| |
People exist but fairies do not. What is the difference between existing and not existing? Some philosophers have held that existence is a property. It is a property that everything which exists has. So, for example, some have argued that God exists on the grounds that existence is a property, a property which it is better to possess than not, and that God, a perfect being, can hardly lack a property which it is better to possess than not. This argument obviously collapses if existence is not a property.
One reason given for thinking that existence is not a property is this. A property distinguishes entities from one another, enabling us to pick out similarities and dissimilarities, to contrast the things which possess the property from those which do not. But if existence is a property which everything which exists has, one cannot contrast the things which possess the property from those which do not.
Considerations such as this have led philosophers to deny that existence is a property. We often ascribe properties to entities. To say that George is pink is to ascribe a property, the property of being pink, to an entity, George. But to say that George exists is not to ascribe a property to him. Rather, it is to say that there is a thing and that thing is George. AJ
See also metaphysics.Further reading W.V. Quine, From a Logical Point of View; , M. Sainsbury, Logical Forms. |
|
