Questions tagged [existence]

Ontological and metaphysical questions about the study of existence, being and the structure of reality.

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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 = ...
Agent Smith's user avatar
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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? ...
Collins's user avatar
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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?...
Collins's user avatar
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7 answers
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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 ...
Alessandro Nanto's user avatar
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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 ...
polarsmh's user avatar
3 votes
5 answers
271 views

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 ...
Mani's user avatar
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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 ...
Collins's user avatar
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6 answers
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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 ...
user57467's user avatar
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3 answers
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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 ...
Meanach's user avatar
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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 ...
Meanach's user avatar
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5 answers
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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 ...
thinkingman's user avatar
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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? ...
Kamran Noor's user avatar
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2 answers
111 views

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 ...
Myers Hertz's user avatar
-1 votes
1 answer
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Does the universe have an ultimate purpose? [closed]

Objective purpose is an alternative? Universal, fundamental purpose?
Meanach's user avatar
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9 votes
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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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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 ...
Meanach's user avatar
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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.
Meanach's user avatar
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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 ...
Agent Smith's user avatar
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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 ...
user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
298 views

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 ...
Dheeraj Verma's user avatar
6 votes
6 answers
756 views

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 ...
Kamran Noor's user avatar
1 vote
3 answers
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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?
Kamran Noor's user avatar
3 votes
9 answers
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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 "...
Annika's user avatar
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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 ...
Kristian Berry's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
92 views

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 ...
Qwokker's user avatar
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4 answers
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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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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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1 vote
1 answer
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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 ...
Newniz Leibton's user avatar
3 votes
3 answers
137 views

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 ...
Ankita Nayak's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
54 views

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 ...
Kristian Berry's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
75 views

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 ...
Kristian Berry's user avatar
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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 ...
Kristian Berry's user avatar
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0 answers
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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: ...
Kristian Berry's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
68 views

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 ...
Kristian Berry's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
891 views

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 ...
snofelet's user avatar
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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 ...
Anthony Klich's user avatar
7 votes
7 answers
3k views

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 ...
thinkingman's user avatar
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3 votes
3 answers
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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, ...
Siddharth Chakravarty's user avatar
3 votes
5 answers
166 views

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 ...
Siddharth Chakravarty's user avatar
0 votes
4 answers
268 views

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, ...
Kirby's user avatar
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1 vote
3 answers
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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 ...
Prem's user avatar
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1 vote
5 answers
685 views

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 ...
Corbin's user avatar
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1 answer
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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 ...
Prem's user avatar
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1 answer
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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&...
starfightercourage's user avatar
9 votes
9 answers
2k views

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 ...
Reefkeeper27's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
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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 ...
Kristian Berry's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
116 views

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 ...
sket's user avatar
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2 votes
2 answers
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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 ...
Hex Heager's user avatar
3 votes
3 answers
160 views

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?
Arman Armenpress's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
162 views

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 ...
L Vincent's user avatar

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