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Single Idea 14173

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

Full Idea

It would seem that whatever exists at any part of time has causal relations. This is not a distinguishing characteristic of what exists, since we have seen that two non-existent terms may be cause and effect.

Gist of Idea

What exists has causal relations, but non-existent things may also have them

Source

Bertrand Russell (The Principles of Mathematics [1903], §449)

Book Ref

Russell,Bertrand: 'Principles of Mathematics' [Routledge 1992], p.476

A Reaction

Presumably he means that the non-existence of something (such as a safety rail) might the cause of an event. This is a problem for Alexander's Principle, in Idea 3534. I think we could redescribe his problem cases, to save Alexander.

Related Idea

Idea 3534 To be is to have causal powers [Alexander,S]

The 33 ideas with the same theme [what is the hallmark for deciding what exists?]:

7022 To be is to have a capacity, to act on other things, or to receive actions [Plato]
527 Everything exists which anyone perceives [Metrodorus of Chios]
20860 Whatever participates in substance exists [Zeno of Citium, by Stobaeus]
5992 Chrysippus says action is the criterion for existence, which must be physical [Chrysippus, by Tieleman]
16660 Are things distinct if they are both separate, or if only one of them can be separate? [Duns Scotus, by Pasnau]
12554 Existences can only be known by experience [Locke]
19393 What is not active is nothing [Leibniz]
3952 I know that nothing inconsistent can exist [Berkeley]
18995 Frege mistakenly takes existence to be a property of concepts, instead of being about things [Frege, by Yablo]
18899 Frege takes the existence of horses to be part of their concept [Frege, by Sommers]
18521 The criterion of existence is the possibility of action [Santayana]
14173 What exists has causal relations, but non-existent things may also have them [Russell]
3534 To be is to have causal powers [Alexander,S]
7680 Ontology is possible only as phenomenology [Heidegger]
16965 All we have of general existence is what existential quantifiers express [Quine]
19277 Quine rests existence on bound variables, because he thinks singular terms can be analysed away [Quine, by Hale]
1633 Absolute ontological questions are meaningless, because the answers are circular definitions [Quine]
9811 It is of the essence of being to appear [Badiou]
14746 What exists can't depend on our conceptual scheme, and using all conceptual schemes is too liberal [Sider on Wiggins]
6062 Existence can't be analysed as instantiating a property, as instantiation requires existence [McGinn]
6065 We can't analyse the sentence 'something exists' in terms of instantiated properties [McGinn]
12216 Real objects are those which figure in the facts that constitute reality [Fine,K]
12218 Being real and being fundamental are separate; Thales's water might be real and divisible [Fine,K]
8300 Perhaps possession of causal power is the hallmark of existence (and a reason to deny the void) [Lowe]
4768 The 'epistemic fallacy' is inferring what does exist from what can be known to exist [Psillos]
12447 That all existents have causal powers is unknowable; the claim is simply an epistemic one [Azzouni]
9501 If all existents are causally active, that excludes abstracta and causally isolated objects [Bird]
18480 Maybe it only exists if it is a truthmaker (rather than the value of a variable)? [MacBride]
19654 We must give up the modern criterion of existence, which is a correlation between thought and being [Meillassoux]
14942 Only admit into ontology what is explanatory and predictive [Ladyman/Ross]
14948 To be is to be a real pattern [Ladyman/Ross]
14493 Existence might require playing a role in explanation, or in a causal story, or being composed in some way [Thomasson]
18917 Existence and nonexistence are characteristics of the world, not of objects [Engelbretsen]