Psychology Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Existence, philosophy, logic: the fact that there is something to which properties can be attributed. That does not mean that something has to be given immediately or can be perceived by the senses. See also ontology, properties, predicates, existence statements, realism, quantification, ascription._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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Michael Woods on Existence - Dictionary of Arguments
II 248f Existence/Tradition/Woods: existence is no predicate. GeachVsTradition: that is only correct, as long as not conceived temporally - Tradition: as predicate would make any statement necessary. >Necessity, >Predication, >Existence predicate. DummettVsTradition: this is not true. Solution: higher-order predicate, but not like "rare". Dummett: this is no problem for truth conditions, if constructed as "PeS":"true of everything". >Truth conditions. II 250 But this does not have to be a primitive predicate. Problem: Self identity cannot change with time. >Identity, >Self-identity. II 254 Predicate/Existence/Woods: E. g. "there were dodos": Dodo: one-digit predicate that is only true of an object if it belongs to the extension of the predicate at that time - i. e. relative to the time of the utterance - with some predicates one associates the non-applicability with the passing away of the object, with others not. Always true during existence: e.g. "Human". Cf. >Presupposition. Sometimes true, but only if object exists: e.g."sleeps". Sometimes true, but even if object does not exist: e.g. famous. See also >Intrinsic, >Extrinsic. II 258 Existence/Time/Woods: other approach: Predicates should carry temporal relativization, not the quantifiers. >Quantifiers. Then indices and demonstratives are necessary. >Demonstratives, >Index words, >Indexicality. Indexical singular terms with the attribution function* should be treated in such a way that objects are linked with expressions by triplets from a sequence, a person and a time. "There were dodos": Dodo here two-digit predicate, true of object at a time when it is a dodo. - Here too the implication of past existence is carried by the meaning of "dodo". >Predicates, >Singular terms. II 259 Problem: future existence cannot be expressed if "F" is the only predicate - past and future are indistinguishable - solution: combining both approaches: a) Indexical sentence operators. b) To introduce time into predicates: so that one can say that it is now true that something is F in the future and that it will be true that something is F then. >Time, >Past, >Present, >Future. II 262 Existence/Woods: should not be treated as a "Type 1 predicate", i. e. only to be meaningfully applied if the object already exists, e. g. "human being" - solution: Existence predicate should be treated as the 2nd level quantification. >Quantification, >Second Order Logic._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
WoodsM II Michael Woods "Existence and Tense" In Truth and Meaning, G. Evans/J. McDowell, Oxford 1976 |
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