(December 31, 2009 at 6:58 am)TruthWorthy Wrote: I am unconvinced about the rules of propositions.Not so. To show a simple example, look at the negative forms of the statement:
Isn't saying that something exists a non-statement?!
I mean that saying, for example, "my computer exists" is like a double affimative in that the subject and premise of "my computer" already suggests the presence/existence of the computer so the following "exists" becomes pointless!?
"My friend does not exist."
I could talk at length about "my friend", list attributes he has, where he lives, what he eats for breakfast, but just because I refer to him as "my friend" doesn't mean he exists. Existence can be applied somewhat by "my" since it denotes some kind of ownership, but it should be clear by my example how this is not always the case.
Now, the idea I had about my friend may very well exist (and indeed it must for me to be able to list attributes), but the idea wasn't the subject of the proposition.
Unlike sentences in the form "my ...", the proposition "God exists" doesn't have any suggestion of existence in the first part, but it does in the latter. Likewise, "Trees exist", "Houses exist", etc, are all valid propositions.
Anyway, if your view was true, then surely mentioning anything in a sentence implies true existence of that thing (which causes a whole load of problems for fiction writers), and likewise, how would you directly talk about something's existence?
