'Splonk' is a term (perhaps no longer) used in the automotive body repair industry (in Adelaide at least) to refer to the two part body fillers that are used to fill dents. — Janus
It's still a dreadful question. Look at how necessity and existence are used in modal logic.
It's still asking if existence is red. — Banno
"what is necessary for a tree to exist?" is nothing like asking: "is existence red?" — Merkwurdichliebe
Well, here we disagree. — Banno
Yes, the question as to whether there is anything independent of human or animal experience is a reasonable question about absolute existence. If there were not, then existence would be relative to percipience and there would be nothing at all beyond that. The only problem is that we can never answer the question definitively. — Janus
SO here is philosophical progress: what must be true in order for a tree to be a tree, is that it must be a tree. — Banno
We distinguish between hallucinated or imagined trees and actual trees on the basis that the latter can physically act upon us... — Janus
The there is the further question as to what kind of existence the tree must have, whether mind-independently physical or merely mental (in some unknown "shared" way), in order that it should be perceptible to all. These kinds of questions may be ultimately unanswerable, but I don't think that means they are therefore unequivocally nonsense questions. — Janus
If asking those questions is nonsense, then so is philosophy. Although such epistemological/metaphysical concerns may have no practical or ethical application to life, I still find an unquantifiable value in working out the answers to these philosophical questions. — Merkwurdichliebe
"True" is a much more problematic term than "necessary". — Merkwurdichliebe
becomes'things are just repetitive events' — fresco
without so much as a wink.Existence is relative, not absolute — fresco
My argument is that the question: "what is necessary for a tree to exist?" makes sense, and can be answer sensically. — Merkwurdichliebe
the question as to whether there is anything independent of human or animal experience is a reasonable question about absolute existence. — Janus
I did answer your point by asserting that only 'philosophers' tend to talk about 'a tree's existence' (period). — fresco
We do not normally going around asking whether 'trees exist'. — fresco
I suggest, on the basis of Witt's meaning is use, that all normal utterances of the word 'exist' arise in contexts where mutual action is being negotiated...e.g. 'existence of human causes of global warming'...'existence of God as a valid subject in education'...'existence of sub-atomic particles in social paradigms we call 'science' ' — fresco
What is added to our understanding by talking in terms of something's existence? — creativesoul
What is added to our understanding by talking in terms of something's existence? — creativesoul
Nothing, of course. — Banno
That's just not true, since existence is the one attribute all things, however diverse, share. — Janus
It's an odd comment coming from you creativesoul who so often talks about "existential dependency", apparently not being satisfied with mere dependency. — Janus
Or at the least, there will be much to do in order to show it to be a useful thing to do. — Banno
in English, existence is I suppose more likely to be asserted using is, as in "there is a tree", or "is there a tree?". — Banno
Deus Ex ist Machina. :up:asserted as a fancy word for "is" or "to be". — Merkwurdichliebe
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