There are degrees of existence, in a way. The more repeatable, ubiquitous and predictive/predictable something (a concept, an observation, an algorithm) appears, the more it feels to be imbued with the magic of “existence”. Logic, if you refer to a mathematical concept, has a high degree of existence. It’s not universal, a lot of people don’t relate to it, but it feels like a real if not necessarily a tangible thing. Logic doesn’t exist as much as, say, a chair, but probably more than, say, fairies. it may indeed be interesting to ask the where question. Where do fairies exist? Where do chairs exist? Where does logic exist? Well, fairies certainly exist in fairy tales, so the next question is where do fairy tales exist? Maybe in the minds of those telling and retelling the stories. Maybe, like many concepts, they emerge once the complexity of the underlying substrate reaches a certain threshold. I suspect logic can be treated similarly. Actually, so can chairs.
It might be the case that “existence” always means the same thing, but comes in degrees. Or it might be the case that “existence” has literal and metaphorical senses. Or something else.
There are degrees of existence, in a way. The more repeatable, ubiquitous and predictive/predictable something (a concept, an observation, an algorithm) appears, the more it feels to be imbued with the magic of “existence”. Logic, if you refer to a mathematical concept, has a high degree of existence. It’s not universal, a lot of people don’t relate to it, but it feels like a real if not necessarily a tangible thing. Logic doesn’t exist as much as, say, a chair, but probably more than, say, fairies. it may indeed be interesting to ask the where question. Where do fairies exist? Where do chairs exist? Where does logic exist? Well, fairies certainly exist in fairy tales, so the next question is where do fairy tales exist? Maybe in the minds of those telling and retelling the stories. Maybe, like many concepts, they emerge once the complexity of the underlying substrate reaches a certain threshold. I suspect logic can be treated similarly. Actually, so can chairs.
It might be the case that “existence” always means the same thing, but comes in degrees. Or it might be the case that “existence” has literal and metaphorical senses. Or something else.