Existence Fodder

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{[green Ideas that should be considered for inclusion/consideration in my existence paper ]}

• Consider an analysis via a few sentences featuring existence: “I exist”, “she exists”, “this chair exists”, “the number two exists”, “dragons exist”.

• How do Yablo’s reconstructed Carnapian linguistic frameworks fit into this picture? — Perhaps by limiting the range of any possible existential quantifier interpretation (i.e. by limiting the applicability of “there exists an x” talk to within a particular framework). — I actually do have some concerns regarding looking at the Carnap stuff in terms of discrete frameworks. Perhaps some sort of continuum of meaning might be more appropriate?

• There may be some support from Russell along the lines of his ” No - Substance” views. — Will of course need to deal with standard objections here, possibly by included some ideas from linguistic-community views and trope theory.

• Is there support from Kant and Hume for the “emptiness” of existence claims (i.e. that you add nothing by saying that something exists)? Is there also support for the arbitrary nature of existence as a quantifier from Kant?

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Chris Wilcox