Full Idea
Existence is what existential quantification expresses. …It is unreasonable to ask for an explication of (general) existence in simpler terms. …We may still ask what counts as evidence for existential quantifications.
Gist of Idea
All we have of general existence is what existential quantifiers express
Source
Willard Quine (Existence and Quantification [1966], p.97)
Book Reference
Quine,Willard: 'Ontological Relativity and Other Essays' [Columbia 1969], p.97
A Reaction
This has been orthodoxy for the last 60 years, with philosophers talking of 'quantifying over' instead of 'exists'. But are we allowed second-order logic, and plural quantification, and vague domains?