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Single Idea 16588

[filed under theme 7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 2. Types of Existence ]

Full Idea

I sooner judged that what lacks all form does not exist, than thought of as something in between form and nothing, neither formed nor nothing, unformed and next to nothing.

Gist of Idea

I prefer a lack of form to mean non-existence, than to think of some quasi-existence

Source

Augustine (Confessions [c.398], XII.6), quoted by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 03.1

Book Ref

Pasnau,Robert: 'Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671' [OUP 2011], p.38

A Reaction

Scholastics were struck by the contrast between this remark, and the remark of Averroes (Idea 16587) that prime matter was halfway existence. Their two great authorities disagreed! This sort of thing stimulated the revival of metaphysics.

Related Idea

Idea 16587 Prime matter is halfway between non-existence and existence [Averroes]

The 18 ideas with the same theme [whether there is more than one type of existence]:

13221 Existence is either potential or actual [Aristotle]
568 Some things exist as substances, others as properties of substances [Aristotle]
16588 I prefer a lack of form to mean non-existence, than to think of some quasi-existence [Augustine]
16664 Everything that exists is either a substance or an accident [Albert of Saxony]
17174 Outside the mind, there are just things and their properties [Spinoza]
17176 The more reality a thing has, the more attributes it has [Spinoza]
21291 There is no medium state between existence and non-existence [Hume]
4168 Matter and intellect are inseparable correlatives which only exist relatively, and for each other [Schopenhauer]
19470 Thoughts in the 'third realm' cannot be sensed, and do not need an owner to exist [Frege]
10241 For Quine, there is only one way to exist [Quine, by Shapiro]
15535 We can't accept a use of 'existence' that says only some of the things there are actually exist [Lewis]
10470 There are only two kinds: sets, and possibilia (actual and possible particulars) [Lewis, by Oliver]
15520 Existence doesn't come in degrees; once asserted, it can't then be qualified [Lewis]
15789 Lewis's distinction of 'existing' from 'being actual' is Meinong's between 'existing' and 'subsisting' [Lycan on Lewis]
12620 If 'exist' is ambiguous in 'chairs and numbers exist', that mirrors the difference between chairs and numbers [Fodor]
13884 The idea that 'exist' has multiple senses is not coherent [Wright,C]
15078 There are levels of existence, as well as reality; objects exist at the lowest level in which they can function [Fine,K]
18769 Do mathematicians use 'existence' differently when they say some entity exists? [Anderson,CA]