Single Idea 6062

[catalogued under 7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 6. Criterion for Existence]

Full Idea

Paraphrasing existence statements into statements about the instantiation of a property does not establish that existence is not a predicate, since the notion of instantiation must be taken to have existence built into it.

Clarification

'Instantiation' means there being instance or cases of

Gist of Idea

Existence can't be analysed as instantiating a property, as instantiation requires existence

Source

Colin McGinn (Logical Properties [2000], Ch.2)

Book Reference

McGinn,Colin: 'Logical Properties' [OUP 2003], p.22


A Reaction

Thank you, Colin McGinn! This now strikes me as so obvious that it is astonishing that for the whole of the twentieth century no one seems to have said it. For a century philosophers had swept the ontological dirt under the mat.