Ever since learning the Anselmian ontological argument for the existence of god, I have tended towards the Kantian idea that existence is not a predicate. A ball that is not red still bounces, a ball that does not exist… doesn’t exist. I’ll say right up front I am not a philosopher, but rather a physicist and an engineer. I discard ideas that I can’t use to build things that work, I decide that they are not worth spending time on. I don’t know what I can build using the idea that a ball that does not exist is still a ball. And if I can build something using that idea, I’m not sure the thing that I can build exists.
So once I’ve spent enough time discussing something with A or B or anyone else for that matter to determine that they have no particular preference for things that exist than for things that don’t exist, I lose interest in discussing it with them further.
Actually, this is only ALMOST true. I’ll discuss things that don’t exist with someone who seems to be doing something clever with it, but I ultimately expect to be disappointed, to conclude, as has happened in the past, that I have ultimately learned nothing of value from such a discussion. Or at least that whatever I have learned does not exist.
Ever since learning the Anselmian ontological argument for the existence of god, I have tended towards the Kantian idea that existence is not a predicate. A ball that is not red still bounces, a ball that does not exist… doesn’t exist. I’ll say right up front I am not a philosopher, but rather a physicist and an engineer. I discard ideas that I can’t use to build things that work, I decide that they are not worth spending time on. I don’t know what I can build using the idea that a ball that does not exist is still a ball. And if I can build something using that idea, I’m not sure the thing that I can build exists.
So once I’ve spent enough time discussing something with A or B or anyone else for that matter to determine that they have no particular preference for things that exist than for things that don’t exist, I lose interest in discussing it with them further.
Actually, this is only ALMOST true. I’ll discuss things that don’t exist with someone who seems to be doing something clever with it, but I ultimately expect to be disappointed, to conclude, as has happened in the past, that I have ultimately learned nothing of value from such a discussion. Or at least that whatever I have learned does not exist.