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Juno_Watt comments on What do professional philosophers believe, and why? - Less Wrong Discussion

31 Post author: RobbBB 01 May 2013 02:40PM

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Comment author: fubarobfusco 01 May 2013 09:05:40PM 5 points [-]

This seems to be a question of "How are we allowed to use the word 'exist' in this conversational context without being confusing?" or "What sort of definition do we care to assign to the word 'exist'?" rather than an unquoted question of what exists.

In other words, I would be comfortable saying that my office chair and the number 3 both plexist (Platonic-exist), whereas my office chair mexists (materially exists) whereas 3 does not.

Comment author: Juno_Watt 01 May 2013 09:42:41PM *  0 points [-]

But if "plexists" means something like "I have an idea of it in my head", then there is no substance to the claim that 3 plexists..3 is then no more real than a unicorn.

Comment author: fubarobfusco 01 May 2013 10:40:52PM -1 points [-]

The number 3 has well-defined properties; such that I can be pretty sure that if I talk about 3 and you talk about 3, we're talking about the same sort of thing. Sources on unicorns vary rather more broadly on the properties ascribed to them.

Comment author: Juno_Watt 01 May 2013 10:54:16PM 3 points [-]

I don't see what that has to do with existence. We could cook up a well-defined fubarosco-juno unicorn.