Tag: existence
-
Pre-Print: Peter van Inwagen, Existence: Essays in Ontology
The following review article is scheduled to appear later this year in Studia Neoscholastica. The editor grants me permission to reproduce it here should anyone have comments that might lead to its improvement. REVIEW ARTICLE William F. Vallicella Peter van Inwagen, Existence: Essays in Ontology, Cambridge University Press, 2014, viii + 261 pp. This volume…
-
Van Inwagen on the Univocity of ‘Exists’
In "Being, Existence, and Ontological Commitment" (in Metametaphysics: New Essays on the Foundations of Ontology, eds. Chalmers et al., Oxford 2009, pp. 472-506), Peter van Inwagen argues that 'exists' is univocal: it does not have "different meanings when applied to objects in different categories." (482) This post will examine one of his arguments, an argument…
-
Another Round on the Circularity of the Thin Conception of Existence
London Ed quotes me, then responds. I counterrespond in blue. 1. ‘Island volcanos exist’ is logically equivalent to ‘Some volcano is an island.’ Agree, of course. 2. This equivalence, however, rests on the assumption that the domain of quantification is a domain of existing individuals. Disagree profoundly. The equivalence, being logical, cannot depend on any…