What is existence and what will it mean to exist ?

[Langbein]

What is "existence" and what will it mean to "exist" ?

What will it mean that I (eventually) does exist ?

What will it mean that something outside me exist as observed by me ?

What will it mean that something outside me exist as I does not observe it ?

What is then "exisistence" ?

How it is then possible to "exist" eveyday, without knowing what "existence" is ?

 

[out of whack]

I don't think of existence, I just think of what matters to me. Even the solipsist matters to himself as a starting point so to paraphrase Descartes: I think and this matters to me. Then, whatever affects my thinking also matters. And transitively, if anything affects what affects my thinking then this also matters. In short, the only things that matter is whatever affects my thoughts so I define this as existing. Whatever cannot possibly affect my thoughts either directly or indirectly is irrelevant to me. This gives me a good test for what most people refer to as "existence".

 

[Rade]

"existence exists--and the act of grasping that statement implies two corollary axioms, (1) that some"thing" exists that one perceives, and (2) that one exists with the faculty (consciousness) of perceiving that which exists". Existence + Identity = Existents (the metaphysical given). Consciousness = Identification of Existents. Easy to know what is existence once you accept the primacy of existence as an axiom over consciousness as the starting point of your philosophy. All this from Ayn Rand.

 

[jiohdi]

existence is one of those things, that if you have to ask you will never understand (^_^)

 

[wuliheron]

"Once I dreamed I was a butterfly, or am I really a butterfly dreaming I am a man?"
Chuang Tzu

Does it really matter?