Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Existence

  • Can Existence Be Ostensively Defined?

    Here is a remarkable passage from Ayn Rand's Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, expanded 2nd ed., p. 41: Ostensive definitions are usually regarded as applicable only to conceptualized sensations. But they are applicable to axioms as well.  Since axiomatic concepts are identifications of irreducible primaries, the only way to define one is by means of an…

  • Consciousness and Existence: Is Every Consciousness a Consciousness of What Exists?

    What follows in purple are two quotations (from separate works) from the Ayn Rand Lexicon.  If nothing exists, there can be no consciousness: a consciousness with nothing to be conscious of is a contradiction in terms. A consciousness conscious of nothing but itself is a contradiction in terms: before it could identify itself as consciousness,…

  • Back to Parmenides: Binswanger’s Defense of Rand’s Block Universe

    In response to Harry Binswanger, I wrote: My diagnosis of our disagreement is as follows. You think that what is causally necessitated (e.g. the lunar craters) is broadly-logically necessary (BL-necessary) whereas I think that what is causally necessitated is broadly-logically contingent. Because you think that what is causally necessitated is BL-necessary, you naturally think that…

  • Existence, God, and the Randians

    This is a follow-up to yesterday's  Rand and Existence Again. The following is by Leonard Peikoff: Every argument for God and every attribute ascribed to Him rests on a false metaphysical premise. None can survive for a moment on a correct metaphysics . . . . Existence exists, and only existence exists. Existence is a primary: it is…

  • Rand and Existence Again

    One of my Rand posts has inspired some vigorous discussion at Triablogue.  My nominalist sparring partner 'Ocham' over at Beyond Necessity comments here on part of the Triablogue discussion: Tennant points out the 'Existence exists' is incoherent – existence is commonly regarded as a second-order property. Not by everyone, I should point out, but certainly…

  • Is Ayn Rand a Good Philosopher? Rand on the Primacy of Existence

    I thank our old friend Ockham for adding links to two of my Rand posts to the Wikipedia Ayn Rand entry. (See note 4.) I am about to repost a slightly emended version of the more technical of the two posts,  the one on existence.  This is from my first weblog and was originally posted…

  • Existence as a Property: A Response to David Brightly

    David Brightly commented: “Why bother with existence as a property since everything has it and it does not help distinguish individuals? Is there an argument that convinces you that existence is a property, or is this in some way a matter of ‘philosophical taste’?” 1. Existence can be a property without being a property of…

  • Existence: Some Responses to Pavel Materna

    For context see Pavel Tichy on Existence, the posts chained to it, and the comments to these posts. My view is that existence belongs to individuals in the way it would not belong to them if Frege and Russell and Pavel Tichy were right about existence. These three maintain that existence is exclusively a property…