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Question posted on April 25, 2013; 1 response
The word abstract generally connotes something which is general rather than particular and consisting in the mind or realm of ideas rather than a concrete and actual instance. Metaphysics is often described as an abstract inquiry into being. Yet being...
Existence Show

Question posted on January 31, 2013; 1 response
Hello everyone. Quixotic Question: has anyone written anything on a materialist versions of reincarnation? I mean, suppose you cut all the baggage, from karma to "reincarnation research" and the like, and keep strictly to a physicalist worldview (particles and field,...
Existence Show

Question posted on January 2, 2013; 1 response
Here's a quote from Hume: "Nothing, that is distinctly conceivable, implies a contradiction." My question is this: what is the difference between something that is logically a contradiction and something that happens to not be instantiated? For example, ghosts do...
Existence, Logic Show

Question posted on December 20, 2012; 1 response
What is an instantiated concept in philosophy? My class has a question asking TRUE or FALSE: A sphere made of solid gold is an instantiated concept. However, I am confused as to what they mean by that term....
Existence Show

Question posted on December 6, 2012; 1 response
Is existence a property? The way I became confounded was an example like this: a phoenix is a bird, it has feathers, and it is born from ashes, but it does not exist, whereas a penguin is a bird, has...
Existence Show

Question posted on November 17, 2012; 1 response
Is "exist" an overburdened word? We say that ideas exist, processes exist, and substances exist, but doesn't "exist" mean something different in each case? When we say a particular apple exists, we mean the apple takes up space...
Existence Show

Question posted on November 17, 2012; 1 response
According to Heidegger philosophy has never really asked what we mean by "Being". According to him we ask what the essence of this or that form of being is but we never concern ourselves with being proper. Perhaps what Heidegger...
Existence, Philosophers Show

Question posted on August 23, 2012; 1 response
If under possible world semantics one was to assert 'it is possible that there be an orange elephant'. Is one to be understood as saying that there is an object which does not exist in this world but does...
Existence Show

Question posted on August 23, 2012; 1 response
When discussing kinds of terms, there are certain kinds that come up often. Singular entities such as Queen Elizabeth II are one kind, categories such as cats are another, and properties such as blue are a third. However, what about...
Existence Show

Question posted on August 23, 2012; 1 response
Does the word 'being' have a meaning?...
Existence, Language Show

Question posted on August 16, 2012; 1 response
There is a child that is 5 years old, 4ft tall, likes toys, is of average intelligence, and believes in santa clause. 40 years pass and the child is now a man 45 years old, 6ft tall, doesn't like toys, is a...
Existence Show

Question posted on August 16, 2012; 1 response
In describing Kant's idea of the "thing-in-itself" Thomas Pogge (in response to a recent question on this site) recently wrote that "According to this explanation, space and time are then features only of objects as they appear to us." I'm...
Existence, Perception Show

Question posted on July 19, 2012; 1 response
I've always thought it odd that rivers are said to have a single "source". Isn't a river the result of all its tributaries? What gives one source priority over the other tributaries to a river? Isn't the...
Existence Show

Question posted on March 31, 2012; 1 response
Would a materialist and reductionist have to reject the phenomena/noumena distinction? I saw a clip of a debate between Christopher Hitchens and Douglas Wilson in which Hitchens seems to claim that one could reject the supernatural without rejecting the noumenal....
Existence, Knowledge Show

Question posted on March 31, 2012; 1 response
Dear Philosophers, We can differentiate between objects by two axii, their form, which is the shape they take, and their "thingness." Thingness refers to the reason for an object, its purpose that it is supposed to...
Existence Show

Question posted on March 22, 2012; 1 response
My supposition is; can an abstract possess an abstract? That is, a person (tangible) can possess morality or happiness, but "time" can not possess either. Or, a "society" can be said to be moral (or immoral) but is it...
Existence Show

Question posted on March 9, 2012; 1 response
This is not a factual question of whether conscious being can be aware of itīs own existence in the world. Rather how the chain of reasoning can be non-contradictory if one is to assume the world exists, and that...
Existence Show

Question posted on February 29, 2012; 1 response
Is similarity a fact of things in the world, or is it an observation made by sentient beings? Take two cats, for example. Is it an objective fact of the world that the two cats are similar (shape, size, biology,...
Existence Show

Question posted on February 29, 2012; 1 response
Is it logically possible for there to "be nothing" since for anything to "be" it must exist?...
Existence Show

Question posted on January 26, 2012; 2 responses
Hello Philosophers! Can anyone defend the Ontological Argument against Kant's criticism that existence is not a predicate?...
Existence, Philosophers, Religion Show




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