Synopsis

When we ask whether something exists, we expect a yes or no answer, not a further query about what kind of existence, how much of it, whether we mean existence for you or existence for me, or whether we are asking about some property which it might have.
In this book, this simple requirement is defended and pursued into its various and sometimes surprising implications. In the course of this pursuit, such questions arise as 'Do appearances exist?' 'Do unknowable things exist?' 'Do past and future exist?' 'Does God necessarily exist?' This novel and non-technical approach to important philosophical questions will be of interest to senior students of philosophy and, indeed, to all general readers with philosophical interests.

Booknews

Offers a novel and non-technical approach to important philosophical questions for students and general readers, with chapters on the concept of existence, the defense of the existence principle, appearance and intentionality, time and existence, universals and properties, and necessary and possible existence. Fundamental tenets of this approach are that either something exists or it does not, there are no degrees of existence, there are no kinds of existence, existence is not a relative concept, and existence is not a property. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.