atoms. The correct way to express Atoms exist is Ex(Ax), Ax = ...
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Question about Differences in Existential Quantification
Existent objects don't exist.
There are no existent object.
It seems 1 is inconsistent and 2 consistent. Both propositions seem to declare something exists, but is there a difference in these claims? ...
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Does position imply existence? [closed]
People in that room don't exist.
Is it contradictory because "people in that room" mean the people exist?
Does "in the room", "in the school", etc all imply the existence?...
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What does "everything" mean?
For starter, I'm not a student in philosophy, but mathematics. I only have a general knowledge in logic and set theory, all in the context of mathematics. My question comes from a doubt I got while ...
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Circularity in definition of Real
I'm having a hard time understanding the adjective 'real'.
In some sense, we get that x is real iff x is in reality. So to say that y is a real boy, is to say that y is a boy, and y is in the ...
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According to Aquinas, what is the relationship between the substantial form of a bodily being and its act of existing, ie. its esse?
Consider, for example, an existing bodily being. Because it is bodily, we know that it is composed of prime matter and substantial form. Also, because the bodily being is existing (not just made up in ...
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Could something prevent us from ever existing?
There are several ideas regarding the creation of our universe that suggest that our universe emerged from another one (eternal inflation suggesting our universe is the byproduct of an inflationary ...
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Why do we have a problem about understanding the concept of the "empty set"?
The title seems quite bit more generalized, but I'm saying about the philosophers and mathematicians in the past who discussed about the concept of nothing, or the empty set. I'm ...
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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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Does every nation on Earth have a right to exist or do only peaceful nations have a right to exist?
I have been wondering lately as to what it is that gives every nation on Earth the right to exist.
Throughout human history, at any point in time, the Earth has been a mixed bag of nations that were ...
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Is the universe necessary?
The Contingency Argument of Leibniz states that if the universe has an explanation of its existence, that explanation is God. This introduces metaphysics. But could the fundamental fabric of spacetime ...
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Does the law of large numbers explain why quantum mechanics leads to statistical regularities?
When the question of why chancy effects in quantum mechanics lead to statistical regularities is proposed, it is often answered using the law of large numbers.
When you have particles that can be ...
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What are the implications of eternal life
The premise
What would be the consequences of transferring the consciousness of a middle-aged person to a mechanical object or device (such as a robot), as opposed to another biological body?
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Why is there something instead of nothing?
A simple but fundamental question.
The "something" means the whole Universe (known and unknown), it could be represented as the reality version of the set of all sets, which is itself debated. It ...
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Does knowledge of the scientific context aid consideration of philosophical questions?
Some fundamental philosophical questions are posed in the context of quantum physics. Does knowledge of the science aid consideration of these questions? Should the scientific background be explained ...
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Why does something exist, and not nothing? [closed]
I have a seemingly easy looking question, but I couldn't unfortunately find an answer to it, or rather a definitive one, that leaves no doubts. The question is,
If there is a thing, what does it mean? ...
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Does Dissociative ego disorder challenge Descartes‘ „cogito-argument“?
In the 17th century Descartes set out for a new start in philosophy. Applying the method of systematic doubt he searched for a philosophical statement whose truth stands firm and cannot be questioned ...
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Can only one object exist?
Suppose so, then: What exactly can distinguish it from not existing, if the object itself is all there is?
Any object trivially maps to itself via identity, so in order to deviate from the trivial ...
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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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Does the universe have an ultimate purpose? [closed]
Objective purpose is an alternative? Universal, fundamental purpose?
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Could 'cogito ergo sum' possibly be false?
I've heard it postulated by some people that "we can't truly know anything". While that does seem to apply to the vast majority of things, I can't see how 'cogito ergo sum' can possibly be false.
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Why does the universe exist? [duplicate]
The universe appears to have appeared from nothing. Why does something exist, and not nothing? This is about why, not how.
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Cogito Ergo Sum in Predicate Logic
Descartes' famously declared "cogito ergo sum (I think, thus I exist).
How do you translate this into predicate logic?
If T = I think and E = I exist, propositional logic has no problems (vide ...
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Is the hard problem of consciousness really a problem? [closed]
If consciousness is essential to the universe then there is no problem.
Integrated information theory posits that consciousness and its causal properties are identical. Leibniz's principle of ...
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Can something come out of nothing or not? Why?
In our current state of affairs it is safe and reasonable to assume something exists - be it a universe, pure conciousness, illusion or other designations. If some readers nevertheless claim something ...
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Question Regarding Holes
What even are holes? Are they something or nothing? Do they even exist? Sure, you might think me saying that holes do not exist is idiotic but think about it. The existence of holes doesn't make sense ...
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Does self transparency mean that human like existence, and nothing else, can be intrinsically valuable?
Does self transparency mean that human like existence, and nothing else, can be intrinsically valuable?
I was thinking maybe it is, becasue humans are capable of positing themselves as valuable, while ...
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Does the existential quantifier express existence?
Does the existential quantifier express existence?
The existential quantifier is a symbol of symbolic logic which
expresses that the statements within its scope are true for at least
one ...
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Is "thoughts exist" a synthetic a priori statement?
I'm working off of Kant's conception of analytic/synthetic and a prior/a posteriori judgements.
The definition of "thoughts" does not subsume their existence. That is, it is logically ...
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Is there a law stating impermanence of machines?
All livings beings take birth, age, and die. This is well understood as a Truth in philosophy through inductive argumentation. That begs a follow up question: is there any formulation of a Law based ...
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Something and Nothing [closed]
What is something and what is nothing. They both need each other to exist. Why is there something but not nothing?
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Is the concept of (Total) Nothingness self-refuting?
I've been reading the SEP about Nothingness and it gives a good summary of the philosophy around "Why is there something rather than nothing?".
One of the confusions it notes is that "...
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Fixed/critical points of a nonexistence quantifier/function
Let j(∃0) = 1, and j(∃1) = 1, for a justification function j on ∃-sentences. So far, 0 is the initial critical point of the composite quantifier-function, and 1 is the initial fixed point.
So let ...
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Can any given hypothetical being suffer from not coming into existence, if we consider that there is an infinite variation of them?
The question sounds like a direct contradiction on its own, since a being that does not exist does not have the capacity to suffer. However, most cultures have evolved, for obvious reasons, towards ...
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Would the existence of an absolute mean not everything is in motion?
I have no idea if/how the two concepts are linked, that of everything being in motion and there being no absolute motion. I believe both are claimed by contemporary physics, and e.g. Descartes, and ...
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If everything ends one day why don't we end it today?
Is there any doctrine that gives the reason why to wait till the end of the world?
I'm 18 and not depressed.
I am not asking about the purpose of life. I'm asking why should we fulfill the purpose of ...
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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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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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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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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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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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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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What is a universe? (taboo the word "exist")
It seems to me that "universe" and "exist" are defined cyclically. When not talking about many worlds or parallel universes, it's clear what it means to say whether or not a thing ...
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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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